“Wavelength” by Van Morrison

"Wavelength" is the title song of Van Morrison's 1978 album, cut that spring at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California, and the man who shapes it most is Peter Bardens, whose synthesizer gives the track its bright, humming sheen. Morrison produced it himself, sang lead, and played guitar and alto sax, with Bobby Tench on electric guitar, Mickey Féat on bass, Peter Van Hooke on drums and Mick Glossop recording and mixing.

Biographer Brian Hinton hears a love song about the wordless signals passing between two people, but it's also Van looking back at his teenage years hunched by the radio, tuning in the Voice of America and heroes like Ray Charles, and he slips in a nod to his own first solo hit, "Brown Eyed Girl". Howard A. Dewitt credits it with proving Morrison could still score a hit.

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