 Moondance was the first album where he was listed as producer. He later said of the role, "No one knew what I was looking for except me, so I just did it." Lewis Merenstein, the album's executive producer, had brought in Richard Davis, Jay Berliner, and Warren Smith, Jr. from Astral Weeks for the first recording session, but Morrison, according to John Platania, "sort of manipulated the situation" and "got rid of them all. For some reason he didn't want those musicians." According to Shelly Yakus, the album's recording engineer, Morrison was "very quiet and really introverted" during the sessions, only recalling when Morrison asked him to put "more bottom on his voice" while being recorded.
