Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl

Somehow, I didn’t hear this song until I was 18 in 1985. When  I heard it, I immediately loved it. I didn’t just like the song, I was infatuated with it. One of the most infectious bass lines I’ve ever heard. I would play it so much that my friends would ask…again? So this post is basically a love letter to this song. 

The bass wasn’t the only thing that hit me, it is as clear as a spring day guitar riff. Last but certainly not least, it began my lifelong love for Van Morrison’s writing and voice. How did I make it until 18 without hearing it? I’ll never know. I not only learned the bass, but I also learned the guitar and some of the drums. I described it to someone as Buddy Holly in Technicolor.

I was at the right age for it. It’s a scrapbook of teenage moments, skipping school, hanging out by the green grass, and making out behind the stadium. There’s even a sneaky little bit of controversy: the original line “making love in the green grass” got scrubbed from the single version and replaced with a tamer repeat of an earlier verse (“Laughing‚ and a-running”).

It’s a song that I never get tired of hearing. The entire sound is crystal clear, and it made me feel nostalgic at just 18. It’s not Van Morrison’s best song…that would be impossible to pick, but it is a great pop song packed with memories and fun.

This was Van’s first single after leaving Them. Brown Eyed Girl isn’t trying to change the world. It’s not aiming for psychedelia (very popular at the time) or pushing the studio envelope. What it does do is pack memory, melody, and a whole lot of youthful yearning into a tight little pop song. 

Van would go on to far deeper waters with albums like Astral Weeks, Moondance, Tupelo Honey, and Saint Dominic’s Preview, albums brimming with spiritual searching and jazz improvisation. But Brown Eyed Girl was a huge introduction to the new solo artist… Van Morrison. I’ve told people…if I could have been born with any voice, Van’s voice would have been it. 

He released this song in 1967, it peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100, #13 in Canada, and #60 in the UK. My friends say that I might have listened to this song more than anyone…including Van. Hmmm, where is that email address to the Guinness people?

Brown Eyed Girl

Hey where did we go
Days when the rains came
Down in the hollow
Playin’ a new game
Laughing and a running hey, hey
Skipping and a jumping
In the misty morning fog with
Our hearts a thumpin’ and you
My brown eyed girl
You’re my brown eyed girl

Whatever happened
To Tuesday and so slow
Going down the old mine
With a transistor radio
Standing in the sunlight laughing
Hiding behind a rainbow’s wall
Slipping and sliding
All along the water fall, with you
My brown eyed girl
You’re my brown eyed girl

Do you remember when we used to sing
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da
Just like that
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da, la te da

So hard to find my way
Now that I’m all on my own
I saw you just the other day
My how you have grown
Cast my memory back there, Lord
Sometime I’m overcome thinking ’bout
Making love in the green grass
Behind the stadium with you
My brown eyed girl
You’re my brown eyed girl

Do you remember when we used to sing
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da (lying in the green grass)
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da (bit, bit, bit, bit, bit, bit)
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da (sha la la la la la)
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

59 thoughts on “Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl”

  1. This was also one of my favourite songs in my early teens too. I believe I grew to love this song because it appeared on ‘The Wonder years’ soundtrack which I wore out to death. I think this is my favourite song by the Van although ‘Carrying the Torch’ gets me every time too. Mind you, I’m hardly across a lot of his output.

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    1. It is really special to me…it really called out and hit the right spot for some reason. The thing I don’t get is how I got through my childhood without hearing it. It probably means more to me than any other song. It led me down a great path.

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      1. It’s another one of those stupendous songs from youth, which strangely I hadn’t heard in eons. It was nice to be reunited with it via your post. Your blog has a habit of doing that and I’m grateful for it.

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    1. He hit on a winner here…the song sent me down a path that I never came back from. At that time it was mostly Beatles, Stones, Who for me….this song expanded my taste because I found Van’s old band THEM and I went from there.

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  4. It’s not the bass that grabs me on this one (that would be “Moondance”), but the opening guitar riff. That may be one of the great things about Van’s music. He surrounded himself with excellent musicians and his songs were complete – hard to find a weak link in most of them.

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    1. I heard it at the perfect time I guess. I had been playing bass for two years or so by this time and that is probably the reason I noticed it first. I agree though…he does have the best around him. Usually top notch rock and jazz musicians like Connie Kay.

