(Click Image to Zoom In and Out.)

You do wonder if singer Peter Noone didn't particularly care for the stagename "Herman". True, "Herman's Hermits" sounds better than "Peter's Pillarists", but in 1973 when the group appeared on a popular television show, the presenter - none other than Barry Gibb - pointedly announced "Peter Noone and Herman's Hermits".

Of course, by then Herman - sorry, that's Peter - was no longer sporting the carefully piled-high "Beatle" coiffure and the mod suits with Chelsea boots. Instead he had adopted shoulder length (and blonde) hair together with a "hippie flower power" loose hanging dashiki and bell bottomed trousers. The irony is that it's the later duds that look the most dated and (dare we say it?) hokey.

The Who
Influential

Herman's Hermits were quite popular with the teens of the 1960's but truth to tell historians of popular culture have not cited them as being "influential" like their sometimes touring partners The Who. Still the Hermits kept putting songs into the chart's uppermost decad with over 10 songs in the US Top Ten and two - "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" and "I'm Henry the VIII, I Am" - actually reaching number 1. Oddly, Herman's Hermits had only one #1 tune in Britain, "I'm Into Something Good", which didn't even make the Top Ten in the US.

But if you ask anyone which one of the Hermit's tune they remember, it's probably "I'm Henry the VIII, I Am". Sometimes disparagingly called a "novelty tune" it has even received the ultimate indignity of being cited in a popular informational website as a precursor to (ugh) "bubble gum" music.

Actually, the version as sung by the Hermits was first released in 1961 by British singer Joe Brown - a lamentably neglected singer in America but justly celebrated in the UK. But the tune goes back long before the Fabulous Fifties or the Swinging Sixties. It was originally written by Fred Murray and R. P. Weston in - get this - 1910 - and released the following year on the then common 10" 78 rpm single by the British Music Hall comedian, Harry Champion, whose real name was William Crump.

And no, the second verse was NOT the same as the first since both the Hermits and Joe sang only the chorus (Joe also changed key twice). The original song as sung by Harry is actually longer and the lyrics are - with the caveat that the following is transcribed from an old recording and sung by a comedian who was deliberately trying to sound Cockney - as follows:

You don't know who you're looking at

Now just you look at me.

I'm a bit of a nob, I am,

Belong to royalty.

I'll tell you how we got about.

I married widow Burch

And I was King of England

When we toddied out to church.

Outside the people started shouting, "Hip-hooray!"

Said I, "Go down upon your knees it's Cor-io-nation Day

I'm 'enery¹ the Eighth, I am!

Henery the Eighth, I am, I am!

I got married to the widow next door.

She's been married seven times before.

Everyone was a Henery,² she wouldn't have a Willie or a Sam.

I'm her eighth old man namеd³ 'enery.

Henery the Eighth I am!

I left the Duke of Cumberland, a pub up in the town.

Soon with one or two monats⁴ I was holding up me Crown.

Seated on the bucket what the commons call their own.

Surrounded by my subjects I was sitting on the throne.

Up came the potman he said, "No get off to the bed"

Said I, "Now say another word and off'll go your head!"

I'm 'enery the Eighth I am!

Henery the Eighth I am, I am!

I got married to the widow next door.

She's been married seven times before.

Everyone was a Henery, she wouldn't have a William⁵ or a Sam.

I'm her eighth old man namеd 'enery.

Henеry the Eighth I am!

The undertaker called and to the wife I heard him say,

"Have you got any orders, mum? We're very slack today.

I picked up number seven for you for the Golden Gate.

Let's have a pound upon account of Henery the Eighth."

Oh, when he measured me with half a yard of string,

I dropped upon me marrow bones and sang "God Save the King!"

I'm 'enery the Eighth I am!

Henery the Eighth I am, I am!

I got married to the widow next door.

She's been married seven times before.

Everyone was a Henery, she wouldn't have a Willie or a Sam.

I'm her eighth old man namеd 'enery.

Henеry the Eighth I am!

Certainly much of the success of the Hermits was due to Peter's high, clear, and well enunciated tenor. But what made Peter's singing unique from other groups of the English Invasion is:

PETER SANG

WITH AN

ENGLISH

ACCENT!!!!

This characteristic - a British group sounding British - was most unusual. The other bands like the Beatles, the Dave Clark Five, Peter and Gordon, the Searchers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and the Rolling Stones would when breaking into song somehow lose their native dialects and sing in Middle Western American.

Despite what the American ear may discern, Peter was not Cockney. Instead he sang in his native Manchester accent - properly styled "Mancunian" or "Manc". Among Peter's fellow Manc speakers are the likes of mom and daughter women's rights advocates, Emmeline and Sylvia Pankhurst, political theorist (and friend of Karl Marx) Friedrich Engels, author Anthony Burgess, and fellow singer Davy Jones (of the Monkees). Although brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb who went on to form the Bee Gees were born on the Isle of Man, they spent their formative years in Manchester as was pretty evident when they spoke.

The picture of Peter above is a scaleable vector graphics illustration. That is, it is drawn by the computer using equations and is not a static set of dots over a given area. So when you resize the image (or the page) the lines are quickly redrawn and they remain sharp and crisp. So although the zoom for the image above is an increase by 60% if it was zoomed by nearly 600% it would look like:

... and you see the lines stay nice and sharp and aren't jagged like:

... which would happen if you zoomed in on a "bitmap" file.

Herman's Hermits' initial tours were from 1965 to 1968. Then as the Synthetic Seventies replaced the Swinging Sixties, Peter began a solo career although the group did reunite when they appeared on The Midnight Special in 1973. In the mid-1980's Peter returned to performing with the Hermits and they were billed as "Peter Noonan and the Hermits". Since then they have performed in over 1000 concerts, often appearing with other famous 60's bands.

Back in the olden days you could see "Herman" perform live for $2. Today the ticket prices vary considerably and there are tickets advertised for as low as $6. That's quite a bargain as that price would have been only 20¢ in 1965. But if you want to splurge, you can find tickets selling for over $2000.

Of course, no one can talk about the Hermits without recalling the joke.

Why did the groupie spend so much time trying to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police?

She just wanted to get Herman.

Geddit? Herman? "Her man"? Geddit?

References and Further Reading

"Herman's Hermits", Concert Archives.

"The Number Ones: Herman's Hermits' 'I'm Henry VIII, I Am'", Tom Breihan, Stereogum, August 9, 2018.

"I'm Henry the VIII/Standard Bread", Harry Champion, Columbia-Rena Record, 1621, 1911.

"A Ticket to Ride: Musical Moments in 1965", Michael Gillette, Humanities Texas, August 2015.

"Harry Champion Discography", Discogs.