Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Van Morrison (2021)

After the commercial failure of his first Warner Bros. album 'Astral Weeks' in 1968, Van Morrison moved to upstate New York with his wife and began writing songs for the follow-up album 'Moondance', attempting to produce a record that would be more accessible and appealing to listeners. The musicians who went on to record 'Moondance' with Morrison were recruited from Woodstock, and would continue working with him for several years, including guitarist John Platania, saxophonist Jack Schroer, and keyboardist Jef Labes. Recording sessions began at Century Sound in New York, accompanied by most of the musicians from 'Astral Weeks' and its engineer Brooks Arthur, but Morrison soon manipulated the situation and got rid of them all. He had his own ideas for how he wanted the music to sound, and so enlisted the help of a horn section and chorus, and brought in the musicians recruited from Woodstock. Recording then moved to Studio A penthouse of A & R Studios in New York from August to September 1969, coming to the studio with only the basic song structures written down, and the song's arrangements in his memory, and they were developed throughout the album's recording. Most of Morrison's vocals were recorded live, and he later said that he would have preferred to record the entire album that way, and the finished album was the first for which Morrison was credited as the producer, later saying that as no-one else knew what he was looking for, he just did it. The resulting album found him abandoning the abstract folk/ jazz compositions of 'Astral Weeks' in favour of more formally composed songs, and its lively rhythm and blues/rock music was the style he would become most known for in his career. 'Moondance' was released by Warner Bros. on 27 January 1970 in the UK and on 28 February in the US, receiving immediate acclaim from critics on both sides of the Atlantic, being hailed by both Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs jointly in Rolling Stone as a work of "musical invention and lyrical confidence; the strong moods of 'Into the Mystic' and the fine, epic brilliance of 'Caravan' will carry it past many good records we'll forget in the next few years." The title track is one of his most covered songs, attracting nearly 250 versions, and some of the other tracks aren't far behind, with soul stars like Ben E. King, Lorraine Ellison, Merry Clayton and Esther Phillips all recognising the soulful quality of the song-writing, so here are some of the very best takes of the songs from Van Morrison's classic 'Moondance'. As it's quite a short collection I've added a track from Miriam Makeba from the same time period to close the album. 

Track listing

01 And It Stoned Me (Jackie DeShannon 1971) 
02 Moondance (Irene Reid 1970)   
03 Crazy Love (Rita Coolidge 1971)
04 Caravan (Lorraine Ellison 1971) 
05 Into The Mystic (Ben E. King 1972)
06 Come Running (Lynn Anderson 1979)
07 These Dreams Of You (Jesse Colin Young 2021)
08 Brand New Day (Esther Phillips with The Dixie Flyers 1970)
09 Everyone (Elizabeth Mitchell 2012)
10 Glad Tidings (Merry Clayton 1970)
11 I Shall Sing (Miriam Makeba 1970)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing James Taylor (2020)

James Taylor's interest in music started at an early age, taking cello lessons as a child, before learning the guitar at the age of 12. Spending summer holidays with his family on Martha's Vineyard, he met Danny Kortchmar, an aspiring teenage guitarist from Larchmont, New York, and the two of them began listening to and playing blues and folk music together. Taylor wrote his first song on guitar at 14, and he continued to learn the instrument effortlessly, so that by the summer of 1963, he and Kortchmar were playing coffeehouses around the Vineyard, billed as "Jamie & Kootch". In 1965 they moved to New York City to form a band, recruiting Joel O'Brien, formerly of Kortchmar's old band King Bees, to play drums, and Taylor's childhood friend Zachary Wiesner to play bass, calling themselves The Flying Machine. They played songs that Taylor had written, and by the summer of 1966 they were performing regularly at the high-visibility Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village, alongside acts such as the Turtles and Lothar And The Hand People. At this time Taylor associated with a motley group of people and began using heroin, much to Kortchmar's dismay, but in late 1966 they did record a single for Jay Gee Records, comprising two Taylor compositions, 'Night Owl' and 'Brighten Your Night With My Day', and it did receive some radio airplay in the Northeast, but only charted at No. 102 nationally. During the final throes of The Flying Machine, Taylor's drug use had developed into full-blown heroin addiction, and after being taken back to North Carolina by his father, he spent six months getting treatment and making a tentative recovery. He then decided to try being a solo act with a change of scenery, and so in late 1967, funded by a small family inheritance, he moved to London. 

His friend Kortchmar gave him his next big break, introducing him to Peter Asher, who was A&R head for the Beatles' newly formed label Apple Records, and later became his manager. After Paul McCartney and George Harrison heard his demo tape they signed him to Apple, and he recorded what would become his first album from July to October 1968 at Trident Studios. During the recording sessions, Taylor fell back into his drug habit by using heroin and methedrine, and returned to New York for treatment at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, while back in the UK Apple released his debut album, 'James Taylor', in December 1968. Critical reception was generally positive, including a complimentary review in Rolling Stone, but it suffered commercially due to Taylor's inability to promote it because of his hospitalization, and so it sold poorly. In late 1969 Taylor broke both hands and both feet in a motorcycle accident on Martha's Vineyard and was forced to stop playing for several months, although he continued to write songs while recovering, and in October 1969 he signed a new deal with Warner Bros. Records. Once he'd recovered from his accident he moved to California, keeping Asher as his manager and record producer, and in December 1969 he held recording sessions for his second album, 'Sweet Baby James', which was released in February 1970. This record was Taylor's critical and popular breakthrough, buoyed by the single 'Fire And Rain', with both the album and the single reaching No. 3 on the Billboard charts. 'Sweet Baby James' went on to be listed at No. 103 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, with 'Fire And Rain' listed as No. 227 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004. This song is one of Taylor's most covered tracks, but other songs from the record soon began attracting other artists to give their take on them, from Merry Clayton's bluesy version of 'Steamroller', to 'Country Road' by UK folk-rockers Unicorn and 'Lo And Behold' by blues-rockers Mother Earth, featuring Tracy Nelson. Every track from the album has now been covered (omitting 'Oh, Susannah', which he didn't write, and to make up for that I've added another song from the same period), and so enjoy this alternate look at the album which added James Taylor to the list of classic US singer/songwriters of the 70's.     

Track listing

01 Sweet Baby James (The Seldom Scene 1972)               
02 Lo And Behold (Mother Earth 1971)
03 Sunny Skies (Tico de Moraes 2019)
04 Steamroller (Merry Clayton 1971)
05 Country Road (Unicorn 1971)
06 Fire And Rain (McKendree Spring 1970)
07 Blossom (Christine Smith 1971)
08 Anywhere Like Heaven (Warren Marley 1971)
09 Oh Baby, Don't You Loose Your Lip On Me (Gregg Cagno 2020)
10 Suite For 20G (The Meters 1976)

11 Riding On A Railroad (Tom Rush 1970)