His Band and the Street Choir (also referred to as Street Choir) is the fourth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in November 1970 by Warner Bros. Records. Originally titled Virgo's Fool, Street Choir was renamed by Warner Bros. without Morrison's consent. Recording began in early 1970 with a demo session in a small church in Woodstock, New York. Morrison booked the A&R Studios on 46th Street in New York City in the second quarter of 1970 to produce two sessions of songs that were released on His Band and the Street Choir.

Reviewers praised the music of both sessions for its free, relaxed sound, but the lyrics were considered to be simple compared with those of his previous work. Morrison had intended to record the album a cappella with only vocal backing by a vocal group he called the Street Choir, but the songs released on the album that included the choir also featured a backing band. Morrison was dissatisfied with additional vocalists to the original quintet that made up the choir, and these changes and others have led him to regard Street Choir poorly in later years.

His Band and the Street Choir was as well received as Morrison's previous album, Moondance, peaking at number 32 on the Billboard 200 and number 18 on the UK Album Chart. It owes its success mainly to the US Top Ten single "Domino", which was released before the album and surpassed Morrison's 1967 hit, "Brown Eyed Girl". As of 2019, "Domino" remains the most successful single of Morrison's solo career. Two other singles were released from the album, "Blue Money" and "Call Me Up in Dreamland"; although less successful, they still managed to reach the Billboard Hot 100.

Production

Recording

Recording began with a demo session at a small church in Woodstock, which was not intended to produce any official releases. During its course Morrison worked on leftover material from his previous two albums (Astral Weeks and Moondance), recorded songs that he had not performed in the studio before ("Crazy Face" and "Give Me a Kiss"), as well as two instrumentals. Limited recording equipment was used, operated by drummer Dahaud Shaar, who was intending to open a recording studio in Woodstock at the time. Shaar remembered: "I found an old church and we would just load in. I'd set up a pair of mikes and we would just run down some tracks with the tapes running. They became like a working thing for the album."

350px|right|thumb|alt=Seven long-haired young men in casual clothes sit close together, look forward, and smile. One of the men in the middle of the shot leans on another man's head while holding a cup in his other hand.|Van Morrison's band in 1970 (from left to right): Alan Hand, Larry Goldsmith, Keith Johnson, Dahaud Shaar, [[Van Morrison, John Klingberg, Jack Schroer.]]

For his new band Morrison brought back three musicians from the Moondance sessions: saxophonist Jack Schroer; guitarist John Platania and bassist John Klingberg. The backing vocal trio of Emily Houston, Judy Clay and Jackie Verdell also returned to sing on "If I Ever Needed Someone". Multi-instrumentalist Dahaud Shaar joined for His Band and the Street Choir; he was a veteran of the Moondance tour, though he had not played on the album. Keyboardist Alan Hand joined Morrison's band in late April 1970, replacing Jef Labes, who had left the band and moved to Israel before the end of the year. He intended to create a full a capella record, and with this in mind assembled a vocal group he called the Street Choir, consisting of his friends Dahaud Shaar, Larry Goldsmith, Andrew Robinson and then wife, Janet "Planet" Rigsbee, who all lived near Woodstock. He was unhappy with the tracks recorded with the choir, as he wanted to use the group for a different effect: "I wanted these certain guys to form an a cappella group so that I could cut a lot of songs with just maybe one guitar. But it didn't turn out." During this session Morrison recorded the same tracks used for the demo session in Woodstock, as well as "Gypsy Queen" and an additional instrumental, six of which were used on Street Choir. Elliot Scheiner was used as the engineer for this session, after he helped to produce Moondance. However, according to biographer Clinton Heylin, Scheiner and Morrison had a disagreement, so he was not used for the rest of the album.

Morrison returned to the A&R studios between June and August to record the remaining six tracks that featured on the album.

Composition

Some songs featured on His Band and the Street Choir were first recorded for the albums Astral Weeks and Moondance. Morrison rewrote and rearranged them for release on Street Choir because the recordings for his new album featured different personnel and instrumentation. The songs on the album, which Rolling Stone reviewer Jon Landau believes have a free, relaxed sound to them, borrow from various music genres; According to Pitchfork journalist Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Street Choir eschewed Moondances jazz influences in favor of "soul and gospel, using folk almost as an accent", all the while possessing a "heavy R&B kick".

The first recording that would feature on His Band and the Street Choir was "I've Been Working", an out-take from the Astral Weeks sessions in 1968 and the Moondance sessions in 1969. For its release it was arranged in a moderate 4/4 tempo and features rhythm guitar. Horn overdubs were later added to the recording. The song was considered by musicologist Brian Hinton as a tribute to pianist and singer-songwriter, Fats Domino. As with "Domino", Morrison first recorded "If I Ever Needed Someone" in late 1968; In its final form, Morrison and John Platania duet on acoustic guitars. a song Morrison first recorded for Astral Weeks on 15 October 1968. It begins with a gentle piano introduction,

"Give Me a Kiss" and "Gypsy Queen" are the final songs recorded during the first recording session. a music genre prominent in the 1960s, leading reviewers to compare the song to the work of The Beatles another Morrison composition inspired by "Gypsy Woman", released on the album Moondance. Morrison sings the song in falsetto,

The second recording session yielded the remaining material. The lyrics refer to life on the road,

"I'll Be Your Lover, Too" was inspired by Morrison and Planet's marriage. "Blue Money", a pun-filled reference to Morrison's financial situation, is about a model, perhaps his wife. "Sweet Jannie" is the second twelve-bar blues on the album; written about young love, the song is another that reviewers speculated was about Planet. Planet is a California-raised Texan.

Reception

Release

His Band and the Street Choir was first released on LP in November 1970 and was Morrison's third record to be produced for Warner Bros. It was re-released by the record company on CD in 1987, 1990 and 2005, and LP in 2008 with Rhino Records.

His Band and the Street Choir peaked at number 32 on the Billboard 200, and at number 18 on the UK Album Chart. The album received a warm reception in North America—as Moondance had done—largely due to the success of "Domino", a sampler single that peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. This single remains Morrison's biggest US hit (as of 2010), as it climbed one place higher than his 1967 hit "Brown Eyed Girl", from the album Blowin' Your Mind!. "Domino" was also a hit in the Netherlands, reaching number 22 on the Dutch Top 40. Jon Landau of Rolling Stone magazine attributed the success of "Domino" to the guitar figure at the beginning of the track, which he considered "not only a great way to start a single, but a fine way to begin the album".

| rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide

| rev2Score = A

| rev3 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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| rev4 = Music Story

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| rev5 = MusicHound Rock

| rev5Score = 5/5

| rev6 = Pitchfork

| rev6score = 8.7/10

| rev7 = Q

| rev7Score =

| rev8 = Rolling Stone

| rev8Score = (favourable)

| rev9 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev9Score =

| rev10 = Uncut

| rev10Score = 8/10

Reviewers generally praised Street Choir. Jon Landau of Rolling Stone compared it to Morrison's previous work: