“Gloria” was 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”. According to Van the song was titled after his cousin Gloria, who was 13 years older, but the song is not about her though. The song became a garage rock staple and a part of many rock bands’ repertoires. It is particularly memorable for its “Glooooria!” 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. 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 April 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. Although some sources claim that Jimmy Page (at this time a session player who had yet reached fame outside the recording community) played second guitar, other sources deny this.

In 1966, The Doors shared a bill with Them at the The Whisky A-Go-Go in West Hollywood, California for a series of shows. Them’s Morrison was a big influence on The Doors’ Jim Morrison, and Jim learned a lot about stagecraft and incorporating poetry into his act from watching Van. The final night of the performances, both bands shared the stage to perform this song. When Them (and later The Doors) would perform the song live, it often became an extended jam with Morrison going into more graphic, spoken-word detail about the encounter. This video contains language that may not be appropriate to all viewers in all settings.

Van Morrison is still active and touring over 55 years after recording the original “Gloria”. Here he is at the Hollywood Bowl in 2008.

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