• Writer: Van Morrison
• Producer: Bert Berns
• Recorded: Spring 1967 in New York City
• Released: June 1967
• Players:
  Van Morrison — vocals
  Other players unknown
• Album: Blowin’ Your Mind (Bang, 1967)
• Also On:
  Best Of Van Morrison (Bang, 1970)
  T.B. Sheets (Bang, 1973)
  The Best Of Van Morrison (Mercury, 1990)
  Bang Masters (Epic/Legacy, 1991)
  and other compilations
• “Brown Eyed Girl” was Van Morrison‘s first solo single following his departure from the group Them.
• The single and Morrison’s entire first album were recorded with session musicians in just three days.
• Though it was once reported that “Brown Eyed Girl” was recorded in one take, it actually required 22 takes. A somewhat earlier version can be heard on Bang Masters, and it is mostly notable for a different guitar part and outro. The song started out with a Latin arrangement.
• Morrison had hit the chart already with Them, whose song “Here Comes The Night” was also produced and written by Bert Berns, who was famous for writing “Twist And Shout.”
• The 21-year-old Morrison moved to New York in early 1967 to record for Berns’s Bang Records. Without Morrison’s permission, the singles were lumped with outtakes for what became his debut album in January 1968.
• Berns died of a heart attack in December 1967.
• The single version of “Brown Eyed Girl” was censored because of the line “makin’ love in the green grass/behind the stadium.” The edited version still appears on some compilations, and replaces “making love in the green grass” with “laughin’ and a-runnin’” from a previous verse.

FAST FORWARD:

• Morrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, although he didn’t show up for the ceremony. The Band‘s Robbie Robertson accepted on Morrison’s behalf.
• Morrison was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003.
• Morrison once told Jazziz magazine that he shouldn’t be considered a rock musician, and that his singing style owes more to jazz and blues than to rock.
• In October 2004, Morrison was honored in London by the performing rights organization BMI, which presented him with the BMI ICON Award for his “enduring influence on generations of music makers.”
• In 2005, Morrison was awarded a Million-Air certificate by BMI for reaching 7 million U.S. radio and television airplays for “Brown Eyed Girl.”
• His recording of “Brown Eyed Girl” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007.

The song has been covered by (among others) Barenaked Ladies, Billy Ray Cyrus, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Buster Poindexter, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Del Amitri, Everclear, Green Day, Howie Day, Ian Matthews, Indigo Girls, Jimmy Buffett, Jimmy Eat World, John Anderson, John Mayer, MxPx, Pennywise, Phish, Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, Steel Pulse, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Weezer, and Ziggy Marley.