5. And the Healing Has Begun (1979). Picking one song off side two of Into the Mystic is hard, but I narrowed it down to this one or the medley of It’s All In the Game/You Know What They’re Writing About, and since “Game” is a cover that has already been a featured
G.O.A.T. [LINK TO THE GOAT], I went with this one. “And the Healing…” is a beautiful, extended masterpiece.
Covers: There’s a few. Let’s go with this one:
4. Gloria (1967). Performing with his original band, Them. Yes, Morrison—not Hendrix—wrote G-L-O-R-I-A, one of the greatest blues rock songs of all time.
Covers: An endless list, really. Let’s stick with Jimi. It don’t get much better than that.
https://vimeo.com/136382829
3. Caravan (1970). It’s hard to pick the best song off Van Morrison’s Moondance, but can anyone argue that this should at least be a contender? It’s my favorite, anyway. It feels like an outdoor hippie party. The studio version is great, but check it out live on “Too Late To Stop Now.” It’s awesome.
Covers: I could post a few, but frankly this performance from The Last Waltz is my favorite recording of this song.
2. Have I Told You Lately (1989). This is the one made famous by Rod Stewart, but Van’s version is far superior. It has a depth do it, a power, that Stewart’s version lacks. The song is similar to “Someone Like You,” off Van’s Poetic Champions Compose record. It won him a Grammy, and a spot at thousands of weddings across the globe—it’s been covered in about a dozen different languages.
Covers: Rod Stewart’s is more famous than the original.
1. Brown Eyed Girl (1967). Every brown-eyed girl thinks this song is about them, but did you know it was originally called, “Brown-Skinned Girl?” (And did you know The Rolling Stones’ Brown Sugar was originally titled, “Black Pussy?”) Morrison wrote this after he broke up his band Them to go solo, and it became the biggest hit of his career and one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever—according to Billboard, it’s the most-played song of the 1960s. It’s also a major cause of his later blues songs about crooked record companies, since he never got a dime for making it due to his terrible contract with Bang Records. He actually owed money after he recorded it!
Covers:
