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Brown Eyed Girl
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"Brown Eyed Girl" is a song by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. Written and recorded in 1967 by Van Morrison and produced by Bang Records chief Bert Berns, it was first released in May 1967 on the album Blowin' Your Mind!. When released as a single, it rose to number eight on the Cashbox charts, and reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100. It featured the Sweet Inspirations singing back-up vocals and is widely-considered to be Van Morrison's signature song.
It is listed by RIAA as one of The 365 Top Selling Songs of the 20th Century.
This song would prove to be the impetus for Morrison's whole career as a solo artist.
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Encyclopedia
"Brown Eyed Girl" is a song by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. Written and recorded in 1967 by Van Morrison and produced by Bang Records chief Bert Berns, it was first released in May 1967 on the album Blowin' Your Mind!. When released as a single, it rose to number eight on the Cashbox charts, and reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100. It featured the Sweet Inspirations singing back-up vocals and is widely-considered to be Van Morrison's signature song.
It is listed by RIAA as one of The 365 Top Selling Songs of the 20th Century.
This song would prove to be the impetus for Morrison's whole career as a solo artist. It was to be his first single after leaving his position as lead singer for the Belfast formed band Them and would lead to his relocation to the United States and an eventual contract with Warner Bros. Records, where he would record his career-defining album, Astral Weeks.
Paul Williams included "Brown Eyed Girl" in his book Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles, writing that:
I was going to say this is a song about sex, and it is, and a song about youth and growing up, and memory, and it's also — very much and very wonderfully - a song about singing.
Morrison's original recording of "Brown Eyed Girl" remains widely familiar today, as the uncensored version is regularly played by many "oldies" and "classic rock" radio stations. It is listed as the #4 most played song by DJs in both 2006 and 2007. In 2005, Van Morrison received a Million-Air certificate by BMI as a "Top European Writer" for reaching 7 million US radio and television airplays for "Brown Eyed Girl" and again in 2007, Morrison was awarded another Million-Air certificate by BMI for 8 million air plays of "Brown Eyed Girl". The only song with more airplays by a top European writer was "Every Breath You Take" by The Police with 9 million.
Recording and title
After finishing out his contract with Decca Records and the mid-1966 break up of his band Them, Van Morrison returned to Belfast seeking a new recording company. When he received a phone call from Bert Berns, owner of Bang Records, he flew to New York City and hastily signed a contract (that biographer Clinton Heylin says probably still gives him sleepless nights.) During a two day recording session starting 28 March 1967, he recorded eight songs intended to be used as four singles. The recording session took place at A & R Studios and "Brown Eyed Girl" was captured on the 22nd take on the first day. Of the musicians Berns had assembled there were three guitarists, including Eric Gale and Al Giorgioni, bassist Russ Savakus, pianist Paul Griffin and drummer Gary Chester. It was released as a single in mid-June 1967.
Originally titled "Brown-Skinned Girl", Morrison changed it to "Brown Eyed Girl" when he recorded it. Morrison remarked on the original title: "That was just a mistake. It was a kind of Jamaican song. Calypso. It just slipped my mind. I changed the title.""After we'd recorded it, I looked at the tape box and didn't even notice that I'd changed the title..I looked at the box where I'd lain it down with my guitar and it said 'Brown Eyed Girl' on the tape box. It's just one of those things that happen."
Lyrics
The song's nostalgic lyrics about a former love were considered too suggestive at the time to be played on many radio stations. A radio-edit of the song was released which excised the lyrics "making love in the green grass", replacing them with "laughin' and a-runnin'" from a previous verse. This edited version appears on some copies of the compilation album The Best of Van Morrison. However the remastered CD seems to have the bowdlerized lyrics in the packaging but the original "racy" lyrics on the disc.
Aftermath
Due to the contract he signed with Bang Records without legal advice, Morrison has never (in his own words) received any royalties for writing or recording this song. The contract made him liable for virtually all recording expenses incurred for all of his Bang Records recordings before royalties would be paid and later, after the expenses were recouped, they would become the "subject of some highly creative accounting." Morrison vented his frustration about this penurious contract in his sarcastic nonsense song "The Big Royalty Check".
Critical acclaim and influence
- In January 2007, "Brown Eyed Girl" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
- In November 2004, "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison was listed at No. 109 on the Rolling Stone Magazine list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
- It is also one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
- It was listed as #79 on the All Time 885 Greatest Songs compiled in 2004 by WXPN from listener's votes.
- It was chosen as #131 in 2001 as one of the RIAAs Songs of the Century a list of the top 365 songs of the 20th century chosen with historical significance in mind.
- In 2000, it was listed at #21 on Rolling Stone and MTV's list of 100 Greatest Pop Songs and it also was listed as #49 on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Rock Songs.
- In 1999, It was listed as one of the Top 100 Songs of the Century by BMI.
- "Brown Eyed Girl" was rated at No. 386 on Dave Marsh's 1989 book, The Heart of Rock and Soul, The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever.
Cultural references
In April 2005, the White House announced that "Brown Eyed Girl" gets regular rotation on George W. Bush's iPod. Morrison announced before a university performance in England: "Yeah, it's good to hear things like that, you know. But I would have preferred if it was a new song."
In March 2009, former US president Bill Clinton picked "Brown Eyed Girl" as top pick on his list of favorite ten tunes included on his signed iPod donated for a charity auction for musical victims of Hurricane Katrina.
At the televised memorial for Laci Peterson, Morrison's original version of "Brown Eyed Girl" was played as the closing music.
In the media
The Van Morrison recording has been featured in several popular movies, including the 1989 movie, Born on the Fourth of July and the 1991 movie, Sleeping With the Enemy, starring Julia Roberts.
Cover versions
"Brown Eyed Girl" has been recorded by numerous artists including Jimmy Buffett and Everclear. It is popularly performed by beginning bands as well as performed by many popular and well-known artists such as Billy Ray Cyrus, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Steel Pulse, Green Day, Lagwagon, John Mayer, Weezer, The Sex Pistols, Busted, Eagles, The Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, James Taylor, Ziggy Marley, MxPx, Reel Big Fish, and Cannibal Corpse. Cover versions have also been performed in other languages, notably in Catalan by Els Pets (as Ulls de color mel, "Honey-colored eyes") and in Finnish by Aki Sirkesalo (as Punatukkainen).
Appearance on other albums
External links
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