Them were a
Northern Irish band formed in
Belfast in April
1964, most prominently known for the
garage rock standard "
Gloria" and launching singer
Van Morrison's musical career.
[4]
The original five member band consisted of Morrison, Alan Henderson,
Ronnie Milling, Billy Harrison and Eric Wrixon. The group was marketed
in the
United States as part of the
British Invasion.
[5]
Them scored two UK hits in 1965 with "
Baby, Please Don't Go" (UK #10) and "
Here Comes the Night" (UK #2;
Ireland #2). The latter song and "
Mystic Eyes" were Top 40 hits in the
US wikipdia
Here Comes The Night
"
Here Comes the Night" is a 1964 song, written by
Bert Berns. It became a hit for
Northern Irish band
Them, fronted by
Van Morrison, in March 1965, charting at No. 2 in the
UK and No. 24 in the
U.S.
Them's single is listed at either No.33 or No.36 in the Top 100
best-selling UK singles during the calendar year 1965, depending on
source.
The song was originally released as a single in both the UK and the U.S. by another Decca Records' artiste,
Lulu, in November 1964. Lulu's recording charted at No.50 in the UK,and failed to chart at all in the U.S.
Gloria
"
Gloria" is a song written by
Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and originally recorded by Morrison's band
Them in 1964 and released as the
B-side of "
Baby, Please Don't Go". The song became a
garage rock
staple and a part of many rock bands' repertoires. It is particularly
memorable for its "G–L–O–R–I–A" chorus. It is easy to play, as a simple
three-chord song, and thus is popular with those learning to play
guitar.
Morrison said that he wrote "Gloria" while he performed with the
Monarchs in Germany in the summer of 1963, at just about the time he
turned eighteen years old.
[4] He started to perform it at the Maritime Hotel when he returned to
Belfast and joined up with the Gamblers to form the band Them. He would
ad-lib lyrics as he performed, sometimes stretching the song to fifteen or twenty minutes. After signing a
contract with
Dick Rowe and
Decca,
Them went to London for a recording session at Decca Three Studios in
West Hampstead on 5 July 1964; "Gloria" was one of the seven songs
recorded that day. Besides Morrison, present were Billy Harrison on
guitar, Alan Henderson on
bass, Ronnie Millings on
drums and Patrick John McCauley on
keyboards. Rowe brought in session musicians
Arthur Greenslade on organ and
Bobby Graham
on drums, since he considered the Them members too inexperienced. There
remains some dispute about whether Millings and McCauley were miked up,
but Alan Henderson contends that Them constituted the first
rock group to use two drummers on a recording.
[5] Although some sources claim that
Jimmy Page played second guitar, other sources deny this.
Wikipedia
Mystic Eyes
"
Mystic Eyes" is a song written by
Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison when he was leader of the band
Them. It was the opening tune for the band's first album,
The Angry Young Them that was released in June 1965. It was released as a single in the
US in October 1965 and in the
UK on 12 November 1965. It charted at No. 33 in the US (it did not chart in the UK)
In 1965, Van Morrison explained to a
Belfast
reporter how the song had just happened during the first recording
session for the album and the band was just "busking" around. "Someone
started playing a fast riff and we all just joined in. The
lyrics I sing at the end were just words from a song I had been writing at the time." Later in 1966 he told an
American reporter how it was inspired by an occasion in Nottingham Park as he walked by a
graveyard
wall where some children played next to it. "You know, man, there was
life and death beside one another so close...yet so different...And then
I thought of the bright lights in the children's eyes...and the cloudy
lights in the eyes of the dead."
Wikipedia
"
I Put a Spell on You" is a 1956 song written by
Jay Hawkins, whose recording was selected as one of the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. It was also ranked No. 313 on
Rolling Stone magazine's list of
The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The track became a classic cult song covered by a variety of artists
and was his greatest commercial success, reportedly surpassing a million
copies in sales,
[3][4] although it failed to make the
Billboard pop or
R&B charts.
[
The Story Of Them
http://arthurfromholland.blogspot.nl/2011/06/them-with-van-morrisonthe.html
