Van Morrison Essentials

Belfast-born singer/songwriter Van Morrison started out as the soulful frontman for hard-edged garage rockers Them in the early days of the British Invasion. While his 1967 solo debut contained a handful of his biggest pop hits, it was 1968's Astral Weeks that truly set the template for his career, blending folk, jazz and rock into gorgeous songs driven by his stream-of-consciousness lyrics. The restless and prolific singer released dozens of albums in the decades that followed, a body of work that's set a standard in rock for deeply emotional and elegant songwriting.