"Spanish Rose" is a song written by

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

that was written and recorded for

Bang Records Bang Records was created by Bert Berns in 1965 together with his partners from Atlantic Records: Ahmet Ertegun, Nesuhi Ertegun and Jerry Wexler. The first letters of their names (Bert, Ahmet, Nesuhi, Gerald) formed the label's name. Forming the ...

owner and producer

Bert Berns Bertrand Russell Berns (November 8, 1929 – December 30, 1967), also known as Bert Russell and (occasionally) Russell Byrd, was an American songwriter and record producer of the 1960s. His songwriting credits include " Twist and Shout", " Piec ...

and released on his 1967 album ''

Blowin' Your Mind! ''Blowin' Your Mind!'' is the debut studio album by Northern Irish musician Van Morrison, released in 1967. It was recorded 28–29 March 1967 and contained his first solo pop hit "Brown Eyed Girl". It was included by ''Rolling Stone'' as one o ...

'' and several subsequent compilation albums. It was also released as one of the follow-up singles to "

Brown Eyed Girl "Brown Eyed Girl" is a song by Northern Irish singer and songwriter Van Morrison. Written by Morrison and recorded in March 1967 for Bang Records owner and producer Bert Berns, it was released as a single in June of the same year on the Bang la ...

" and reached #18 in the Netherlands.

Writing and recording

"Spanish Rose" was written and recorded for

owner and producer

on 29 March 1967. Morrison and Berns clashed during these sessions as Berns wanted Morrison to record more commercial music resembling

Brill Building The Brill Building is an office building at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood. It was built in 1931 as t ...

hits like "Spanish Rose" while Morrison wanted to record more challenging music like "

T.B. Sheets "T.B. Sheets" is a blues-influenced song written and recorded by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. Bang Records issued the song on his first solo album, '' Blowin' Your Mind!'' (1967). It later appeared on the Bang compilation '' T.B. ...

Music and lyrics

Several commentators have described the song as having a Spanish or

Latin music Latin music ( Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Spain and Portugal) and the Latino United States inspired by Latin Amer ...

feel. More specifically, music critic

Johnny Rogan John Rogan (14 February 1953 – 21 January 2021) was a British author of Irish descent best known for his books about music and popular culture. He wrote influential biographies of the Byrds, Neil Young, the Smiths, Van Morrison and Ray Davies. ...

describes it as having a

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...

style. The song incorporates Spanish guitar,

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

s and a "two-step Latin rhythm."

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

critic Matthew Greenwald notes similarities to "Brown Eyed Girl" in that "Spanish Rose" also uses a three chord melody and lyrics that present a "remembrance of romance past, including names, times, and locations." Morrison biographer Peter Mills sees a resemblance to

Ben E. King Benjamin Earl King (né Nelson; September 28, 1938 – April 30, 2015) was an American soul and R&B singer and record producer. He is best known as the singer and co-composer of " Stand by Me"—a US Top 10 hit, both in 1961 and later ...

's hit single written by Brill Building composer Jerry Leiber and

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

, "

Spanish Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

Reception

Greenwald assessed "Spanish Rose" as being possibly Morrison's last safe, commercial

AM radio AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transmis ...

-style song before moving on to the more FM radio-oriented material that he became known for. '' Record World''called it "great stuff." ''Rolling Stone Album Guide'' contributor Paul Evans stated that while "Spanish Rose" is not as memorable as "Brown Eyed Girl," it has a "catchy perfection that most bands never achieve." In his review of ''Blowin' Your Mind!'' in 1995, ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' critic Bob Cannon stated that "Spanish Rose" had "held up better than the album’s tie-dyed title." On the other hand, Morrison biographer Erik Hage regarded the song as being "downright poor." "Spanish Rose" was re-released as a single in 1971 and reached #18 on the charts in the Netherlands. It has also been re-released on several Morrison compilation albums, including '' The Essential Van Morrison'' in 2015 as well as many compilations covering the Bang Records sessions.

References

{{Van Morrison singles 1967 songs Van Morrison songs Songs written by Van Morrison Song recordings produced by Bert Berns 1971 singles 1968 singles Bang Records singles