History Trivia / VanMorrison

* BlackSheepHit: His biggest hits in the US ("Brown Eyed Girl", "Domino") and the UK ("Whenever God Shines His Light") aren't very representative of his typical style. Although, to be fair, [[GenreBusting Van Morrison doesn't ultimately have a typical style]].

** Many classics by Van were either low charting singles - "Moondance" (#92), "Bright Side of the Road" (#110), "Jackie Wilson Said" (#61), "Tupelo Honey" (#47), "Days like This" (#65 in the UK and did not chart in the US), with "Wild Night" which fared better, reaching #28, and "Someone like You" and "Have I Told You Lately" being exceptions, reaching respectively #28 and #12 on the Adult Contemporary chart... Or they were not released as singles at all - "Into the Mystic", "And It Stoned Me", "Sweet Thing", "Caravan", and the list goes on... "Crazy Love" is an exception since it reached #12 on the Triple A chart when released as a single in a duet with Music/RayCharles.

* ContractualObligationProject: After the death of producer Bert Berns, Morrison was still contracted for an album to his Bang Records company, owned by Berns' widow Ilene, with whom Morrison didn't get along. To get out of his contract, Morrison recorded an album worth of [[StylisticSuck desultory, sometimes intentionally offensive]] "songs" such as "Ring Worm", "Here Comes Dumb George", and "Blow in Your Nose". They sometimes get released as "rarities" to hoodwink completists, and, in some circles they're considered [[CultClassic Cult Classics]], to the extent that a band has named itself after one of the songs: You Say France and I Whistle.

** "Come Running", which seems like it only got released as a single because it's the shortest song on ''Moondance'', outpaced a lot of the ones mentioned above and scraped its way into the Top 40, peaking at #39. Other songs that the general public likely wouldn't be familiar with, like "Blue Money" (#23), and "Wavelength" (#42) also fared better than some of his most famous songs.

** His previous band Them had two top 40 hits, but neither of them were "Gloria", the song for which they are most recognized today. This was mostly due to concerns over a suggestive lyric, "she comes to my room", in the song. As a result, many stations refused to play it, and a cleaner version by long-forgotten garage rock group The Shadows of Knight was played in its place, moving it to a higher spot of #10. "Gloria" wasn't a top 40 hit in the UK either... because it was only issued as a B-side (its A-side, a cover of "Baby Please Don't Go", was a big hit).
** Lesser known and largely forgotten singles "Come Running" (#39), "Blue Money" (#23), and "Wavelength" (#42), just to name a few, all fared better.

**

* BreakupBreakout: Morrison's career began to soar to new heights after he left Them. his old group never recovered and sank into obscurity.

** He views the Bang Records material as this, because he had very little say in the way the songs were arranged. The lack of money he made from them is another contributing factor.

* CreatorBacklash: {{Downplayed}}. "Brown Eyed Girl" is his most popular song, and Morrison does ''not'' hate it, since it's still a staple of his concerts, but he once said "I've got about 300 songs that I think are better." His experience with Berns sure didn't help; indeed, Van Morrison ultimately stated that he actually likes the song, but not the production, and the fact it was released without his permission by Berns.

* OldShame: He views the Bang Records material as this, because he had very little say in the way the songs were arranged. The lack of money he made from them is another contributing factor.

* CreatorBacklash: "Brown Eyed Girl" is his most popular song, but Morrison once said "I've got about 300 songs that I think are better." His experience with Berns probably didn't help.