Van Morrison to receive Mercer Award

Van Morrison will be honored with the Johnny Mercer Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Morrison, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003, will receive the award at a gala on June 18 in New York.

"You have to be an inductee to get that award, and the music has to be the caliber and spirit of Johnny Mercer's," says Songwriters Hall of Fame president and CEO Linda Moran. "Your body of work has to be considered the gold-bar standard by your peers."

Having written songs like Brown Eyed Girl, Gloria, Moondance and Tupelo Honey over a 50-year career, Morrison's work reaches that standard. "His compositions are poetic, mystical," Moran says. "That's why he's in the company of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Hal David and Burt Bacharach, Carole King."

In addition to those examples, other past Mercer Award winners include Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Phil Collins, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel.

Last month, Morrison released Duets: Re-Working the Catalogue, which featured versions of his songs sung with the likes of Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Steve Winwood and the late Bobby Womack.

Mercer, for whom the award was named, was known primarily as a lyricist and penned many songs that have become enduring standards. He won Academy Awards for Moon River and Days of Wine and Roses and also co-wrote Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive, That Old Black Magic, Come Rain or Come Shine, Autumn Leaves and Satin Doll.

The 46th Annual Induction and Awards Dinner is slated for June 18 at New York's Marriott Marquis Hotel. This year's previously announced Hall of Fame inductees are Bobby Braddock, Willie Dixon, Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia, Toby Keith, Cyndi Lauper and Linda Perry. Nate Ruess of fun. will receive the Hal David Starlight Award.