{"id":29054,"date":"2025-04-06T05:30:23","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T09:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29054"},"modified":"2025-02-20T09:07:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T14:07:19","slug":"a-heaping-helping-of-hermans-hermits-hits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/06\/a-heaping-helping-of-hermans-hermits-hits\/","title":{"rendered":"A Heaping Helping of Herman\u2019s Hermits Hits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s often forgotten today, but during the so-called British Invasion \u2013 a period known in the UK as the Beat Era \u2013 Herman\u2019s Hermits was second in popularity only to the Beatles. The chirpy Manchester group formed in 1963 scored a massive #1 hit in England with their debut single, \u201cI\u2019m Into Something Good.\u201d They\u2019d never repeat that feat at home, but in the U.S., Herman Hermits landed 18 of their first 20 singles in the Top 40. Lead singer Peter Noone left the group in 1971, ending their run of hits (and effectively scotching their recording career), though founding drummer Barry Whitwam leads a lineup of Herman\u2019s Hermits to this day, and Noone tours regularly as Herman\u2019s Hermits featuring Peter Noone.<\/p>\n<p>In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the release of Herman\u2019s Hermits\u2019 self-titled debut LP, here are five of the biggest U.S. hits from the group. Originally released as singles and found on an assortment of LPs, today all are available on the 2015 double-CD compilation <em>The Best of Herman\u2019s Hermits: The 50th Anniversary Anthology<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMrs. Brown You\u2019ve Got a Lovely Daughter\u201d (March 1965)<\/strong><br \/>\nHistorians often point to sessions for Herman\u2019s Hermits recordings as the spark that ignited the creative relationship between future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. And while it\u2019s true that producer Micky Most often enlisted session players, the members of Herman\u2019s Hermits played on many of their own recordings. A prominent example is this, their fifth single. Guitarists Derek Leckenby and Keith Hopwood lent their distinctive playing to the arrangement. The group scored a #1 with the tune in the U.S. and Canada, but it was never even released as a UK single.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Oo9kOrqfxlo?si=e4e_I4niUBJV3B7G\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI\u2019m Henry VIII, I Am\u201d (June 1965)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe second #1 U.S. #2 single for Herman\u2019s Hermits, \u201cI\u2019m Henry VIII, I Am\u201d was already well known in England for decades before the group recorded it. The tune is a classic of British music hall, written in 1910. The original version had three verses; in the Hermits\u2019 hands, though, the tune followed the famous \u201csecond verse, same as the first\u201d approach. A jaunty sing-along, the Hermits\u2019 version bounced the Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201c(I Can\u2019t Get No) Satisfaction\u201d from the top spot on <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s singles chart.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FFNoDsOmluA?si=qgmzntejPj4zMBdO\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cListen People\u201d (February 1966)<\/strong><br \/>\nGraham Gouldman has written many hits; quite a few of them have been hits for other artists. The Yardbirds\u2019 \u201cFor Your Love,\u201d \u201cHeart Full of Soul\u201d and \u201cEvil Hearted You,\u201d The Hollies\u2019 \u201cBus Stop\u201d and Jeff Beck\u2019s \u201cTallyman\u201d are just a few of his successes from the years before he co-founded his own hit group, 10cc. With a melody based on a church hymn, Gouldman\u2019s \u201cListen People\u201d would earn Herman\u2019s Hermits a U.S. #1, an a Top Ten showing in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ss4jYTd8KUo?si=qE_5FA1R8L2ivqIP\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cDandy\u201d (September 1966)<\/strong><br \/>\nMany of Herman\u2019s Hermits\u2019 singles were songs written by composers outside the group. A prime example is \u201cDandy,\u201d a Ray Davies tune first heard on the Kinks\u2019 1966 LP <em>Face to Face<\/em>. Noone and company covered the song just a few months after the Kinks\u2019 original was released. \u201cDandy\u201d wasn\u2019t a single in the UK, but in America it reached the #5 spot, also top-tenning (again!) in Canada and New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dhO78SxuZY4?si=UTAMhSMesvRFYd02\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThere\u2019s a Kind of Hush\u201d (February 1967)<\/strong><br \/>\nFirst a hit for the New Vaudeville Band, \u201cThere\u2019s a Kind of Hush\u201d would be released by Herman\u2019s Hermits a few months later, climbing to the #4 spot on the U.S. singles chart. The times were a-changing toward heaver rock and psychedelia, but Herman\u2019s Hermits\u2019 Top 40 era in the U.S. would continue into 1968. After their final Top 40 single (\u201cI Can Take or Leave Your Loving,\u201d which went #1 in Canada), the group disappeared from American charts. They would, however, sustain their popularity at home, landing no less than eight more songs on the UK Top Ten.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/F0RrC_n-OTc?si=x6b6cJ1-ATR_f2b0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s often forgotten today, but during the so-called British Invasion \u2013 a period known in the UK as the Beat Era \u2013 Herman\u2019s Hermits was second in popularity only to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,51],"tags":[4525,4524],"class_list":["post-29054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-pop","tag-hermans-hermits","tag-peter-noone","cat-27-id","cat-51-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29056,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29054\/revisions\/29056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}