Someone like You (Van Morrison song)

"Someone Like You"
Single by Van Morrison
from the album Poetic Champions Compose
B-side	"Celtic Excavation"
Released	November 1987
Recorded	Summer 1987
Studio	The Wool Hall, Beckington
Genre	Smooth jazz
Length	4:06
Label	Mercury
Songwriter(s)	Van Morrison
Producer(s)	Van Morrison
Van Morrison singles chronology
"Did Ye Get Healed?" (1987) "Someone Like You" (1987) "Queen of the Slipstream" (1988)

"Someone Like You" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and recorded for his seventeenth studio album, Poetic Champions Compose (1987). It has become a wedding and film classic and the song subsequently furnished the framework for one of Morrison's most popular classics and love ballads, "Have I Told You Lately", released in 1989.[1]

In 1987, the single charted at number 28 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in the US.[2] In 2019, it peaked at #1 on the Ireland radio airplay chart.[3]

Recording

"Someone Like You" was recorded in the summer of 1987 at Wool Hall Studios in Beckington, Somerset with Mick Glossop as engineer.[4]

Other releases

The song was released again on two of Morrison's compilation albums in 2007: on the compilation album Van Morrison at the Movies – Soundtrack Hits and as a remastered version on the album Still on Top – The Greatest Hits.

Films featuring "Someone Like You"

• Only the Lonely (1991)
• Prelude to a Kiss (1992)
• French Kiss (1995)
• One Fine Day (1996)
• Someone Like You (2001)
• Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
• American Sniper (2014)

Personnel

• Van Morrison – vocals, guitar
• Neil Drinkwater – piano
• Steve Pearce – bass guitar
• Roy Jones – drums, percussion
• Fiachra Trench – string arrangement

Cover versions

"Someone Like You" is a popularly performed cover song, with the best-known versions by Dina Carroll,[5] Vanessa L. Williams,[6] Shawn Colvin[7] and John Waite.[8]

References

1. Hage. The Words and Music of Van Morrison. p. 109
2. Van Morrison chart history at Billboard.com
3. "Someone Like You".
4. Heylin, Can You Feel the Silence?, p. 525
5. "Dina Carroll: Someone Like You". allmusic.com. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
6. "Vanessa L. Williams, Next Album Review". Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2009.
7. "One Fine Day (Original Soundtrack)". allmusic.com. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
8. "allmusic (((John Waite - Songs - All Songs)))". allmusic.com. Retrieved 14 November 2009.

Notes

• Hage, Erik (2009). The Words and Music of Van Morrison, Praeger Publishers ISBN 978-0-313-35862-3
• Heylin, Clinton (2003). Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography, Chicago Review Press ISBN 1-55652-542-7