“Gloria” by Van Morrison

Van Morrison dreamed up "Gloria" in 1963 and cut it with Them in 1964, when it went out as the flip side of "Baby, Please Don't Go". The reviews were kind and the sales modest until 1966 finally pushed it up to number 71 on Billboard's Hot 100. Since then the Northern Irish singer-songwriter's song has become common property, a garage rock staple lodged in a great many bands' sets, and critics keep ranking the original among the greatest songs ever recorded.

This recording puts Morrison in the producer's chair beside Ted Templeman, with Donn Landee engineering and mixing and Bob Harper assisting, and it hands the song back to the man who wrote every word and note of it.

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