A very simple piano song for beginners to learn to play is Brown Eyed Girl by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. The song was written and recorded in 1967 by Van Morrison and was his first solo release. Previously he was in a band the Belfast R&B band.
It was first released in May 1967 on the album Blowing Your Mind! When it was released as a single, it rose to number eight on the Cash box charts, and reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100. This song is widely considered to be Van Morrison’s signature song.
Brown Eyed Girl is one of those songs that most people will know, and is still played regularly on radio stations. It was listed as the 4th most played song by DJ’s in both 2006 and 2007. Van Morrison was awarded a certificate by BMI records as a top European Writer, for reaching out to American Audience’s and the only song by a European writer with more air plays is Every Breath you take by the police. So therefore it is one of the top-selling songs of the 20th Century, and it certainly deserves its place as it is a great song.
It was originally called “Brown Skinned Girl,” but Morrison changed it to “Brown Eyed Girl” to make it more palatable for radio stations. Some stations banned it anyway for the line, “Making love in the green grass.”
It was written about an interracial relationship, sex youth and growing up, but most importantly it’s a song about singing.
It has been covered by many recording artists such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, and the Van Morrison version has featured in many popular films as a soundtrack record including, The Big Chill and Sleeping with the Enemy.
The song was originally written on Guitar, but has a nice strong melody that is transferable to most instruments, and therefore suits piano very well. It’s written in the key of G and is quite a simple song, which is covered by lots of musicians and artists.
The Intro has a nice melody which features the notes G A B A G C D E D C G A B A G A in your right hand, and has nice chords of G C D E Minor and D7. It’s written in quite an easy key, so is ideal for beginners to pick up and start learning. As it is such a well known song this is a great one to have in your repertoire.