Van Morrison

The Authorised Bang Collection

Sony Legacy

WHEN Belfast's best beat combo, Them, disintegrated in 1966, frontman Van Morrison flew to New York to seek out Bert Berns, who had produced their two big hits, Baby Please Don't Go and Here Comes The Night, and written the latter. Berns's pedigree stretched back to songwriting in the Brill Building, with a string of hits for Solomon Burke and The Drifters to his name, and his new label, Bang!, was an acronym of the men behind it – himself, Ahmet Ertegün, Nesuhi Ertegün and Gerald (Jerry) Wexler, his colleagues at Atlantic, where he was house producer. It might have been a great partnership, but the talented Berns died of heart failure at the age of 38, and Morrison left for Warner Brothers after just one album, Blowin' Your Mind!, which included the classic Brown Eyed Girl. This three disc set gathers every note Morrison recorded for Bang!, including several takes of that hit and early versions of songs that found fuller form on Astral Weeks. Much less interesting are the 31 brief ditties from the much-bootlegged "Contractual Obligation Session", which fill the third disc and are as throwaway as the title suggests. Why the curmudgeonly Morrison has sanctioned their appearance after all these years is the only remaining mystery.

Keith Bruce