Have I Told You Lately

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For the 1945 song written by Scotty Wiseman, see Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?
"Have I Told You Lately"
File:VM-HITYL.jpg
Single by Van Morrison
from the album Avalon Sunset
A-side "Have I Told You Lately"
B-side "Contacting My Angel"
Released 5 June 1989
Format CD single
Recorded 1989
Genre Celtic, folk rock, soft rock
Length 4:20
Label Mercury
Writer(s) Van Morrison
Producer(s) Van Morrison
Van Morrison singles chronology
"I'll Tell Me Ma"
(1988)		 "Have I Told You Lately"
(1989)		 "Whenever God Shines His Light"
(1989)
Avalon Sunset track listing
"I'd Love to Write Another Song"
(3)		 "Have I Told You Lately"
(4)		 "Coney Island"
(5)
"Have I Told You Lately"
File:HITYLchiefVM.jpg
Single by The Chieftains, Van Morrison
from the album The Long Black Veil
Released 1995
Genre Folk
Length 4:40
Label RCA Records
Writer(s) Van Morrison
Producer(s) Paddy Moloney (with Chris Kimsey and Ry Cooder)
Van Morrison singles chronology
"Gloria"
(1993)		 "Have I Told You Lately"
(1995)		 "Days Like This"
(1995)
The Long Black Veil track listing
"The Foggy Dew"
(3)		 "Have I Told You Lately"
(4)		 "Changing Your Demeanour"
(5)
"Have I Told You Lately"
File:Rod Stewart Have I Told You Lately single cover.jpg
Single by Rod Stewart
from the album Unplugged...and Seated
B-side "Gasoline alley"
Released June 1993
Recorded 4:08
Genre Soft rock
Label Warner Bros.
Writer(s) Van Morrison
Producer(s) Michael Ostin

"Have I Told You Lately" is a hit song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and recorded for his 1989 album Avalon Sunset. It is a romantic ballad often played at weddings although it was originally written also as a prayer.

"Have I Told You Lately" has become a classic song and has received acclaim by winning a Grammy Award and a BMI Million-Air certificate. When released as a single by Mercury in 1989, it charted at number twelve on US Adult Contemporary Charts and has been a popular cover song with many vocal and instrumental versions recorded by numerous artists and bands. In 1993, Rod Stewart's version charted at number five in the US and UK.

Composition

Composed as a love ballad and built on the framework of "Someone Like You",[1] it is preceded on Avalon Sunset by the song, "I'd Love to Write Another Song" proclaiming "In poetry I'd carve it well/ I'd even make it rhyme." Then, in the words of Brian Hinton what follows is:

"One of the finest love songs of the century, which I remember devastated me when I first heard it, as it seemed both something never quite said before, and yet a song I felt I had known forever. Earthly love transmutes into that for God, just like in Dante, 'there's a love that's divine and it's yours and it's mine.' The morning sun has set by the end of the song, suggesting love shading into death, but subtly."[2]

Acclaim

"Have I Told You Lately" was listed as No. 261 on the "All Time 885 Greatest Songs" list compiled in 2004 by Philadelphia radio station WXPN from listeners' votes.[3] In August 2006, Van Morrison's original recording was voted #6 on a list of the Top 10 First Dance Wedding Songs, based on a poll of 1,300 DJs in the UK.[4] Van Morrison's original version of this song was #98 on the New York Daily News, The 100 Greatest Love Songs, from the list published on 12 February 2007. In October 2007, Van Morrison received a Million-Air certificate for over four million air plays of "Have I Told You Lately" from the prestigious BMI awards held in London, England.

Other releases

Morrison chose "Have I Told You Lately" to be one of the songs included on 1990s The Best of Van Morrison, his first greatest-hits album. It was also one of the songs on two of the compilation albums that were issued in 2007: Still on Top - The Greatest Hits contains a remastered version of this song and it was also featured on the compilation album, Van Morrison at the Movies - Soundtrack Hits. A live performance version was included on his 1994 album, A Night in San Francisco. In 1995 Morrison accompanied The Chieftains on a recording of the song for their album The Long Black Veil; this version was awarded the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.[5]

Filmed performances of the song include a version recorded in 1989 that was featured on Morrison's video album Van Morrison: The Concert the following year. In 1997 Morrison performed the song in a duet with Sinéad O'Connor on Late Show with David Letterman; this version was subsequently released on the Live on Letterman: Music from the Late Show CD.

In the media

"Have I Told You Lately" was featured in the 1996 film, One Fine Day, starring George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer,[6] at the end of the Amanda Bynes 2003 film, What a Girl Wants, covered by Matt Acheson,[7] and the 2014 film 5 Flights Up, starring Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton.[8]

Impressionist and comedian Rory Bremner included the song as one of his eight Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on 20 April 2003.[9] Television and radio presenter Gloria Hunniford also included the song on her list on 24 December 2006.[10]

Cover versions

"Have I Told You Lately" has become a classic over the years and has been performed by many unknown as well as many famous artists. Rod Stewart covered the song for his 1991 Vagabond Heart album. In 1993, a live version from his album Unplugged...and Seated was released as a single, becoming a No. 5 hit in the US and the UK. This version also spent five weeks at No. 1 on the US Adult Contemporary chart. It was certified gold in the US and sold 700,000 copies there.[11][12] Another live version by Stewart from his 2013 performance at The Troubadour, West Hollywood was included on the deluxe edition of his album Time. Some of the other best known covers of the song are by Kenny Rogers, Barbara Mandrell,[13] Michael Ball,[14] Della Reese, Engelbert Humperdinck[15] and an instrumental cover by Floyd Cramer. Andy Williams covered it on his 2007 album, I Don't Remember Ever Growing Up and performed a live version in 2007 at Royal Albert Hall in London, England.[16] In 2006, Thomas Anders covered the song for his swing album Songs Forever. Barry Manilow included this song on his album, The Greatest Songs of the Eighties released in November 2008.[17] "Have I Told You Lately" has also been a popular cover song internationally. Tejano group Mazz also recorded the song on their 1993 album Que Esperabas. In 1999, the Belgian band Clouseau released a Dutch language translation ("Heb ik ooit gezegd", literally  : "Have I ever told you"), that charted 16 weeks in the Flemish Ultratop 50 (peaking at #7). A version on German language, entitled Warum komm ich nur so selten dazu, was published in 2003 by the German soul singer Stefan Gwildis on his album Neues Spiel. In 2009 the German band Brings released a Kölsch version entitled "Han ich dir jesaht" on their album Poppe, Kaate, Danze. Emilio Navaira released a single of it from his album, Life Is Good, which also included a version in Spanish. His version peaked at number 62 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in 1996.[18] Contemporary jazz\New Age pianist Chris Geith covered the song from his album "Timeless World."[19][20]

Charts

End of year chart (1993) Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[21] 32

Notes

  1. ↑ Hage. The Words and Music of Van Morrison. p. 109
  2. ↑ Hinton. Celtic Crossroads. p. 278
  3. ↑ All-Time 885 Greatest Songs
  4. ↑ Top 10 First Dance Wedding Songs
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1408390/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
  8. ↑ 5 Flights Up Soundtrack List Movie (2014)
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

References

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External links

Preceded by Billboard Adult Contemporary number-one single
29 May – 26 June 1993		 Succeeded by
"By the Time This Night Is Over" by Kenny G with Peabo Bryson
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