Van Morrison -- "Wild Night" (1971)

And everything looks so complete

When you're walking out on the street

I have nothing against John Mellencamp.  His 1994 version of "Wild Night" (with Me'Shell Ndegeocello) isn't really bad.  But if you put it up against the 1971 Van Morrison version – which can found on his fifth studio album, Tupelo Honey – it's simply no contest.  

The "Tupelo Honey" album cover

Mellencamp is a polished performer doing what he hopes will be a crowd-pleasing performance.  He slows the song down a bit and gets more than a little too cute (especially in the music video).  There's no sense that he really means it.

I'm not particularly crazy about Van Morrison's singing on this record.  In fact, I'm not that big a fan of his generally.  

What makes this song so good is the band – a perfectly coordinated group that does Memphis-style rhythm-and-blues better than anyone I've ever heard other than the Stax Records house band.  (Those are the guys who accompanied Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, and many others, and also put out great instrumental records under the name of Booker T. & the M.G.s.)  

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"Wild Night" (which was the second song on that homemade compilation cassette I talked about in the Janis Joplin post) starts with a perfect little unaccompanied guitar riff.  (You can't say too much about Ronnie Montrose's guitar work on this song – he does exactly what a rhythm guitarist is supposed to do.)  Van sings the first verse accompanied just by guitar, bass, and drums, but the horns jump in when he gets to the chorus and they never go away. 

This is a relatively simple and straight-ahead song.  It doesn't break any new artistic ground, and the lyrics (written by Morrison) are nothing special.  The tempo feels a little rushed at first, but turns out to be just right.  Morrison and the band find a groove right away and never lose it.

Van Morrison in 1971

"Wild Night" is a Goldilocks record – everything about it is j-u-s-t right.  You could change it into something totally different, of course.   But if you accept the basic premise of the song and the arrangement, I don't see how you could improve it.

And I'll give Van credit for this – he's satisfied to be just one of the guys here.  He doesn't try too hard and he certainly doesn't draw attention to himself.  The singer always stands out from the instrumentalists to some degree, but Morrison seems primarily focused on fitting in. 

Less is more, you know.

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Imagine Joe Cocker performing this song in the style of his "The Letter."  He would have done everything short of singing the song while standing on his head.

Listening to Cocker do "Wild Night" would be exhausting.  Listening to Van Morrison and this band do it is intense and exciting, but they do all the work – all we have to do is sit back and enjoy it.

Click here to listen to Van Morrison's "Wild Night."

Click here to listen to John Mellencamp's version, which sold a lot more than Morrison's did.  (Mellencamp's music video starts off with a little softcore porn – very mild, but they didn't put it there by accident.)

Click on the link below to order the record from Amazon: