Customer Reviews
Highly Recommended - By: M. Scotton, 29 Dec 2007 
I'm sure that I'm not alone in mourning the absence of certain tracks on this extensive compilation, namely, 'Sense Of Wonder', 'Summertime In England', 'Sweet Thing' & 'It's All In The game' (the version from the 'In The Mood' CD is possibly the best cover version of any song by any artist).
However, despite the absense of this handful of songs, this is still a must have compilation. Spanning Van's extensive career, it captures not only the few commercial 'hits' that Van has recorded (such as 'Gloria', 'Brown Eyed Girl' & 'Here Comes The Night'), but extends into his more self-indulgent moments found buried within his many albums as well as including a selection of popular songs featured in movies ('Someone Like You', 'Moondance' & 'Days Like This' are possibly the best of these). Unlike one of the previous contributors, I am particularly fond of these longer, self-indulgent tracks & am particularly pleased to find the likes of 'Tupelo Honey' & 'Listen To The Lion' featured here.
If you are going to have only one Van album in your collection, them this has to be it!
Cheese its Van - By: Larry Weinberg, 19 Nov 2007 
I can't say this is not a CD full of great Van-songs but I am bothered (especiallly on the 3 disc version of this CD) by his insistence on putting songs on that are not necessarily hits or favorites but carry the message of his born again self. They are preaching & unfair to include on a set that is supposed to be a "best of." There would be nothing wrong with putting out a collection of these songs but then we would know what we were getting.
Great but hardly 'greatest' hits! - By: D. Wright, 30 Oct 2007 A misnomer of a title if ever there was one. Van Morrison is one of those peculiar figures in that while he's undoubtedly a major artist he has actuallly had very few hits, & the majority of music lovers would probably be hard pressed to name more than half a dozen of his songs. Even Brown Eyed Girl, perhaps his best known - certainly most frequently played - song wasn't a hit in Britain. Van is also unusual in that he's perhaps the only major artist, or certainly long standing musician, who hasn't had either a box set or at least a multi disc best of collection. Of course this 3 disc release now remedies that. For the less committed there is also a 2 disc version. Of course Van's output has been that prolific it could easily run to another disc, or even 2 more! There have been the Best of & Best of Volume 2 & the only recenly released Best of Vol 3, which itself was a double disc, but this collection, whether you buy the 2 or 3 disc version will now supplant them as the premier Van Morrison compilation.
Having said this it is still far from perfect. Firstly,the annotation is extremely skimpy, nor do we get photos. Detailed notes & decent photos are what we have come to expect from proper box sets, & both are totallly lacking here. The presentation is very similar to the 3 disc Elton John set that came out a few years ago, however that had much better annotation & more photos. Still On Top - The Greatest Hits (they have to add that, as Morrison already has an album callled Back On Top, a similar title) isn't arranged chronologicallly either,jumping about alll over the place without any obvious theme. This may not bother some people, but I find it irritating. I feel that a definitive compilation should trace an artist's career sensibly.
Now we come to the music, & I must be honest here, although I have quite a few Morrison albums I don't like alll he's done & I actively dislike some of his output. His first 'proper' album Astral Weeks is not only regarded as his greatest, but one of the greatest rock albums period. I can see why, in that it's full of what were for the time original soundscapes, but it's not an easy listen; & the compilers seem to recognise that here as they haven't included one single track from that album - a 3 disc set & nothing from what is regarded as the artist's greatest release! This in itself is bizarre & shows how hard it is to compile Van Morrison. Astral Weeks is not the only album to have nothing from it here, quite a few others are similarly neglected, whilst other have up to 4 tracks taken from them, which means that the compilation isn't reallly a definitive overview. One of the most heavily represented with 4 tracks is his next album, Moondance, & I would suggest this is because it was the nearest Morrison came to making a truly great album. Despite the inclusion of the title track, Crazy Love, And It Stoned Me & the brilliant Into the Mystic (perhaps my favourite Morrison song) the compilers have still had to omit classics such as Caravan & These Dreams Of You.
I generallly prefer Van's up temp r n b influenced songs rather than his long drawn out excursions into celtic mysticism or whatever it's callled, consequently I lost interest in him after Hard Nose The Highway although I did reagain it more recently & bought his 3 relatively recent albums: Back On Top, Down The Road & Magic Time. Personallly I think these are as good as anything he's done in his long career,as do the compilers here, taking 2 tracks each from Back On top & Magic Time & 3 from Down The Road. Another album heavily represented is Avalon Sunset with 4 tracks; this was a Morrison album I used to own, but sold.
Ultimately, despite the eccentricities of some of the selections here, this is as definitive complilation of Van Morrison as you're going to get. Because of the length of his career & vast output it would be difficult to like alll he's done. Van also has the tendency sometimes to ruin a song with endless repetition or simply silly noises. See for example Georgia On My Mind, on the otherwise excellent Down The Road, thankfully not included here. He tends to do this on the longer songs, which in Morrison's ouvre are usuallly long, not because of any instrumental virtuosity but because of vocal self indulgence; consequently the 11 minute Listen to the Lion from St Dominic's Preview actuallly ceases to be a song after about 5 minutes & turns into a repetitive dirge - this happens to much of Astral Weeks, presumably this is why nothing has been included here. Instead of Listen To The Lion or one or two of the other long dirges, such as the irritating Rave On John Donne, I would have liked to have had more of the shorter r n b type tracks, such as Calll Me Up In Dreamland from His Band & the Street Choir or the aforementioned These Dreams Of You from Moondance.
Still An Underappreciated Genius - By: Larry Dickman, 29 Oct 2007 Yes, yes, just recently Greatest Hits V 3 was released & that had quite a few unreleased & obscure gems on it, but this is so far the best comprehensive set of Morrison's greatest hits. There are always a few songs we'd alll like to see added to this compilation, but they do a reasonable job of assembling his most popular work. Kudo's for the inclusion of "Celtic New Year" & leaving off songs from some of his duet albums & his abysmal "Pay the Devil" CD. Overalll a great place to start if you're a begginer to Morrison's vast catalogue, & the third CD has some great tracks that perhaps should have made the first two discs, like "Hymns to the Silence" & "Rough God Goes Riding." Nothing is perfect, but these CD's are as close as anyone has gotten to summing up Van's work. Highly recommended!
The 2nd collection of Greatest Hits in one year - By: AndrewB, 25 Oct 2007 
Another collection, so quickly on the heels of The Best of VM Vol.3! Looking at VM's official website many songs on 'Still On Top' are described as 'Remastered'. For a moment I wondered if VM had 'reworked' many of his songs, rather as John Martyn has done with great success. No such luck.. just another repackaged collection with too many worn out old favourites. Disappointing.
