“Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison

"Brown Eyed Girl" is Van Morrison's signature song, recorded in March 1967 and released that June on Bang Records, and the Northern Irish singer wrote it himself. It turned up on the album Blowin' Your Mind!, and it went to number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for sixteen weeks.

Bert Berns produced it and Brooks Arthur recorded it, with a crack studio band behind Morrison: Hugh McCracken and Al Gorgoni on guitar alongside Morrison himself, Eric Gale on bass, Garry Sherman on organ and Gary Chester on drums. The Sweet Inspirations sing the backup parts, and they lift the chorus right off the ground.

It's pure summertime soul-pop, a bright, chiming guitar figure dancing over a loose R&B shuffle while Morrison sings with a grin you can hear. It sounds effortless, which is the hardest trick of all, and countdowns have kept it close ever since.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.