Van Morrison – His Band And The Street Choir

Van Morrison's music is a mixture of rhythm and blues, soft rock, jazz, folk and soul. On this fourth studio album, the emphasis is more on rhythm and blues (including Domino, Give me a kiss and I've been working) and rock (such as Blue Money and Sweet Janie, which he dedicated to his wife Janet "Planet" Rigsbee). There are also a few ballads on this album (such as I'll be your lover too and If I ever needed someone). That song also has gospel influences, among others because of the background choir. Most of the solos are played by piano and saxophone. On Virgo Clowns, the acoustic guitar plays the leading role. All songs were written by Van Morrison.

His band and the street choir was recorded between March and June 1970 and released on 15 November of that year. The album was recorded in the A & R studios in New York. Morrison produced the album himself with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Dahaud Elias Shaar as co-producer. The sound engineer and production coordinator is Elliot Scheiner. He was assisted by Dixon van Winkle, Ed Anderson, Mark Harman and Richard Lubash. This album was also available on Compact Disc from 1987. In 2015, a remastered version was released with a number of alternative tracks.

The front of the album cover features two colour photos of Van Morrison (mainly in green and blue) printed interchangeably. Inside is a booklet with a message from Janet Planet, the track list, all the lyrics, a list of all the contributors and some photos of Van Morrison and the band. There is also a picture of the band on the back of the cover. The design is by Janet Planet and the photography by David Gahr, who has taken many pictures of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Johnny Cash, among others.

This album was generally well received, but did not achieve the success of Moondance. Thom Jurek of the site AllMusic wrote in his review: As an album, His Band & the Street Choir may not equal Astral Weeks or Moondance, but the aim was never that lofty. That most of these songs have endured as fan favorites is testament enough to their quality. AllMusic has rated this album with four and a half stars (out of a maximum of five). In the American Billboard album chart, this album reached # 32. In Great Britain # 18 and in the Netherlands # 48. Three singles were released from this album. Domino reached # 9 in the USA and # 26 in the Netherlands. Blue Money reached # 23 in both the Netherlands and the USA. Call me up in dreamland became a modest hit with # 95 in the USA. The re-release of the album reached # 16 in the USA in 2015.

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