Best Of

Astral Weeks and Moondance continue to be among my all-time favorites. Common One is rising in my estimation (listening to it now). And Veedon Fleece ranks very high for its mysterious, mystical, and moving atmosphere.

As far as least favorites . . . any of his works are worth more than one play, and they all reveal new pleasures on repeated listens. Blowin' Your Mind! (first solo album) may be fairly considered his worst, but it does contain "Brown-Eyed Girl," so there's that.

@muncybob, I have about 30 of his albums on vinyl and CD and even cassette, so I am curious to know what your Mrs. has on her list and why you say "one of the few albums of his."

"The Essential Van Morrison" is a two disc CD best of for $14. Could start there to get a sense of what songs are most appealing from different periods then look for the separate albums those songs are on. His style of music has evolved over time but the core of it hasn't changed all that much.

He refused to have most of his albums remastered and released on CD so some are very difficult to find now. That complicates things! The album "His Band and the Street Choir" is the third of the best early three along with Astral Weeks and Moondance. Something like "Tupelo Honey" is hard to find. I've always like "Poetic Champions Compose" from the 1980s period but good luck finding that on CD new.

But, all of his material appears to be available on Qobuz with a lot of it available for purchase and download in 24/96 high res versions.

https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/poetic-champions-compose-van-morrison/0886445370843

I grew up with his early stuff like Astral Weeks, Moondance etc. and thought he was good, but not a hero of mine. I had an Irish friend in the 70's that thought he was God. I did get into his much later stuff, however, and Enlightenment (around 1990) remains one of my favorite albums. Another sort of hidden gem that I like a lot is a one off collaboration album with Brit/Irish skiffle artist Lonnie Donegan and trad jazz trombonist Chris Barber on The Skiffle Sessions (2000) - recorded live with great takes on old 1950's skiffle and even a Van Morrison guitar solo !