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    1. Probably the key song in my life that really expanded my taste…so I do gush over it quite a bit. But yea…it doesn’t surprise me that they changed it.

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    2. Randy and Max, this one is ripe for mondegreens. The cruder minded amongst us may have misheard that line as “runnin’ and a’jumpin’ bones.” Sorry, just saying. It’s just where a young hormonal kid’s mind jum- leaps to during a growing lads rude awakening. Good and hard times, one might say? The line one I got really wrong for years was ‘gunning the old man with a transistor radio.’ I know I’m not the first one to mishear that line either.

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      4. You know….I never thought of that but yea…. it would be easy and yes…jumping bones is exactly what I would think at 18….hmmm…maybe at 58 lol. just kidding

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  7. Pingback: Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl – MobsterTiger

  8. It’s strange in that this is the one and only song by him I grew up hearing on radio as a kid. Didn’t hear anything else by him til, curiously, around ’85 when I hung out with a gal who loved his ‘Moondance ‘ album. Certainly is a song that has lived on well through the years!

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    1. Well I guess 1985 was our Van years. I did hear Domino, Blue Money, and a few others growing up but Dave…. I had no clue who did them. My sister had no singles or albums by him so I finally found out with a compilation album that year I bought secondhand….it had songs like Bend Me Shape Me and The Everly Brothers…and this one of course!

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      1. ahh the good old day of K-tel and Ronco records….20 hits! one album! 32 minutes! LOL. seriously, even though K-tel tended to edit mercilessly for length they were good records to have and every one I had gave me three or four songs I loved but might not have gotten on their own and usually at least one that was cool and new to me

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      2. Yep! I learned a lot off of that album that I never heard before. This being the best one to me…but I liked all of them. They were cool to have….affordable and you always picked up a song or two.

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    1. Great last line! Yea I unashamedly love this song. It really took me different ways than the trinity of bands I’ve talk about. Them being the first and going from there.

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    1. It’s something about it that I will not ever shake. I don’t even think of Van when I hear it…the song to me is just huge. I like Dead Flowers as well! We played both.

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  11. lol, the first time I actually paid attention to brown eyed girl was when Jimmy Buffet covered it….I didn’t really know much about Morrison until I saw him in the Last Waltz….and since, I don’t really like his straight up pop stuff, I like when he gets more into soulful tunes

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    1. I don’t know why…but an 18 year old me was heavily influenced by this. It led me to his stuff with the band “Them”…and from there I went to his great seventies albums.

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  12. It pains me to say this, because I’m a Van freak, but this one’s worn thin with me. I’m the same as you, I really didn’t hear it until I listened to a lot of oldies radio in the 80s. It is a great song, I guess I’ve just heard it enough. Actually, I just heard it on the radio at work yesterday. I guess it depends on my mood.

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    1. Thats alright! You probably have songs that never get old….and this one is that one for me. I can listen to it in a house, with mouse…oh sorry…Green Eggs and Ham entered the conversation. But it takes me back to the minute I heard it.

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      1. It goes back to what we were saying about only certain songs played by artists. If you see Van Morrison on a playlist, you can bet money the first song will be either “Brown Eyed Girl”, or “Moondance”.

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      2. Yea I agree with that. When I saw him in the early 2000s….it surprised me….this and Moondance were the only older songs he played. I love his 1970s albums….Astral Weeks (1968 but close enough) through Wavelength the best.

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  13. I like Van in EP size doses myself. Three or four songs at a time is fine, a full album is too rich. But this song can’t wear out its welcome for me. It fair bounces along right from the start and his lyrics are perfect in that slightly puzzling at first yet on more listenings (and thinking about his choice of words) a satisfying way.

