Herman's Hermits "I'm Henry The VIII, I Am" on Ed Sullivan. Pretty silly!

Does this mean you won't be doing any Herman's Hermits remasters?

 

Actually, this is a British Music Hall standard originally recorded by Harry Champion in 1911.

Archive.org has the MP3 of the original recording.

http://www.archive.org/details/HarryChampion

 

Not one of the British Invasion's better contributions.

 

Apparently, as long as it was British, we Americans went wild for it!
Funny thing for me is that I used to sing this song in my first professional band, then 23 years later, played it with Peter Noone on stage in '06!
Gotta love the Gibson Firebird bass, though!

 

Not to mention the dance he did called "The Freddie"....

 

Were the Hermits and Freddie as popular in England as they were here?

 

Peter liked to mug and flash that cute smile for the girls. Personally I prefer rock with a little more danger.... Mick Jaggar and Eric Burdon's performances on Sullivan used to captivate me.....I left Herman's Herman's antics for my kid sister to watch.
But I will admit their music is a guilty pleasure and has it's place in my listening.

 

Some Freddie and the Dreamers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ImLhAbLT4c Looks like a Ministy of Silly Walks reject...

 

That was really odd. Girls were still more or less screaming to them though! I'll bet that the girls hadn't seen them in action before this telecast, and weren't quite sure how to react!

 

Ah! The days when bands wore dark suits! It IS show business after all. Good lead from Lek! Nice tone.

 

Here are the Herman's Hermits' singles that reached the Top 20 on the UK single charts:

1. I'm Into Something Good (#1 in 1964)
2. Show Me Girl (#19 in 1964)
3. Silhouettes (#3 in 1965)
4. Wonderful World (#7 in 1965)
5. Just a Little Bit Better (#15 in 1965)
6. A Must to Avoid (#6 in 1966)
7. You Won't Be Leavin' (#20 in 1966)
8. This Door Swings Both Ways (#18 in 1966)
9. No Milk Today (#7 in 1966)
10. There's a Kind of Hush (#7 in 1967)
11. I Can Take or Leave Your Loving (#11 in 1968)
12. Sleepy Joe (#12 in 1968)
13. Sunshine Girl (#8 in 1968)
14. Something's Happening (#6 in 1969)
15. My Sentimental Friend (#2 in 1969)
16. Years May Come and Years May Go (#7 in 1970)

http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=1723

Pictured below is the US comparison.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=HERMAN\\'S|HERMITS&sql=11:kifuxqe5ld0e~T51

 

Great! Thanks for the chart info. Looks like they were equally popular in both countries.

 

I always felt that Peter Noone played up his being English. With the Beatles and other bands, it was very difficult to hear any English accent when they sang...they were just belting it out. With Herman's Hermits, I believe they overstressed the accent so Americans, especially American teenybopper girls (8-14 yrs old) would KNOW they were English. And Peter would always do those cute mugs shots, looking directly into the camera. If the Stones cast themselves as the "bad boys" as compared to the Beatles, then Herman's Hermits cast themselves as the angelic ones. What mother could complain about them?

As an aside, while I thought their early stuff was pretty tame and lame and not very good musically, I thought they actually did improve, with East/West, No Milk Today, and This Door Swings Both Ways, being very good songs indeed.

 

Different music for different purposes. I certainly agree about the greatness of The Animals and The Stones, but liking them doesn't mean I can't also like some lighter fare from time to time.

Most of HH's hits were well-crafted, well-sung, well-played pop songs. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. They sounded good coming out of a transistor radio in 1965.

In addition, this excerpt from a post in another thread should be taken into account by all those ready to dismiss Herman's Hermits with a condescending wave of the hand.

This comes from this thread, which concerns a DVD release of performance footage of several British Invasion artists.

The compiler notes:

 

I love Herman's Hermits stuff for what it is. We all should enjoy some lighter and heavier fare.

 

personally i've always thought the 'second verse, same as the first' was the funniest bit. talk about stretching nothing into something! but you have to admire them doing such a piece of fluff live on network tv. and hey, how many times have you seen a thunderbird bass played upside-down ala hendrix???

 

It really is a shame that "My Sentimental Friend" bombed in the USA. Excellent track.

 

And the third verse, after a great lead by Derek Lekenby,'the British James Burton', was also the same as the first (and second). A single verse, no chorus, no bridge song.

 

Don't you think if this had been the B-side to Leaning on a Lamp, it would have been an even greater 45....when I was 12...

 

After reading these posts, something hasn't been mentioned. He was a TEENAGER when this was done(15 or 16). Forty-five years later, he is still very entertaining and puts on a great show. After the show, always stays behind to sign ANYTHING and take pictures with the fans. Wish more artists would be accessible like he is and appreciate the fans. No, not saying huge arena acts do this, but it is very refreshing. Watching the artists you grew up listening to and having a chance to meet them. And in Peter's case, he DOES remember you if you are a frequent atendee of his shows. I speak from experience.

 

This particular song, I agree, but most of their other hits were terrific!