Ван Моррисон – Back on Top: Возвращение на вершину

Back on Top is the twenty seventh studio album by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1999 by Point Blank. It reached the Top Twenty in seven countries, building on the success of 1997's The Healing Game.

Recorded at the Wool Hall Studios, south of Bath, England, except strings, which were recorded at Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland. The musicians on the album are understated with Ian Jennings playing double bass, Geraint Watkins playing Hammond organ and Pee Wee Ellis on saxophones. Harmonica also features on "High Summer", which includes references to "Lucifer" and "God", and also alludes to Morrison's 1960s songs by way of "red sport cars" and "mansions on the hill". "In the Midnight" is "bedroom music, pure and simple",

"Reminds Me of You" dates back to a 1996 break up of his engagement to Michelle Rocca; they had reunited by the time of the song's release. "New Biography" was prompted by Brian Hinton's Celtic Crossroads, written in 1996. Morrison complains about celebrity and "'so called friends' who chose to spill inside information and memories to biographers." Morrison has often performed "Precious Time" live, which includes the lyrics, "It doesn’t matter to which God you pray/Precious time is slipping away."

The video for the title track received significant airplay on the Canadian music station, "MuchMoreMusic". Performances of "Back on Top" and "When the Leaves Come Falling Down", along with "Gloria", featured on Later with Jools Holland on 16 April 1999. The photograph of Morrison on the inside of the album cover was originally used for the front cover of Peter Handke's book, My Year in the No Man's Bay (1994). The album was remastered and reissued on 29 January 2008 with two bonus tracks; an alternative take of "Philosopher's Stone", and a new arrangement of Fats Domino's song, "Valley of Tears". "Golden Autumn Day" was also used as the credits song for the 2001 and 2004 World Series.