For all the
press and teeny-bopper magazine fodder promoting a rivalry between The Beatles and
The Rolling Stones or The Beatles and The Dave Clark Five, it was
Herman's Hermits who REALLY gave The Fab Four a run for their money here
in The States during that first wave of The British Invasion. In 1964-1965 alone, they had greater chart success here in the US than The
DC5 and The Stones COMBINED!
In fact, between October of 1964 and October of 1966, Herman's Hermits scored a dozen straight Top Ten Hits, including three that went all the way to #1 in 1965: "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat," "Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter" and "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" ... while four others made The Top 5: "Silhouettes," "Wonderful World," "Listen People" and "Dandy."
Longtime Forgotten Hits Contributor Clark Besch sent in this piece on The Hermits after viewing last week's Super Chart ...
How well I remember the Summer of 1965 ... a Hermits Summer for sure!
We spent two months living in
Oklahoma City digging KOMA while our dad worked there. What did we do?
Listened to RADIO, of course! About all we seemed to hear was Brits
and that was OK with us Besch boys! Your latest Super Chart was
interesting, as the new hit-makers from the UK, Herman's Hermits hold #2
and #99, almost encompassing the whole chart.
SOON, it became the Hermits' summer to remember and
dominate. From 3-13 to 8-21 (24 consecutive weeks) that year, the band
who had had ONE hit before their new Top 10 hit in March went Top 10,
stayed in the Billboard TOP 10 for that entire period. It was like
Beatlemania from a year earlier with only a little more release
clearance during that time. TWO #1's in that period as well, during
another period when Brits were selling like crazy. Herman's Hermits easily competed
with the others on a constant basis. Amazingly enough, in this period
that brought them five Top 5 Billboard US hits, only two 45s were issued in
their homeland UK -- both going Top 10 there. Don't forget that they had
GREAT B sides on these 45s, too, and kids like me played those great B
sides almost as much as the A sides. (In Oklahoma City that summer, both "Walkin' With my Angel" and "End of the World"
were listed on the KOMA chart as well. "Walkin'" made #1 on my personal
chart, I think. I STILL love their version and had never HEARD
the originals of either of these two songs when I was a kid in 65.
We were Peter Noone crazy in 1965!
Take a look at these Hot 100 charts in this period:
March 13, 1965:
April 3, 1965:
May 8, 1965:
May 29, 1965:
July 3, 1965:
July 31, 1965:
August 7, 1965:
As often was the case, Billboard had some weird ideas for their year end
chart, like putting "Wooly Bully" at #1 despite it only reaching #2 in
the weekly Hot 100 (18 whopping weeks charting.) IT was indeed on the
Hot 100 for all five Hermits hits. Anyway, below, you see that THEIR two
#1 hits were only #19 and #47 for the year -- mostly due to so many hits
pushing the last one out of the way prematurely.
[More Things That Make You Go Hmmm ...
Explain to me how it's even REMOTELY possible that "Yesterday" didn't make the Year-End Top 100 at all?!?! But Joe Tex, Sonny Bono (solo), Little Anthony, Jack Jones (!), Glenn Yarborough, Bert Kaempfert, Patti Page and Sound Orchestral DID!!! The Music Bible? I think we've all proven otherwise, thanks to hindsight and The Super Charts!!! - kk]
They DID get the Top Singles band of '65 chart right! Check out #4 and
#5. That's a bit odd, too, as one would think each would have their own
solo listings and as a duo even higher, but Billboard chose to separate them
and not list them as a duo.
Summer of '65 -- great times for radio and music!
-- Clark Besch
