Moondance

Morrison began writing the songs in July 1969, after moving to the Catskills near Woodstock with his wife Janet Planet. Because Astral Weeks had sold poorly, he wanted a record that listeners could relate to more easily. He recorded in the Studio A penthouse of A & R Studios in New York in August and September 1969, arriving with only the basic structures written down and the arrangements in his head.

Lewis Merenstein, credited as executive producer, brought in Richard Davis, Jay Berliner and Warren Smith Jr. from the Astral Weeks sessions for the first session, but according to guitarist John Platania Morrison got rid of them all. In their place he used a band of Platania, bassist John Klingberg, pianist Jef Labes, drummer Gary Mallaber, saxophonist Jack Schroer and Collin Tilton on tenor saxophone and flute. Morrison said he liked a band of two horns and a rhythm section, and that nobody else knew what he was looking for, so he produced it himself. Engineer Shelly Yakus recalled him as very quiet and introverted in the studio.

The cover photograph is by Elliott Landy, who had shot the cover of Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline, and the liner notes were written by Janet Planet.

Reception and legacy

Released on 27 January 1970 in the UK and 28 February in the US, it reached number 29 on the US chart and number 32 in the UK. Robert Christgau gave it an A in The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone's Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs predicted that it would carry past many good records of the next few years. Morrison appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in July 1970. Its success led him to form the Caledonia Soul Orchestra for concerts.

The RIAA certified it triple platinum, and Rolling Stone ranked it number 65 on its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums. A deluxe edition was released on 22 October 2013 with three discs of unreleased session music, which Morrison disowned as unauthorised.