not the perfection, in the opinion of critic Jon Landau who felt like “a few more numbers with a gravity of ‘Street Choir’ would have made this album as perfect as anyone could have stood.” It contained the hit single “Domino”, which charted at number nine in the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1971, he released another well-received album, Tupelo Honey. This album produced the hit single “Wild Night” that was later covered by John Mellencamp. The title song has a notably country-soul feel about it and the album ended with another country tune, “Moonshine Whiskey”. Morrison said he originally intended to make an all country album. The recordings were as live as possible after rehearsing the songs the musicians would go into the studio and play a whole set in one take. His co-producer, Ted Templeman, described this recording process as the “scariest thing I’ve ever seen. When he’s got something together, he wants to put it down right away with no overdubbing.”
Released in 1972, Saint Dominic’s Preview, revealed Morrison’s break from the more accessible style of his previous three albums and moving back towards the more daring, adventurous, and meditative aspects of Astral Weeks. The combination of two styles of music demonstrated a versatility not previously found in his earlier albums. Two songs, (“Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile)” and “Redwood Tree”) reached the Hot 100 singles chart. The songs “Listen to the Lion” and “Almost Independence Day” are each over ten minutes long and employ the type of poetic imagery not heard since Astral Weeks. It was his highest charting album in the US until his Top Ten debut on Billboard 200 in 2008.
He released his next album Hard Nose the Highway in 1973 receiving mixed, but mostly negative, reviews. The
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