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    1. Thanks Obbverse…thats the way I feel….other than “It Wont’ Be Long” (my introduction to the Beatles) this one is way up there because I went down a different path.
      Off topic! Because I would only tell you this becasue of our intrest in cars…no Opel yet but… I’ve had a 2000 Jeep Wrangler since 2011. It’s been sitting for 7 years because the brakes went out. I got new brake lines…then the Brake caliper broke….we let it sit which was stupid…a friend of mine came over….bought new brake calipers and the engine was running rough. He put new fuel injectors, spark plugs AND wires. The exhaust manifold was cracked….ordered one from China…it cracked immediately…I then bought a used one…. Today we started it up…still running rough….then he asked me…Max did you change spark plugs before all of this happened? Yes I did…but you changed them, I said…he said yes…but I put them back exactly how you had them. He showed me the marks…he said he had an idea and if it didn’t work…it was a valve. He had me google “2000 Jeep Wrangler firing order”…he switched two of them out…boom…it’s running better now than ever. In a week or so after we clean the hell out of it…we should start driving it again. I might make a post on it with pictures. Congrats…you are the person I would bore this with lol.

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      1. Nope, I’m happy to listen. My brothers had a red Wrangler they sorta shared when they were in Phoenix, around the mid 2000s. Perfect for Phoenix weather. Wouldn’t want to be using one of those year round in say, Fargo though. Good that you two got it running. Those mechanically minded people are good to know. Me? I’m only good at dropping a spanner/wrench into the darker all but impossible-to-get-to black hole of an engine bay. A good tip Max; DON’T DROP THAT TOOL IN THE ENGINE BAY WHEN THE ENGINE IS RUNNING.

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      2. Well you saw what I was good at….putting the wires on the spark plugs wrong! Yes it’s good to count the tools when I’m working on something. Just so happens that this one is red as well. But yea…we would use it mostly around here. We took a trip to Knoxville with it before…no….not a good long distance vehicle at all….it can rattle you on the wrong roads….but I do like taking that top off and running….a great summer weekend driver…. or getting out of the snow in 4 wheel drive.

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  14. This song has always taken me back to some of my favorite memories. It’s not the words or the tune, it’s the whole package that somehow resonates with some chapter of anyone’s life, certainly mine. This is just one of a few songs that has that effect on me.

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    1. It’s the feel? That is what it is to me! The best music does that. It takes me back to the minute I heard it. Thank you so much for reading.

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      1. Thank you for posting. I wondered if people connect music to emotion and sometimes melancholy moments from the past as easily and as often as I do. Just very specific songs and this is one of those songs. Yes it is the feel, the vibe that gets me. It doesn’t come off as a happy song, not a sad song so it allows you to go where you please. Thanks for taking me back in time 👍

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      2. Yes I do think that happens. Even with songs I don’t like. Some take me to good times, some take me to bad times, and some….like you said…just take me, no where in paticular. That is the magic of music no doubt.

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  16. I wasnt really aware of Brown Eyed Girl until the 80’s either, and when i started holidaying in the USA each year it was surprising how much a part of pop culture it was, considering it was never that well known in the 60’s and 70’s in the UK. These days it’s considered a 60’s classic pretty generally!

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  17. I’m a little ambivalent about this one, kind of a victim of classic rock radio repeating a few songs ad Infinitum.

    Van – “it’s not one of my best. I mean I’ve got about 300 songs that I think are better”

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  19. Try and listen to Bob Dylan the changen of the gardes as I have been listening to the song every day for at least 25 years and a get something different from it every time I have it playing van morrssen and the cheftens is a good session and I understand why you are so in love with your song and it is like that they kind of songs speak to you

    On Sat, 31 May 2025, 12:45 PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of P

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  20. Neville Marten published a story on the recording session for this song in the MusicRadar Newsletter. I saw it thanks to the Google news filler I get on the Google phone app when I just go into Google and not search for anything. Since I don’t drive any more, I get into the Google news feed almost every day, to and fro work. I don’t see a direct link to MusicRadar but Google search cites a URL of https://www.musicradar.com

    The article is based on old interviews and talks clearly about Van. Chrissy Houston was a backup singer on the session and remembers Van’s questioning the use of session players after the prior recordings where the record company didn’t use Them and did use session players. There are two guitarists on the track, and one of them talks about the beautiful beginning guitar part. A great read (in my opinion, which by now you know is not all that humble).

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      1. Yeah, I thought you would like it. There are some other folks here that I think will find this interesting. Both the article and the pictures. Look at what a baby face Van has. Yeah, I know, he was a child back then. The article says 21.

        But what Al Giorgoni offers about that opening guitar bit, that is fascinating.

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