Career
And in November 2006, when Cable News Network published their list of The All-Time 100 Albums, Astral Weeks was on the list, along with Moondance. He moved to New York in the late 1950s and worked on jazz recordings at the Nola Penthouse studios with producer Tom Wilson. During the 1960s he began working as a producer in his own right on records by Miriam Makeba, Gladys Knight and others
Regarding Astral Weeks, Merenstein said:
After further rehearsals, Morrison and Merenstein went into the studio to record.
Merenstein said: that "..it was just beautiful, just beautiful. I forget if we did one take, two takes, how many times I may have interrupted it and asked the band to soften it up a little bit and maybe move the tempo a little bit.
Van had nothing to say. He just went and sang the song.
That"s primarily the way the album proceeded.
"
Additionally, he produced albums for Biff Rose, Charlie Musselwhite, The Spencer Davis Group, Cass Elliot, The Mamas & the Papas, John Cale, Curtis Mayfield, Charlie Daniels, The Association, Turley Richards, Alexander Harvey, Les Variations, George Burns and Phyllis Hyman. Merenstein also produced the three studio albums recorded by Glass Harp in the early 1970s, featuring guitarist Philosophy Keaggy. Merenstein still lives and works in New York City.