The world pauses for a moment when you hear that opening snare. It is 1965, and a young Van Morrison is about to change everything. Here Comes The Night begins with a rattling drum, a bassline that coils like a spring, and then a voice that sounds as if it has already lived a hundred years. The air thickens with anticipation. This is the sound of a man trying to hold himself together while the darkness closes in. It is both raw and polished, a perfect collision of Belfast grit and New York brilliance.
The song stands at a crucial crossroads in music history. It bridges the raw beat of the British Invasion with the sophisticated pop soul that would define the late sixties. More than that, it marks the defining hit of Van Morrison’s early career with Them. Before the mystical landscapes of Astral Weeks and the sun drenched swagger of Moondance, there was this moment. A moment where a nineteen year old singer bared his soul over a restless rhythm and a guitar riff that never quite lets go.
The mastermind behind the recording was Bert Berns, the legendary producer who wrote Twist and Shout and Piece of My Heart. He brought a professional pop sensibility to the raw garage band energy of Them. The session players included a young Jimmy Page on rhythm guitar, adding a subtle polish that anchors the chaos. The result is a sound that feels both gritty and sharp, mixed with a bright treble quality that lifts the darkness of the lyrics. The arrangement is a masterclass in controlled dynamics. It starts not with a roar but with a nervous energy, a frantic dance of drum and maraca. The rhythm guitar circles constantly, providing tension without release. Then comes the voice. Morrison sings the verses with a clean almost pop tone, a restraint that makes the chorus explosion so much more effective. When he cries out Here comes the night the voice shreds into a cathartic burst of true R&B anguish.
The track’s brilliance lies in how it frames a profoundly intimate sorrow within a kinetic pop song scaffolding
This song speaks to a universal dread. It is about a man who fears the end of the day because darkness brings the aching memory of lost love. One listener I know plays it every time he has to move his piano lessons to a different slot. It captures that petty anxiety of disrupted routine. Another friend described listening to it in a nearly empty train car traveling away from someone important. The syncopated rhythm became the beat of the rails and Morrison’s scream became the whistle of the engine pulling them further away. These small stories show how the song soundtrack all forms of modern dread from the existential to the merely inconvenient.
The single became Them’s biggest hit reaching number two in the UK and number twenty four in the US. It cemented Van Morrison’s reputation as a vocalist of extraordinary power. Bert Berns later signed him to a solo contract with Bang Records a relationship that produced immortal results like Brown Eyed Girl. Here Comes The Night is more than a 45 rpm artifact. It is the sound of an artist finding his voice a brief perfect storm of American bred pop craft and Belfast bred musical grit. It holds a permanent place in the canon as the moment the band Them peaked and the moment Van Morrison first signaled his inevitable solitary ascent
Press play again Let the anticipation build
For those who appreciate high fidelity playback this track is a fascinating test for modern premium audio equipment The dense mid range of the 1960s recording retains a visceral impact that can be lost in overly sterile modern masters You can feel the air in the room the sympathetic vibration of the amplifiers
Here are some similar recordings that share the same dramatic tension and mid sixties energy
Lulu Here Comes The Night 1964 An earlier more straight ahead pop soul take
The Animals Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood 1965 Shares the minor key anguish and R&B pop crossover success
The Yardbirds For Your Love 1965 Uses rhythmic shifts to build a sense of dark glamour
The Rolling Stones Tell Me You’re Coming Back 1964 Blues driven lyrical perspective anchored by a melancholic beat
The Small Faces Itchycoo Park 1967 Mixes soul sensibility with emerging psychedelic production
The Spencer Davis Group Keep On Running 1965 High energy urgency and raw vocal power similar to Morrison’s performance