The aggregation of record labels into media conglomerates like Universal is turning out to be both a blessing and a curse. For an artist of Morrison's longevity, it means that a career-spanning retrospective can be assembled without the difficulties of cross-licensing. But doing so in only 21-tracks invariably short-changes important aspects of an artist's career, leaving off some hits (e.g., "Blue Money" and "Come Running") and benchmark album tracks in favor of covering beginning-to-end. On yet another hand, this anthology's producer has done a nice job of selecting tracks that demonstrate the evolution of Morrison's career, and sequencing them in a very palatable flow.

The collection spans Morrison's mid-60s rock with Them, an iconic string of turn-of-the-70s pop-soul hits, '80s ballads, and through to 2005's soulful "Stranded." But in the end, the limited space of a single disc, stretched across 40 years of recording, ends up serving neither Morrison the hit singles artist, nor Morrison the album artiste. In addition to the missing hits named above, key radio tracks ("Mystic Eyes," "Tupelo Honey," and "Into the Mystic") were also omitted, and the holistic sense of landmark albums "Astral Weeks," "Moondance," "Tupelo Honey" and "Wavelength" is left as additional purchase.

That said, what's here is magnificent, starting with the garage staple "Gloria" (a U.S. hit for Chicago's Shadows of Knight, but not for Them) and the impossibly blissful "Brown Eyed Girl." Morrison's voice transforms to a jazz instrument for "Moondance," and the trio of "Domino," "Wild Night," and "Jackie Wilson Said" are among the greatest blue-eyed soul ever committed to record. Morrison dialed it back for 1973's "Warm Love," but re-discovered his faith and backbeat for the joyous gospel-soul of 1978's "Wavelength." He continued to explore soul and jazz in the '80s, adding rootsy sounds on songs like "Tore Down ala Ribaud."

The mid-80s selections show Morrison mellowed but still soulful, his husky voice providing counterpoint to smoother backings on "In the Garden" and "Someone Like You." The latter is probably best known for its appearance in 2001's "Bridget Jones's Diary, Part 2," though it was originally recorded fourteen years earlier. The string-lined 1989 love song "Have I Told You Lately" became a new Morrison signature, turning up on the soundtrack of "One Fine Day" and spawning dozens of cover versions. More blue-eyed soul followed, including the sumptuous "Days Like This," the autobiographical "The Healing Game," and the '50s R&B of "Precious Time."

It's a terrific and surprisingly organic journey from Morrison's garage rock roots through his authoritative, pop, soul, jazz and R&B sides. This is a well selected anthology that could easily turn Morrison's more recent fans onto his classics, or clue early fans into his terrific body of later work. But in both cases, listeners will need to supplement the overview with deeper helpings from the original albums. Alternatively you could pick up a greatest hits collection for Them, and purpose-built anthologies of his early Bang-era material, seminal '70s work for Warner Brothers and Mercury, and the Morrison-curated anthologies of his later work "Best of Van Morrison" Vols. 2 and 3. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a truly satisfying one-stop shop - and with a catalog this sprawling and deep, there may never be. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]

Now, isn't it a bit unfair that everyone else in the world got a two-CD, 37-track version of this album and we only got a one-CD, 21-track version?
So anyway, I'm looking at the tracklist and thinking, okay, it's a bit rudimentary and there are way too many mediocre late-period songs ("Real Real Gone"? "Someone Like You"? "In the Garden"? I ask you...), but overall it... hey, wait a minute! There is NOTHING from Astral Weeks on this edition, or on the European edition! brxjzsdpbmnowe. That was me getting angry, if you were wondering. And there's no "Tupelo Honey", either! Or "Caravan"! Or "Whenever God Shines His Light"! Or "Cleaning Windows"! Or ANYTHING from Veedon Fleece, unless you were one of the four people who got the three-disc special edition (which none of us Yanks are worthy of). vlamdnsklt. Yes, I'm still angry. Because this is a blown opportunity! I mean, rather than loading us down with those '80s songs that nobody knows about, they could've gone for some of the classics! AND they could've graced us Americans (and Canadians) with the double-album version, too. I don't like that.
Yeeeaaah, if you want "Gloria", "Brown Eyed Girl", "Wild Night", "Domino", "Moondance", "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)", "Warm Love", "Bright Side of the Road" and so forth (and I would not blame you for wanting any of those), get the first "best-of" album. This is a decent look at Van Morrison's career, but at the same point it's a sham. I mean, what is so hard about picking one edition of an album and releasing it worldwide?

I'm a longtime fan and finally, this the perfect collection of Van's best songs. All my favorites are on this one CD, especially "Days Like This" and "Moondance" and they sound amazing. I'll be putting my other compilations into storage and will keep this around me at all times. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is also a longtime fan or espcially to someone who needs to discover this unique and incredible voice.

I can't help but wonder what the hell they were thinking when I see a Van Morrison-compilation without "Tupelo Honey" on it.
There is a longer 37-track version of this compilation floating around out there somewhere, and that one does paint a more complete picture of Van the Man, but anthologizing Van Morrison is always difficult, kinda like making a Bob Dylan-compilation: There are just too many songs to choose from, and most of them work better in their original settings.

There is no denying, though, that this CD contains some wonderful music. Van Morrison is one of the finest composers and arrangers ever to play R&B, folk, jazz, blues, rock and country (and quite possibly the only one to do it all at the same time), and so it's hard to see how a CD with 21 of his songs could be a total miss.
And it isn't, of course. "Still on Top" contains classic songs like "Wild Night", "Domino", "Brown-Eyed Girl", "The Healing Game", "Bright Side Of The Road", and several others, and the sound is excellent (even if the liner notes aren't).

But I still think that most of Van Morrison's songs work better in their original context. To me, taking songs from 15 different albums and squeezing them together like this doesn't make a really cohesive listening experience. And if it's really Morrison himself who has made the selection, as Amazon claims on this page, he has short-changed some of his finest post-70s albums something terrible.

So this is not a great compilation. It's great music, mostly, but not a truly great (or necessary) compilation. We need a box set instead...

A great collection with not a single weak tune in the bunch. I like it, my wife likes, my five-year-old son likes it. The lyrics are thoughtful and intelligent (and generally constructive--a real plus when sharing with a child), and the music is nuanced and varied and genre-bending. I was not deeply familiar with Van Morrison but have enjoyed this disk immensely and hope to explore more of his work.