Reviewers praised the music of both sessions for its free, relaxed sound, but the lyrics were considered to be simple compared with those of his previous work.

It owes its success mainly to the US Top Ten single "Domino", which was released before the album and surpassed Morrison's 1967 hit, "Brown Eyed Girl".

During its course Morrison worked on leftover material from his previous two albums (Astral Weeks and Moondance), recorded songs that he had not performed in the studio before ("Crazy Face" and "Give Me a Kiss"), as well as two instrumentals.

Multi-instrumentalist Dahaud Shaar joined for His Band and the Street Choir; he was a veteran of the Moondance tour, though he had not played on the album.

[7] He intended to create a full a capella record, and with this in mind assembled a vocal group he called the Street Choir, consisting of his friends Dahaud Shaar, Larry Goldsmith, Andrew Robinson and then wife, Janet "Planet" Rigsbee, who all lived near Woodstock.

"[2] Morrison felt dissatisfied with some of the final recordings, and notably reworked the song "Street Choir" shortly before studio work concluded.

[12] The songs on the album, which Rolling Stone reviewer Jon Landau believes have a free, relaxed sound to them, borrow from various music genres;[13] the simple lyrics lack the complexity popularly expected from Morrison's work.

[14] According to Pitchfork journalist Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Street Choir eschewed Moondance's jazz influences in favor of "soul and gospel, using folk almost as an accent", all the while possessing a "heavy R&B kick".

[15] AllMusic contributor Jason Ankeny believed that, without the "overt mysticism" of the singer's previous two records, it was "simply Morrison's valentine to the rhythm and blues that inspired him".

[26] It begins with a gentle piano introduction,[20] and ends abruptly, which, in Peter Mills' view, represents a shot from a gun, consistent with the American outlaw theme.

[20] It is a twelve bar blues in the style of boogie rock,[27] a music genre prominent in the 1960s, leading reviewers to compare the song to the work of The Beatles[22] and Elvis Presley.

[13][23][28][29] Johnny Rogan feels the song is "a failed attempt to recapture the spirit of 'Caravan'",[30] another Morrison composition inspired by "Gypsy Woman", released on the album Moondance.

[31] Morrison sings the song in falsetto,[22] while keyboardist Alan Hand plays celeste, imitating a music box at both the beginning and end.

Writer Brian Hinton described the lyrics as perversely bitter,[22] while Jon Landau wrote that "Street Choir" was one of the "two or three finest songs" of Morrison's career because of its "musical and poetic energy".

[13] Warner Bros. Records scheduled His Band and the Street Choir for rush-release to sell over Christmas 1970, leaving little time to plan the packaging.

These pressured conditions led the company to mistitle the promotional releases as His Band and Street Choir and prepare an incorrectly ordered track listing.

[8] At the end of "I'll Be Your Lover, Too" an unedited conversation is left on the finished record, which Peter Mills notes is an example of the album's rough edges.

"[4] David Gahr took the gatefold photos of Morrison surrounded by his musicians with their wives and children at a party for Planet's son, Peter, born from a previous relationship.

[41][42] The album received a warm reception in North America—as Moondance had done—largely due to the success of "Domino",[43] a sampler single that peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

[44] The final single, "Call Me Up in Dreamland", managed only two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, while reaching number 95;[44] biographer Ken Brooks believed it deserved better.

[25] John Platania recalled that Morrison "had designs" on securing radio airplay for Street Choir, and the success of its singles reflected a growing audience and commercial appeal for his music.

Jon Landau of Rolling Stone compared it to Morrison's previous work: "His Band and the Street Choir is a free album.

"[54] Robert Christgau wrote in The Village Voice, "A few humdrum cuts and an occasional minor lapse of taste make this a less compelling album than Moondance, which only means it wasn't one of the very best of 1970.

"[47] Biographer Brian Hinton commented that His Band and the Street Choir is "vaguely reminiscent of Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline".

"[8] Van Morrison regarded Street Choir poorly, as he told biographer Ritchie Yorke in 1973: "Somewhere along the line I lost control of that album.