- Born
- Birth nameGeorge Ivan Morrison
- Nickname
- Van the Man
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Sir George Ivan Morrison OBE known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans six decades. He has won two Grammy Awards.
As a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments such as guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for several Irish show-bands, covering the popular hits of that time. Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison rose to prominence in the mid 1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B and rock band Them. With Them, he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria".
Under the pop-oriented guidance of Bert Berns, Morrison's solo career began in 1967 with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl". After Berns's death, Warner Bros. Records bought out Morrison's contract and allowed him three sessions to record Astral Weeks (1968). While initially a poor seller, the album has become regarded as a classic. Moondance (1970) established Morrison as a major artist, and he built on his reputation throughout the 1970s with a series of acclaimed albums and live performances.
Much of Morrison's music is structured around the conventions of soul music and R&B. An equal part of his catalogers consists of lengthy, spiritually inspired musical journeys that show the influence of Celtic tradition, jazz and stream-of-consciousness narrative, such as the album Astral Weeks. The two strains together are sometimes referred to as "Celtic soul". His live performances have been described as "transcendental" and "inspired", and his music as attaining "a kind of violent transcendence".
Morrison's albums have performed well in Ireland and the UK, with more than 40 reaching the UK top 40. With the release of Latest Record Project, Volume 1 he scored top ten albums in the UK in four consecutive decades. Eighteen of his albums have reached the top 40 in the United States, twelve of them between 1997 and 2017. He has received two Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, the 2017 Americana Music Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2016, he was knighted for services to the music industry and to tourism in Northern Ireland.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Bonitao
- SpousesMichelle Rocca(2006 - present) (separated, 2 children)Janet (Planet) Minto(1968 - 1973) (1 child)
- Cowboy hats
- Lyrics about love
- Sunglasses
- Saxophone
- Distinctive voice
- Was invited to sing at President George W. Bush's inauguration, but declined.
- He moved briefly to Woodstock, New York in the late 1960s, not because it was a hotbed of the hippie/counterculture movement, but to live near his idol, Bob Dylan, who had lived in that area for 3 years before the famous music festival was held there. However, the Irish songsmith was reportedly too shy to actually approach Dylan at that time. The two classic rock idols later co-headlined a tour together.
- Is First Lady Laura Bush's favorite singer.
- Was a member of the 1960s group Them.
- He was awarded the OBE (OFficer of the Order of the British Empire) before being awarded Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to the Music Industry and to Tourism in Northern Ireland. He lives in Down, Northern Ireland.
- Music is spiritual. The music business is not.
- I'd go so far as to say that some of the people who talk about me are actually mentally unstable.
- I don't really have a hero. I don't even believe in them. To me, a hero is something out of a comic - Batman, maybe!
- I don't relate to all this any differently than if I was a clerk. I wouldn't be telling some guy from a magazine what I did when I went home, so why should I in this business.
- [on false claims placed on web site by hackers about a 4th child being born to him at 64 by Gigi Lee] For the avoidance of all doubt and in the interests of clarity, I am very happily married to Michelle Morrison with whom I have two wonderful children.
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