Lewis Merenstein

Lewis Merenstein (October 23, 1934 – September 6, 2016) was an American record producer, most famous as the producer of the Van Morrison album Astral Weeks, and as executive producer for Moondance, Morrison's 1970 album. Astral Weeks was listed as #19 on the Rolling Stone Magazine's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. In November 2006, when CNN published their list of The All-Time 100 Albums, Astral Weeks was on the list, along with Moondance.

Biography Merenstein was born on October 23, 1934, to a German-Jewish immigrant family in Baltimore, Maryland. His aunt was Bess (née Merenstein) Berman, co-founder of the Apollo record label; and his uncle was Charles Merenstein, a co-writer of the song Handy Man. He moved to New York City 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: Services were held at Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan.