Song · Van Morrison
“Bright Side of the Road” by Van Morrison
From the album Into the Music (1979)
“Bright Side of the Road” by Van Morrison appears on 7 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2001 and 2025. It was first released in 1979 on the album Into the Music. Its best result is #87 on The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #3,590 alternative song of all time.
Watch
Video from YouTube (VanMorrisonVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Bright Side of the Road" is Van Morrison's 1979 album Into the Music at its sunniest, a song that sounds like a window thrown open on a spring morning. He wrote it and produced it, cutting it that spring at the Record Plant in Sausalito with Mick Glossop engineering, and Zakir Hussain drops in on tabla.
Biographer Brian Hinton heard it as a reply to "The Dark End of the Street", and it's all lightness where that one is shadow; Record World picked out its keyboard-led backing and restrained backup singers. Released as a single that September, it barely dented the charts, but it refused to go away: it led off The Best of Van Morrison in 1990, another take surfaced on The Philosopher's Stone in 1998, and in 2020 it climbed to No. 2 on Irish radio.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 211 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 500 |
| 2004 | 274 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 500 |
| 2005 | 380 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 500 |
| 2006 | 418 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2006) | 500 |
| 2009 | 632 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2010 | 238 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Ultimate Road Trip Songs (2010) | 885 |
| 2025 | 87 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs | 800 |
Also listed as: Bright Side Of The Road.
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "Bright Side of the Road" by Van Morrison.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.