This Forgotten Garage Rock Band Took a Van Morrison Classic and Made It Better

Some of the greatest bands of the 1960s have been so sorely lost to time that you’ll be hard-pressed to find much information about them on the internet today. No Wikipedia article, an abandoned or rarely updated Facebook page. It’s a shame, like looking at the ghost of something that was once incredible.

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The Belles are one band that really deserved to be more well-known. Especially because they rewrote and reimagined one of Van Morrison’s most famous tunes in an amazing way.

Who Were The Belles?

The Belles are still massively underrated today, and it’s a real shame. This all-girl garage rock outfit launched in Miami, Florida, in the 1960s. They were yet another group in the garage rock scene that was starting to grow at the time. And yet, they more or less slipped through the cracks, despite being a genuinely talented bunch with great riffs, pounding rhythms, and impressive vocals. But the genre was male-dominated, and it was apparently just not the “right” time for a band like The Belles to make it big.

The Belles are best known for their song “Melvin”, released in 1966. They’re also known for taking one of Van Morrison’s most famous songs and completely reinventing it. Believe it or not, we’re talking about the same song.

How The Belles Reimagined Van Morrison’s “Gloria”

“Melvin” was The Belles’ gender-swapped reimagining of Morrison’s “Gloria”. You might remember Patti Smith’s punk rock version of the tune from her legendary proto-punk record Horses. Or maybe you remember Them’s original version from 1964. The song has been covered often through the years by the likes of The Shadows Of The Night, The Doors, and Tom Petty, among others. But few stand out quite like the totally reimagined and gender-swapped version by the forgotten garage rock group The Belles.

Switching the name “Gloria” to “Melvin” and swapping around a few pronouns, The Belles took Morrison’s legendary song and did something very different with it. The central themes of excitement (with a healthy dose of 1960s-level lust) over the object of one’s affection remain. The way one would sing the name “Gloria” in the song, considering it’s basically the word “glory,” would evoke images of an almost goddess-like woman. You can’t really get that same vibe when you’re singing the name “Melvin”. And yet, The Belles managed to do it pretty well. I bet more than a few Melvins who heard this song in 1966 blushed a little. It’s really a shame that The Belles disappeared into obscurity not long after this song was released to modest reception.

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