Even if you have all or most of his CDs, it is worth hearing some of the best songs in a different order with this newest anthology! Of course, opinions greatly differ as to which songs are the best! You may prefer to simply concoct your own personal anthology of our dear Van Morrison. On the other hand, this (the 3-CD version) is a very good, if not ever perfect, choice of songs.

A misnomer of a title if ever there was one. Van Morrison is one of those peculiar figures in that while he's undoubtedly a major artist he has actually had very few hits, and the majority of music lovers would probably be hard pressed to name more than half a dozen of his songs. Even Brown Eyed Girl, perhaps his best known - certainly most frequently played - song wasn't a hit in Britain. Van is also unusual in that he's perhaps the only major artist, or certainly long standing musician, who hasn't had either a box set or at least a multi disc best of collection. Of course this 3 disc release now remedies that. For the less committed there is also a 2 disc version. Of course Van's output has been that prolific it could easily run to another disc, or even 2 more! There have been the Best of and Best of Volume 2 and the only recenly released Best of Vol 3, which itself was a double disc, but this collection, whether you buy the 2 or 3 disc version will now supplant them as the premier Van Morrison compilation.
Having said this it is still far from perfect. Firstly,the annotation is extremely skimpy, nor do we get photos. Detailed notes and decent photos are what we have come to expect from proper box sets, and both are totally lacking here. The presentation is very similar to the 3 disc Elton John set that came out a few years ago, however that had much better annotation and more photos. Still On Top - The Greatest Hits (they have to add that, as Morrison already has an album called Back On Top, a similar title) isn't arranged chronologically either,jumping about all over the place without any obvious theme. This may not bother some people, but I find it irritating. I feel that a definitive compilation should trace an artist's career sensibly.
Now we come to the music, and I must be honest here, although I have quite a few Morrison albums I don't like all he's done and I actively dislike some of his output. His first 'proper' album Astral Weeks is not only regarded as his greatest, but one of the greatest rock albums period. I can see why, in that it's full of what were for the time original soundscapes, but it's not an easy listen; and the compilers seem to recognise that here as they haven't included one single track from that album - a 3 disc set and nothing from what is regarded as the artist's greatest release! This in itself is bizarre and shows how hard it is to compile Van Morrison. Astral Weeks is not the only album to have nothing from it here, quite a few others are similarly neglected, whilst other have up to 4 tracks taken from them, which means that the compilation isn't really a definitive overview. One of the most heavily represented with 4 tracks is his next album, Moondance, and I would suggest this is because it was the nearest Morrison came to making a truly great album. Despite the inclusion of the title track, Crazy Love, And It Stoned Me and the brilliant Into the Mystic (perhaps my favourite Morrison song) the compilers have still had to omit classics such as Caravan and These Dreams Of You.
I generally prefer Van's up temp r n b influenced songs rather than his long drawn out excursions into celtic mysticism or whatever it's called, consequently I lost interest in him after Hard Nose The Highway although I did reagain it more recently and bought his 3 relatively recent albums: Back On Top, Down The Road and Magic Time. Personally I think these are as good as anything he's done in his long career,as do the compilers here, taking 2 tracks each from Back On top and Magic Time and 3 from Down The Road. Another album heavily represented is Avalon Sunset with 4 tracks; this was a Morrison album I used to own, but sold.
Ultimately, despite the eccentricities of some of the selections here, this is as definitive complilation of Van Morrison as you're going to get. Because of the length of his career and vast output it would be difficult to like all he's done. Van also has the tendency sometimes to ruin a song with endless repetition or simply silly noises. See for example Georgia On My Mind, on the otherwise excellent Down The Road, thankfully not included here. He tends to do this on the longer songs, which in Morrison's ouvre are usually long, not because of any instrumental virtuosity but because of vocal self indulgence; consequently the 11 minute Listen to the Lion from St Dominic's Preview actually ceases to be a song after about 5 minutes and turns into a repetitive dirge - this happens to much of Astral Weeks, presumably this is why nothing has been included here. Instead of Listen To The Lion or one or two of the other long dirges, such as the irritating Rave On John Donne, I would have liked to have had more of the shorter r n b type tracks, such as Call Me Up In Dreamland from His Band and the Street Choir or the aforementioned These Dreams Of You from Moondance.

Still on Top:Greatest Hits was originally released back in 2007 as a single disc 21 track set. For the more casual fan, it is still IMO the best option to get.

Now in 2008, Van Morrison has seen fit to re-release this set as an expanded 3 disc set with the same title. All of the 21 tracks from the single disc version are here but with the addition of 30 more tremendous tracks. While most die hard Van Morrison fans scoff at the idea of trying to distill his artistry to a compliation of sorts, this new 3 disc set represents the best option for people wanting to dig a lot deeper than the single disc version without having to buy individual albums.

The good part here is that all of the tracks are brilliantly remastered and each CD is almost maxed out close to 80 minutes. Disc One is just shy of 78 minutes, disc two is about 78 1/2 minutes and Disc Three is just shy of 79 minutes. One of my huge gripes when buying greatest hits CD's or anthologies is when they fail to max out the CD (or CD's) as much as they can to 80 minutes. Thankfully they didn't do that here and gave the buyer the absolute most music possible on 3 CD's.

The one thing I thought I would have a problem with is that the CD's are sequenced in chronological order. But upon listening to the set it's clear that Van Morrison sequenced each CD with a particular feel/mood in mind. This is most evident on Disc 3 which is very laid back and chilled out in a most relaxing and enjoyable way.

While there have been way too many compilation sets of Van Morrison's stuff over the years, I feel that this is the best one to get for people wanting a really thorough anthology of this legendary artist's long, long career.

For the more casual fan, the 2007 single disc set is still the best option for those seeking more of a lighter sampling of his work.

Love Van Morrison! This 3 CD set is great and I would highly recommend it!

What, yet another Van Morrison Greatest Hits assortment? Why do we need this continual barrage? Well, maybe one reason is that everything is remastered but the reason I bought it is that a review in an English music magazine promised some never before released outtakes on disc three. OK, turns out there is just one and that is on disc two. I'd already heard everything else before as I imagine most hardcore Van Morrison fans have, so what this package really amounts to is an excellent compendium for casual fans who think that he faded away in the 1970s.
This three-CD set is filled with undoubtedly great music and the price is very reasonable but like the first reviewer, I can think of many songs that could have been included and some that could easily be omitted. But that brings to mind the point that but for the quality of the remaster, any fan with a fairly comprehensive collection of Van's albums could have slapped this together himself.
Still On Top offers a broad overview of forty years of music, stretching from Morrison's days with Them to albums issued just in the last couple years. Nearly four hours long, it certainly covers a lot of musical territory yet somehow I was left feeling a lack of any real excitement about it.
Despite my slight disappointment, Still On Top: The Greatest Hits will often serve as my Van Morrison fix when I am taking a road trip and can't decide which of his many varied CDs to bring along. And here's an additional thought: Several songs from Moondance are featured here yet the album has never been remastered due reputedly to a dispute between Warner Brothers and Van Morrison. Can this mean a remaster of that classic is imminent? It was not listed in the remastering program included with this set.