Brown Eyed Girl

This article is about the song. For the South Korean girl group, see Brown Eyed Girls.
"Brown Eyed Girl"

Dutch 7-inch vinyl single
Single by Van Morrison
from the album Blowin' Your Mind!
A-side "Brown Eyed Girl"
B-side "Goodbye Baby"
Released June 1967
Recorded 28 March 1967
Genre Rock, British R&B
Length 3:03
Label Bang
Writer(s) Van Morrison
Producer(s) Bert Berns
Van Morrison singles chronology
"Brown Eyed Girl"
(1967)		 "Ro Ro Rosey"
(1967)
Audio sample
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"Brown Eyed Girl" is a song by Northern Irish singer and songwriter Van Morrison. Written by Morrison and recorded in March 1967 for Bang Records owner and producer Bert Berns, it was released as a single in June 1967 on the Bang label, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. It featured The Sweet Inspirations singing back-up vocals and is considered to be Van Morrison's signature song.[1][2] "Brown Eyed Girl" has remained a staple on classic rock radio, and has been covered by hundreds of bands over the decades.

Recording and title

After finishing his contract with Decca Records and the mid-1966 break-up of his band, Them, Morrison returned to Belfast seeking a new recording company. When he received a phone call from Bert Berns, owner of Bang Records, who had produced a number of recordings with Them, he flew to New York City and hastily signed a contract (which biographer Clinton Heylin says probably still gives him sleepless nights).[3] During a two-day recording session starting 28 March 1967, he recorded eight songs intended to be used as four singles.[4] The recording session took place at A & R Studios and "Brown Eyed Girl" was captured on the 22nd take on the first day.[5] Of the musicians Berns had assembled, there were three guitarists - Eric Gale, Hugh McCracken,[6][7] and Al Gorgoni - plus bassist Russ Savakus, pianist Paul Griffin and drummer Gary Chester.[8][9] It was released as a single in mid-June 1967.[10]

Originally titled "Brown-Skinned Girl",[11] 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."[12] "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."[13] It has also been stated that the song was about an inter-racial relationship and Morrison changed the title to "make it more palatable to radio stations."[14]

Composition

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 removed the lyrics "making love in the green grass", replacing them with "laughin' and a-runnin', hey hey" 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 bowdlerised lyrics in the packaging but the original "racy" lyrics on the disc. Lyrically, it "shows early hints of the idealized pastoral landscapes that would flow through his songs through the decades, a tendency that links him to the Romantic poets, whom Morrison has cited as an influence" according to music journalist Erik Hage.[15]

Aftermath

Owing to a contract he signed with Bang Records without legal advice, Morrison states he has never received any royalties for writing or recording this song.[16] 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."[17] Morrison vented frustration about this unjust contract in his sarcastic nonsense song "The Big Royalty Check." Morrison has stated that "Brown Eyed Girl" is not among his favourite songs, remarking "it's not one of my best. I mean I've got about 300 songs that I think are better".[18]

To capitalise on the success of the single, producer Berns assembled the album Blowin' Your Mind without Morrison's input or knowledge. Released in September 1967, the album contained the single as its lead-off track as well as songs recorded by Morrison at the March recording sessions for Berns. The album peaked at No. 182 on the Billboard 200.

Legacy

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. 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".[19][20] In 2009, "Brown Eyed Girl" was at the top of the list for most played songs at the BMI London awards winning a Million-Air certificate for nine million air plays.[21] In 2011, "Brown Eyed Girl" joined an elite group of songs as it was honoured for having 10 million US radio air plays and therefore becoming one of the ten songs that have been registered with BMI that have received that number of radio plays.[22] As of 2015, "Brown Eyed Girl" remains the most downloaded and most played song of the entire 1960s decade.[23]

Paul Williams included "Brown Eyed Girl" in his book Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles,[24] 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. "

This song proved to be the impetus for Morrison's career. It was his first single after leaving his position as lead singer for the Belfast formed Them and led to his relocation to the United States and an eventual contract with Warner Bros. Records, where he recorded his career-defining album, Astral Weeks.

Critical acclaim and influence

Dave Marsh in his 1989 book, The Heart of Rock and Soul, The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever, rated it no. 386.[25] In 1999, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) listed it as one of the Top 100 Songs of the Century.[26] In 2000, it was listed at no. 21 on Rolling Stone and MTV's list of 100 Greatest Pop Songs.[27] At the same year, it also was listed as no. 49 on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Rock Songs.[28] In 2001, It was ranked no. 131 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.[29][30]

In November 2004, "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison was ranked no. 110 on the Rolling Stone magazine list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[31] At the same year, it was listed as no. 79 on the All Time 885 Greatest Songs compiled by WXPN from listener's votes.[32] In January 2007, "Brown Eyed Girl" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[33] It was ranked as the 152nd greatest song of all time, as well as the tenth best song of 1967, by Acclaimed Music.[34] It is also one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.[35]

In popular culture

Other releases

"Brown Eyed Girl" was one of the songs included on the 1990 compilation album, The Best of Van Morrison. It is one of the songs performed live at Morrison's concert of performance of 15 September 2006 at the Austin City Limits Festival and is included on the limited CD album, Live at Austin City Limits Festival. "Brown Eyed Girl" was one of the nineteen songs featured on Van Morrison's 2007 compilation album, Van Morrison at the Movies - Soundtrack Hits. The version on this compilation is a recent re-recording of the original version of the song. The original version is one of the hits on the 2007 compilation album, Still on Top - The Greatest Hits. A live version of this song is featured on the 2008 reissue of the double live album It's Too Late to Stop Now.

