Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning
Chart Performance: Pop (#10); 1967
Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne
In 1965, Van Morrison, lead singer for Them, was riding high as Here Comes The Night reached #2 in Britain. Here in the States it was competing with Gloria, another Them single, for attention, and fell far short of its UK high water mark. Gloria, meanwhile, lasted one week at #93, then disappeared until the following spring when it reached #10 in a version by garage-rockers The Shadows Of Knight. Another year passed with no Van chart action.
By now he was in New York, recording solo. One of the songs slated for the March, 1967 recording sessions was originally called Brown Skinned Girl and concerned interracial romance.
Although the version laid down by Van had none of that (for then) shocking content, it did contain the lyric “makin’ love in the green grass.”
After that line was sanitized for radio consumption, Brown Eyed Girl rose to #10 and went on to become one of the most popular songs of the 1960’s.
This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.
Produced by:
- Bert Berns
Lyrics Written by:
- Van Morrison
Ed Osborne
Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).