How Van Morrison Displayed His Pop Chops With This 1965 Hit by Them

Eventually, Van Morrison became one of the most distinctive solo artists in the entire world. But first, he made his bones as the lead singer of a group. Them emerged in the mid-60s and brought a jolt of improvisational energy to the beat music scene.

In 1965, Them scored on both shores with “Here Comes The Night”, a song that combined light pop with driving rock. Not long after its success, Morrison was on his way to solo stardom.

Van and Them

Them didn’t have a ton of experience when they started out. They came from Ireland, which wasn’t exactly a haven for successful rock bands. But in Van Morrison, who wasn’t even out of his teens when the band formed in 1964, they boasted an extraordinary vocal talent.

Morrison pulled together Them on the spot when he needed players for a gig at an Irish hotel. The band developed a style, somewhat unusual for the times, of playing a blues-rock riff for well past the length of the typical rock song. Those extended jams prompted Morrison to wail his way through a series of ad-libs.

Soon, the band nabbed a record deal at Decca Records. Early songs “Baby Please Don’t Go” and “Gloria” captured the manic energy of their live shows. But they needed to prove they could do something more pop-oriented. “Here Comes The Night” was the vehicle they used to make that happen.

A Little “Night” Music

Bert Berns wrote “Here Comes The Night” and also produced it. They cut the song in late 1964. In this case, the band sacrificed the spontaneity that they showed on stage for a little bit more finesse.

But they had to wait a bit to release it because the British chanteuse Lulu got to it first. That single didn’t make much of a dent, allowing Them to release it in 1965. Their version featured Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame helping out on rhythm guitar. It reached No. 24 in the US and just missed the top spot in the UK.

Perhaps taking their cue from their mercurial lead singer, Them didn’t have the stuff to play the pop music game for long. But that wasn’t an issue for Morrison, who was already getting courted by industry bigwigs to start the solo career that would make him a legend.

Behind the Lyrics to “Here Comes The Night”

“Here Comes The Night” features a grinding chorus, one where Morrison sings the refrain with a combination of power and anguish. The verses feature a tripping melody, sung by Morrison in a playful manner that we don’t usually associate with him. Those verses tell a tale of a narrator who can’t get over his ex moving on with someone new.

“His arms around her like it used to be with me,” Morrison sings. “Whoa, it makes me want to die.” In the second verse, he wonders why it bothers him so much: “Why can’t I accept the fact that she’s chosen him?” The last verse reveals that maybe she’s not worth the anguish. “I could see her closing her eyes and tellin’ him lies,” Morrison sings. “Exactly like she told me too.”

With “Here Comes The Night”, Van Morrison showed early on that he could move in more of a pop direction with his vocals. That malleability came in handy a few years later with the massive single “Brown-Eyed Girl.” But then he was onto a much more elusive type of musical magic from there.

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