Cover versions

"Brown Eyed Girl" has been recorded and performed by numerous artists. It is popularly performed by beginning bands as well as performed by many popular and well-known artists such as: Iain Matthews (1975),[46] Jimmy Buffett (1984),[47] Adele (2008),[48] Billy Ray Cyrus, Busted,[47] Everclear,[47] Johnny Rivers,[47] Bruce Springsteen,[49] U2,[50] Bob Dylan,[47] Brian Kennedy,[51] Steel Pulse,[47] Roberto Jordan (Spanish version "La Chica De Los Ojos Cafes"), Green Day (played live),[52] Lagwagon,[53] John Anderson,[54] El Chicano,[47] The Black Sorrows,[47] Ronan Keating,[55] Reel Big Fish,[56] and Joe Camilleri.[47] A cover by Joe Stampley peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1983.[57]

Chart performance

Year Billboard UK Singles Chart
Hot 100 Hot Ringtones
1967 10[58] - -
2006 - 18[59] -
2013 - - 60[60]

References

  1. ↑ Leblanc, Roy. "Oh, What a Sweet Week!!!". ladyluckmusic.com. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  2. ↑ Yorke, Into the Music, p. 42
  3. ↑ Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence. p.144-147
  4. ↑ Turner, Too Late to Stop Now. p.76
  5. ↑ Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence?, p.152
  6. ↑ "Interview: Jeff Barry". music-illuminati.com. 29 January 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  7. ↑ Rogan, No Surrender. p.199
  8. ↑ Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence?. p. 150
  9. ↑ "Meet Gary". gary-chester.com. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  10. ↑ Rogan, No Surrender. p.201
  11. ↑ "Smithsonian Folkways - Joseph Spence: The Complete Folkways Recordings, 1958". Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  12. ↑ Collis, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart. p81.
  13. ↑ Rogan, No Surrender. p.43
  14. ↑ Bignell, Paul (21 November 2010). "Independent on Sunday, Decoded songs and their meanings". The Independent. London. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  15. ↑ Hage, The Words and Music of Van Morrison, pp. 33-34
  16. ↑ "Van Morrison at Rancho Nicasio". martaypix.com. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
  17. ↑ Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence. p.148
  18. ↑ TIME Magazine Interviews: Van Morrison. TIME. 26 February 2009. 4:14 minutes in. Retrieved 13 February 2010.
  19. ↑ "BMI Honors Top European Writers". 28 November 2005. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  20. ↑ "Peter Gabriel Receives Top Honor at BMI Awards". BMI. 16 October 2007. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  21. ↑ "BMI London Awards". BMI. 9 October 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  22. ↑ "My 10 million radio plays Brown Eyed Girl". Irish Independent. 5 October 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
  23. ↑ Appel, Rich (14 February 2015). "Revisionist History, Valentine's Day Edition: Captain & Tennille Crunches Aerosmith, Van Morrison Boots Lulu". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  24. ↑ Williams, Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles. p. 122
  25. ↑ "Dave Marsh the 1001 greatest Singles Ever". rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2007.
  26. ↑ "Complete list of Top 100 Songs". archer2000.tripod.com. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  27. ↑ "Rolling Stone's and MTV's 200 Greatest Pop Songs". rockonthenet.com. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  28. ↑ "VH1: 100 Greatest Rock Songs". rockonthenet.com. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  29. ↑ "365 Songs by Rank". tcotrel.com. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
  30. ↑ "The Association Admiration Aggregation". theassociation.net. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  31. ↑ "Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 500 Songs". metrolyrics.com. Archived from the original on 23 March 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
  32. ↑ All-Time 885 Greatest Songs Archived 31 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  33. ↑ "Grammy Hall of Fame Award". Grammy. Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
  34. ↑ "Acclaimed Music Top 3000 songs". Acclaimed Music. 27 May 2009.
  35. ↑ "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". listsofbests.com. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  36. ↑ "Fimtracks: Born on the Fourth of July". filmtracks.com. Retrieved 27 October 2009.
  37. ↑ "Van Morrison". IMDb. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  38. ↑ "Desert Island Discs - Boris Johnson". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2009.
  39. ↑ "Desert Island Discs - Betty Jackson". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2009.
  40. ↑ "Memorial for Laci Peterson attracts thousands;husband, the suspect, barred". Pwc-sii.com. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  41. ↑ "CNN Transcripts Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees". cnn.com. 29 November 2004. Retrieved 18 April 2010.
  42. ↑ "Renaissance Van". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  43. ↑ "Clinton picks Morrison & Simon for charity iPod". star magazine.co.uk. 9 March 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
  44. ↑ "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Hugh Laurie". BBC. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  45. ↑ Morris, Steven (2014-06-19). "Rik Mayall funeral attended by stars of comedy". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  46. ↑ Hartenbach, Brett. "Go for Broke". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  47. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Brown Eyed Girl - Allmusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  48. ↑ "BBC - Radio 2's Great British Songbook: Brown Eyed Girl". BBC Radio 2. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  49. ↑ "Bruce Springsteen lyrics: Brown Eyed Girl". springsteenlyrics.com. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  50. ↑ "U2 3 Nights Live: Second Night". u2gigs.com. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  51. ↑ "allmusic: Brian Kennedy - All songs". allmusic.com. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  52. ↑ "GDA-Song List". greendayauthority. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  53. ↑ "Lagwagon: Songs> All Songs". AllMusic. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  54. ↑ "Takin' the Country Back > Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
  55. ↑ "Ronan Keating at Blickling". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2009.
  56. ↑ "Reel Big Fish Cover Songs". coversproject.com. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  57. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2013). Hot Country Songs 1944–2012. Record Research, Inc. p. 318. ISBN 978-0-89820-203-8.
  58. ↑ "Van Morrison - Chart history". Billboard. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  59. ↑ "Van Morrison - Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  60. ↑ "VAN MORRISON". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 16 June 2013.

Bibliography

External links

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