Song: Have I Told You Lately?
Artist: Rod Stewart
Original artist: Van Morrison
I have never tried assembling a list of favourite love songs but, were I to, I’m confident
that Have I Told You Lately? would feature in the top 10. It is, in my opinion, a classic!
I’m not alone in rating it so highly. For example, it is a ballad that is often played at
weddings for the happy couple’s first dance. It ranked No 6 on a poll of 1,300 DJs for
first dances in the UK. Indeed, it came in for serious consideration at an actual wedding
service of my own (not first dance) but ended up losing out to another Van composition,
Brown-Eyed Girl. I’m sure you can work out why.
Have I Told You featured on Morrison’s 19 th studio album, Avalon Sunset, in 1989 and
the single reached No 12 on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. It also ranked
in the top 100 of the New York Daily News list of the 100 Greatest Love Songs in 2007.
The song had been covered by numerous artists including Kenny Rogers, Michael Ball,
Engelbert Humperdinck, Andy Williams and Barry Manilow. But the most successful
cover to date is by Rod Stewart who released a liver version of it in 1993. It reached No
5 in both the US and UK and topped the charts in Canada. Rod regularly includes it in
live performances and another live version was recorded in 2013 at the Troubador in
West Hollywood which was included on the deluxe edition of the album Time.
