The Very Very Best of 1973's Greatest Hits Albums

As Christmas 1973 approached, record buyers bought friends and family members greatest hits albums released that year by such acts as The Carpenters, John Denver, The Beatles, Bread and Simon and Garfunkel. These were the best selling of the "Best of"s, stacked with hits we all know. But 1973 also provided music fans with far more esoteric compilations. Here's just a few:

Cashing in on Bowie's stardom, Decca releases four sides of Bowie singles B sides and his entire debut album. Notable, for Bowie's Anthony Newley impressions and the horrid "Laughing Gnome" which somehow climbs into the UK Top 10 in late '73.

Double disc collection pairing the first Move album with a collection of singles and B sides. Ignore the rest of the band's output at your own peril.

A very decent sampler of songs from Rod Stewart's first four album, Sing It Again Rod includes "Maggie May", "You Wear It Well" , "Handbags and Gladrags" and a classic album cover.

Six disc collection and informative liner notes make this a solid introduction to the world of jazz, with tracks ranging form the birth of jazz to the early 60's "free jazz" of Ornette Coleman.

Songs Van recorded in 1967 including the powerhouse title track, the hit "Brown Eyed Girl" and early versions of Astral Weeks classics like "Madame George and "Beside You". Released without Van the Man's approval. Deep cut choice is "Ro Ro Rosey".

40 Year Itch: Van the Man Plays the Rainbow

For two nights in July of 1973 Van Morrison and his ultra tight 11 piece Caledonia Soul Orchestra played the Rainbow Theatre in London. This is the same band that would record the classic 1974 double live album It's Too Late to Start Now. The string and horn section --and Van's fiery delivery--give even Morrison's Them era tunes an epic quality. The 1973 tour was put together to promote Morrison's first disappointing album Hard Nose the Highway. (Only "Warm Love" can stand next to the high achievements of the man's early 70's work).

 A restless and irritable bandleader, Van broke up the Caledonia Soul Orchestra after the '73 tour but we have the live album and this show to mark the zenith of his concert career.

40 Year Itch: And Running Like A Blue Streak

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With Saint Dominic's Preview, recorded in San Francisco with a band that included former Beau Brummel Ron Elliot, , Van Morrison sounds like he's celebrating the past five years of his solo career. How else to explain the diversity? You have songs that will remind listeners of the jazz explorations and stream of conscious lyrics of Astral Weeks ("Listen To The Lion" and "Almost Independence Day"), the pop hit styling of  Moondance and His Band and Street Choir ("Redwood Tree", "Gypsy") and the kind of jazzy club sounds Van would explore in his middle age (with "I Will Be There"). It was both critically acclaimed and his highest charting album in the US (#15) until 2008's Keep It Simple broke into the Top Ten.

It remains among my favorite Van Morrison albums.

                     Montgomery Chapel, San Francisco Theological Seminary where the cover was shot.

                                  

                                                           outtake shot by Michael Maggid

The lead track "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)" shares the exuberance of joyful love like "Brown Eyed Girl", Van's Top Ten hit from 1967. This is a song I recently played for my nine year old daughter after shutting off the Top 40 radio. Here, I explained, everybody is in the same room and they're experiencing this moment of creativity all together and that's something you just won't hear in 90% of the songs you hear on the radio because the producer is in LA and the singer is in NYC and the music track was recorded in England and just as I was about to say they don't make music like this anymore I stopped. Not only because that's what dad's always say when they get old but because Van was scatting "Chop Chop Chop She bop". 

 Anyway, how "Jackie Wilson Said" stalled in the charts somewhere in the 60's is crazy to me. 

The epic 11-minute "Listen To The Lion", actually recorded during the Tupelo Honey sessions, begins like one of the more thoughtful songs from Moondance before it takes its listeners on a meditative musical journey not unlike something on Astral Weeks. Plus, you can always look forward to the moment Van starts growling like a lion. In that way it's almost like the "here comes the Iron Butterfly screeching" moment in "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".

 "Redwood Tree", my pick for deep cut, could have come off Moondance. It's just classic Van. As a single this only charted at #98 in the US. Stunning. Here's the demo followed by the track.