Them

Though their career was brief, the Irish rock/R&B band Them recorded some enduring, classic singles and will forever be remembered as the band that launched the career of singer Van Morrison. Though the band had more than its share of turnover, the original line-up of Morrison, keyboardist Eric Wrixon, and the trio of Billy Harrison, Alan Henderson, and Ronnie Millings who had been in a band called The Gamblers, started playing in Belfast in 1964. They became regulars at the Maritime Hotel, performing a mix of covers and original songs written by Morrison, whose passionate performances got the band signed to Decca in just a few months. Before the end of the year they had their first top 10 hit, “Baby, Please Don’t Go” and in 1965 they enjoyed their greatest chart success with “Here Comes the Night”, a Number 2 hit in the UK that gave them their biggest U.S. hit when it climbed to Number 24. Later that year they scored their final U.S. top 40 hit with “Mystic Eyes”. Frustrated with the band and the music business, Morrison left in 1966 for a solo career, and there were a smattering of singles released under the Them name, without Morrison, until 1972. Over the years their song “Gloria”, originally released as the B side to “Baby Please Don’t Go”, became one of the iconic rock and roll recordings, often showing up on lists of the greatest songs of all time and receiving the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.