10 Desert Island Van Morrison Songs

Photo: By sahlgoode [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

It took us a long time to get to a top 10 Van Morrison songs list because the man has released so much music throughout his career. As of 2024, Van Morrison has released forty-five studio albums, not counting compilations and love records. Van Morrison has consistently released incredible music throughout his entire career. There have never been any down periods. Even when he was going through his enlightenment phase, he was releasing jaw-dropping material. It’s tough to do top 10 lists with artists who have had long careers like Van Morrison. With Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen, we did top 10 songs by the decade for those artists. For The Beatles, we did a top 10 for every year they released albums. Of course, all of that is in good fun. But with Van Morrison, even picking by the decade seemed impossible. So what we did was just pick our favorites that we seem to always look forward to hearing the most every single time.

Our 10 Favorite Van Morrison Songs

# 10 – Angelou

“Angelou” is probably the least familiar Van Morrison song on his list. It was released on our favorite Van Morrison album, entitled Into The Music. The album was released in 1979. In early interviews in his career, Bruce Springsteen always mentioned being inspired by Van Morrison. One can easily hear that on Springsteen’s second album. However, in 1979, it seems Van was listening to Bruce. You can hear some Springsteen influence on this great song.

# 9 – Astral Weeks

This was one of those songs in which you heard something incredibly new and beautiful yet did not understand it. It was just there. The entire album was like that. This was the moment when so many people in the music industry, along with most music fans, recognized that this artist called Van Morrison was a musical genius.

# 8 – Hungry For Love

Sometimes, writing a great song built on a simple chord structure and melody is much more challenging than utilizing complex or original chord changes. Van Morrison’s “Hungry For You Love” was the perfect example of beauty in simplicity. Most of us fell in love with this song and Debra Winger at the same time.

# 7 – It Must Be You

This is the song I want to wake up to every morning on my desert island. The tremendous double album Hymns To The Silence may well be Van Morrison’s most underrated work. The album was released in 1991.

# 6 – Tupelo Honey

You know this one! The song’s introduction is simply breathtaking. Of course, once Van Morrison starts singing, fueled by his iconic phrasing that is all his own, it takes it all to a level that few musical artists have ever achieved.

# 5 – Into The Mystic

When you examine the track listing on the Moondance album, it reads like a greatest hits compilation. “And It Stoned Me, Moondance, Caravan, Crazy Love, and Into The Music.” That’s just the first side. “Into the Mystic” was a song that really stood out on an album of standout tracks. Even the song’s title, “Into The Mystic,” became a pop culture phrase.

# 4 – Dweller On The Threshold

We often discuss Van Morrison’s sense of melody and lyrics. However, the man also came up with incredible grooves and then just sang in perfect pitch over them in such a free rhythmic sense. No one can sing and groove in that Van Morrison style except for the man himself. “Dweller On The Threshold” is a perfect example of that sense of spiritual groove that defines some of Van Morrison’s best material.

# 3 – Wavelength

Van Morrison took that spiritual groove and came up with a very commercial-sounding record that everyone loved, except perhaps some Van Morrison fans who disliked the commercialism of “Wavelength.” However, this is the perfect song to roll down the windows and drive around all day listening to with a big smile on your face.

# 2 – Brown Eyed Girl

Another great pop song that has just bleeds that late 1960s sound that blended Motown, British Invasion, singer-songwriter and every other style that was bouncing around in 1967. Even though we heard it a million times, it never gets old.

# 1 – Moondance

Well, we got our morning song, our dancing song, our driving song, our spiritual song, our oldies song, our rare song and now we have our cool evening song. We can’t leave home without this one. As cool as it gets!