Herman's Hermits: "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter"

April 19, 1965 (2 weeks)

The first British Invasion began in the early part of 1964 as Beatlemania swept North America and everyone tried to grab a piece of it. The second gathered momentum in the early eighties with the rise of MTV as UK groups had a far easier time adapting to the era of the pop music video (since it had been commonplace to film promos on the other side of the Atlantic). A third attempted invasion never really happened as North American Generation Xers chose to embrace supposedly authentic genres like grunge and gangsta rap in favour of Madchester, shoegaze and Britpop.

What all three of these "invasions" share is that they were arguably bigger in Canada than down in the US. With the Canadian link to the Commonwealth, there was much more of an openness to British pop, even prior to '64. While only two UK singles managed to reach number one on the American Hot 100 prior to The Beatles, there had been six north of the border, a modest but still significant difference. The Beatles had even been on an upward trend and it's likely they would have made a sizable impact in Canada even without appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show. For much of '64, the appetite down south had been primarily for one band: it was only near the end of the year that non-Beatles or Lennon-McCartney-composed UK singles topped the American charts. Yet, in Canada the likes of the Dave Clark Five, Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Honeycombs all spent time on top.

If we go by the period spanning 1964 to 1966, fifty British Invasion singles went to the top of Canada's pop charts, nearly double the total in the US. And, sure, the RPM era ushered in the trend of single week number ones but it was UK groups who were taking a large chunk of the extra spots. Motown acts like The Four Tops and Temptations earned well-deserved chart toppers on the Hot 100 but came up short just over the border even though there had been theoretically more room for them. For Canadians, it was Brit acts all the way!

No group benefited more from this than Manchester's Herman's Hermits, whose brand of English music hall novelty pop saw them remain a relevant chart act in Canada well after fading in both the UK and US. (A curious feature of lower level British acts of the time is that many of them, including Herman's Hermits and Petula Clark, did far better in North America than back home) Not only did they have no less than six number ones on the RPM charts but they came up just short on several other occasions as well. Amazingly, the song they are probably best-remembered for today, the moronically catchy "I'm Henry VIII, I Am", isn't even one of their ten highest charting entries in Canada.

Obviously I'll be getting to the remaining quintet of Hermits' chart toppers before long (one of them in just a few days in fact) but I should point out that they're a grim batch. They consist mainly of poorly thought out cover versions voiced by the workmanlike singing of Peter Noone. Apparently, he was something of a pinup back in his day though I couldn't tell you why (girls, and indeed some boys, must've really liked lads with lots and lots of teeth). Still, he was certainly far easier to look at than listen to.

"Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" is probably the best of their number one hits. Yes, the bar is low. It's tempting to grade it on a curve and give it a bonus point or two but I won't be doing that. Herman's Hermits recorded a lot of material over the years, mostly in tandem with big time English producer Mickie Most along with some future members of Led Zeppelin as session musicians. Noone — the sole member who appeared on every one of their hits — had every opportunity to grow as an artist just as many of his contemporaries were doing. I don't know if I'd necessarily say that he blew his chance given how big he became but chart hits were the priority; overall quality clearly wasn't valued.

That said, it was probably a wise decision to have Noone just try to ape British music hall legend George Formby on "Mrs. Brown". The guitar part(s) — played by Hermits Derek Leckenby and Keith Hopwood — even manage to sound like Formby's trademark banjolele. Had Noone tried to copy The Beatles or Stones he doubtless would've sounded like even more of a fraud. Stick to your wheelhouse is something some people supposedly say and they might as well be describing a certain young English actor who wished to cash in on the British Invasion by recording some half-baked pop of his own.

With both ABBA and The Monkees having been given critical reconsideration in recent years, there's always the chance that Herman's Hermits might be given similar treatment in the future. Somehow I doubt it though. So-called guilty pleasure groups manage to rise above the dregs for either their outstanding craft — like ABBA — or for being able to make the most of some dire creative conditions — like The Monkees — but neither of these apply to Noone: he had no craft to speak and ended up getting very little out of some favourable studio conditions. His reign of ghastly terror was on.

Score: 4