BROWN EYED GIRL

'"Brown Eyed Girl"' is a song written and recorded in 1967 by Northern Irish singer-songwriter, Van Morrison and produced by Bang Records chief Bert Berns. It was first released in May 1967 on the album ''Blowin' Your Mind!'' and as a single entered the Cashbox charts on July 22nd where it eventually rose to No. 8 and to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.^[1]It featured the Sweet Inspirations singing back-up vocals^[2] and is one of Van Morrison's signature songs.^[3]

Contents

Recording history

Song history

Critical acclaim and influence

Cultural references

Covers

Sample

Notes

References

External links

Recording history

After finishing out his contract with Decca Records and the break up of his band Them, Van Morrison was back in Belfast seeking a new recording company. After receiving 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.)^[4] During a two day recording session starting March 28 1967, he recorded eight songs intended to be used as four singles.^[5] The recording session took place at A & R Studios and "Brown Eyed Girl" was captured on the 22nd take on the first day.^[6] Of the musicians Berns had assembled there were three guitarists, including Eric Gale^[7] and Al Giorgioni, bassist Russ Savakus, pianist Paul Griffin.^[8]and drummer Gary Chester ^[9]It was released as a single in mid-June 1967.^[10]

Song history

The song was originally titled "Brown-Skinned Girl" but Morrison changed it to "Brown Eyed Girl" when he recorded it because he felt it sounded better.^[11]
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.
Morrison's original recording of "Brown Eyed Girl" remains widely familiar today, as it seems to be firmly ensconced in the playlists of most "oldies" and "classic rock" radio stations (these days usually in the uncensored version).
Morrison, due to the contract he signed with Bang Records without legal advice, has never (in his own words) received any royalties for writing or recording this song.^[12]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 be the "subject of some highly creative accounting."^[13]Morrison had vented his frustration in a wryly humorous and sarcastic nonsense song "The Big Royalty Check", on his 1968 Contractual Obligation Album.^[14]
In November 2005, Van Morrison was awarded a Million-Air certificate by Broadcast Music Incorporated for reaching 7,000,000 US radio and television airplays for Brown Eyed Girl.^[15]
After many years of not performing "Brown Eyed Girl" in concert, in 2006 and 2007, Morrison added it to most of his concerts along with "Gloria" as a closer or encore.

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.^[16]

★ It is also one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

★ "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''.^[17]

★ 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.^[18]

★ It was listed as #79 on the All Time 885 Greatest Songs compiled in 2004 by WXPN from listener's votes.^[19]

★ Paul Williams in his book, ''Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles'',^[20] includes "Brown Eyed Girl" and remarks:

Cultural references

At the televised memorial for Laci Peterson, Morrison's original version of "Brown Eyed Girl" was played as the closing music.
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."^[21]
"Brown Eyed Girl" was part of the soundtrack for the 1989 movie, ''Born on the Fourth of July'', and as such was one of the nineteen songs featured on Van Morrison's 2007 compilation album, ''Van Morrison at the Movies - Soundtrack Hits''. The version on the compilation is a recent re-recording of the original version of the song.

Covers

★ Aki Sirkesalo (in Finnish as ''Punatukkainen'')

★ Barenaked Ladies

★ Billy Ray Cyrus

★ Bob Dylan

★ Bruce Springsteen

★ Busted

★ Buster Poindexter

★ Creedance Clearwater Revival

★ Billy Ray Cyrus

★ Del Amitri

★ Els Pets

★ Everclear

★ Green Day

★ Howie Day

★ Ian Matthews

★ Indigo Girls

★ Jimmy Buffett

★ Jimmy Eat World

★ John Anderson

★ John Mayer

★ John Valby (obscene parody)

★ Ka'au Crater Boys

★ Lagwagon (studio and live)

★ Laurel Aitken

★ Less than Jake

★ Lynch Mob

★ McFly

★ Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

★ Moxy Früvous

★ MxPx

★ N.O.T.A (as "Skinhead Girl")

★ Normaal

★ Pennywise

★ Phish

★ Rockapella

★ Rolling Stones

★ Ronan Keating (live tours only)

★ Skatallica (Commonly mislabeled as Reel Big Fish)

★ Sex Pistols

★ Steel Pulse

★ Stevie Ray Vaughan

★ Voice Male

★ Weezer

★ Ziggy Marley

Sample

Notes

1. Turner. (1993). p.77
2. Roy and the Sweets
3. Yorke, Into the Music, p. 42
4. Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence, p.144-147
5. Turner, Too Late to Stop Now, p.76
6. Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence?, p.152
7. Rogan, No Surrender, p.199
8. Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence?, p. 150
9. Gary Chester website
10. Rogan, No Surrender, p.201
11. Van Morrison website (Unofficial)
12. Into the Music archives Rancho Nicasio
13. Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence, p.148
14. WFMU: The Big Royalty Check
15. BMI Honors Top European Writers, 2005-11-28
16. 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
17.
18. Songs of the Century
19. All-Time 885 Greatest Songs
20. Williams, Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles, p. 122
21. Rolling Stone Magazine (Renaissance Van)

References

★ Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press ISBN 1-55652-542-7

★ Rogan, Johnny (2006). Van Morrison:No Surrender, London:Vintage Books ISBN 9780099431831

★ Turner, Steve (1993). Too Late to Stop Now, Viking Penguin, ISBN 0-670-85147-7

★ Williams, Paul (1993). Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles, Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., ISBN 0881849669

★ Yorke, Ritchie (1975). Into The Music, London:Charisma Books , ISBN 0-85947-013-X

External links

★ Lyrics Brown Eyed Girl

★ Music & Lyrics The Big Royalty Check

★ All Music Guide Review