‘Here Comes the Night’ is a 1964 song, written by Bert Berns. It became a hit for Northern Irish band Them, fronted by Van Morrison, in March 1965, charting at No. 2 in the UK and No. 24 in the US. Them's single is listed at No. 33 in the Top 100 best-selling UK singles during the calendar year 1965.
Them's version of the song was the second Them track produced by Bert Berns and the first occasion that Them recorded one of his compositions. It was recorded in a session at Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London in October 1964 along with ‘Baby, Please Don't Go’ and ‘All For Myself’. Jimmy Page played guitar on this arrangement. Andy White and Tommy Scott performed backing vocals with Phil Coulter on keyboards. Drummer Ronnie Millings recalled that the band worked on the song at the studio with rehearsals lasting four days. [Billy Harrison noted that "I remember sitting in Decca when Bert said he had this song, and he came out with ‘Here Comes the Night’. He had a riff and that's all he had, and we sat and we worked on it, and we came up with what you hear. We worked at it sitting in the studio—but no engineers or anything." Phil Coulter later said, "I knew I'd heard a smash. It was the first time I'd ever heard a hit record in its emerging state."
Bert Berns (a.k.a. Bert Russell) was a talented songwriter and producer whose life was tragically cut short in 1967 at the age of 38 by a fatal heart attack. Among his writing credits are ‘Twist And Shout’ (Isley Brothers, The Beatles), ‘Hang On Sloopy’ (The McCoys), ‘Piece Of My Heart’ (Erma Franklin, Janis Joplin), and ‘Tell Him’ (the Exciters). His production credits include Morrison's ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ and ‘Under The Boardwalk’ by The Drifters.
‘Here Comes the Night’ was Them's third single in both the UK and the US; the US release following the success of ‘Gloria’ in that market. The first day of its release it sold 16,000 copies, at the time an impressive showing. It spent 10 weeks on the US chart. After the record was released, Them was immediately sent on a public relations push with television appearances on Ready Steady Go! and Top of the Pops. Van Morrison has remarked on this: “Them were never meant to be on Top of the Pops, I mean miming? Lip syncing? We used to laugh at the programme, think it was a joke. Then we were on it ourselves. It was ridiculous. We were totally anti that type of thing. We were really into the blues...and we had to get into suits and have make-up put on and all that.”
‘Here Comes the Night’ also achieved chart success in other countries worldwide; for example, it reached No. 17 in Australia, and peaked at No. 2 on the Irish Singles Chart. As of 2020, it remains the highest-charting single for Van Morrison in both the United Kingdom and Ireland, as he has never had a No. 1 single in either country.
Label – Decca
Songwriter – Bert Berns
Producer – Bert Berns
SONG LYRICS
[Chorus]Whoa, here it comes
Here comes the night
Here comes the night
Whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah
[Verse 1]
I could see right out my window
Walkin' down the street, my girl
With another guy
His arms around her like it used to be with me
Whoa, it makes me want to die
[Chorus]
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Well, here it comes
Here comes the night
Here comes the night
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah
[Verse 2]
There they go
It's funny how they look so good together
Wonder what is wrong with me
Why can't I accept the fact she's chosen him
And simply let them be?
Whoa, whoa, whoa
[Chorus]
Well, here it comes
Here comes the night
Here comes the night
Whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah
[Verse 3]
She's with him
He's turning down the lights
And now he's holding her
The way I used to do
I could see her closing her eyes and tellin' him lies
Exactly like she told me too
[Chorus]
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Well, here it comes
Here comes the night
The long, the long and lonely night
Night, night, night, night, night, night (Here comes the night)
Here comes the night