His Band and the Street Choir by Van Morrison

His Band and the Street Choir, Van Morrison's fourth studio album, came out on Warner Bros. in November 1970, and not under the name he wanted: he'd called it Virgo's Fool, and the label retitled it without asking. Morrison produced it himself, starting with a demo session in a little church in Woodstock early that year and then cutting two sets of songs at A&R Studios on 46th Street in New York.

The plan was to go a cappella, backed only by a vocal group he dubbed the Street Choir, but the choir tracks ended up with a band behind them too, and extra singers were added to the original five, which helps explain why he later soured on it. His loss: the loose, easygoing R&B swing here is Van at his sunniest, even if the words are simpler than before. "Domino" was the smash, a US Top Ten single that outdid "Brown Eyed Girl", with "Blue Money" and "Call Me Up in Dreamland" also reaching the Hot 100.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.