"I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" | |
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Song by Harry Champion | |
Written | 1910 |
Genre | Music Hall |
Songwriter(s) |
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"I'm Henry VIII, I Am" | ||||
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Single by Herman's Hermits | ||||
from the album Herman's Hermits and Their Second Album! Herman's Hermits on Tour | ||||
B-side | "The End of the World" | |||
Released |
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Recorded | De Lane Lea Studios, London, 1 February 1965 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 1:50 | |||
Label | EMI | |||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) | Mickie Most | |||
Herman's Hermits singles chronology | ||||
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"I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am" (also "I'm Henery the VIII, I Am" or "I'm Henry VIII, I Am"; spelled "Henery" but pronounced "'Enery" in the Cockney style normally used to sing it) is a 1910 British music hall song by Fred Murray and R. P. Weston. It was a signature song of the music hall star Harry Champion.
Joe Brown included the song on his first album A Picture of You in 1962. In 1965, it became the fastest-selling song in history to that point when it was revived by Herman's Hermits, [2] becoming the group's second number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, dethroning "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones. Despite that success, the single was not released in the UK. The Herman's Hermits version is a very short song, one of the shortest ever to be a number-one single in the US.
In the well-known chorus, Henery explains that his wife had been married seven times before, each time to another Henery:
I'm 'Enery the Eighth, I am,
'Enery the Eighth I am, I am!
I got married to the widow next door,
She's been married seven times before
And every one was an 'Enery
She wouldn't have a Willie nor a Sam
I'm her eighth old man named 'Enery
'Enery the Eighth, I am!
However, in the Hermits' version, Peter Noone ends each chorus with "I'm her eighth old man, I'm 'Enery" and never sings "named".
According to one source, Champion "used to fire off [the chorus] at tremendous speed with almost desperate gusto, his face bathed in sweat and his arms and legs flying in all directions." [2] In later versions recorded by Champion, "Willie" is changed to "William" because the former is a British slang term for "penis."
In 1961, this song was recorded and extensively performed live by the British star Joe Brown, who revived the song and made it largely known in the British pop world. His version has two choruses either side of his guitar solo (B-side, Piccadilly Records 7N 35005). George Harrison was a fan of Brown's and sang the song as part of the Beatles' early repertoire. The group never recorded their version. [3] [4] To the present day, Brown often performs it in concert.
The rock and roll stylings of the song gave Herman's Hermits their second US number one hit; like the Brown arrangement, it contains only the chorus (and none of the three verses) of the original. As a result, the tune is a mere one minute and fifty seconds long, one of the shortest-ever songs to top the Billboard singles chart. In their short and fast take of the song, the guitar and bass are considered proto-punk and were a direct influence on the Ramones, [5] (indeed the song "Judy Is A Punk" includes the line "Second verse, same as the first" as in the Hermits' tune.) The speedy guitar work at the break by lead guitarist Derek Leckenby evokes Chuck Berry sonically (e. g. “Johnny B. Goode”) then memorably shifts into quoting the melody. Billboard praised the song's "strong dance beat and vocal performance." [6]
They performed the song on Hullabaloo [7] as well as The Ed Sullivan Show . This version was also performed on the third-season premiere of The Jimmy Dean Show with Jimmy Dean and Jim Henson's Rowlf the Dog wearing wigs, three months after Herman's performance on Sullivan.
Connie Francis recorded a version for her 1966 album Connie Francis and The Kids Next Door .
The song is traditionally sung in a Cockney accent. Earlier sources usually spell the name "Henery" [14] [15] (as do some old sources when referring to the historical King of England and Ireland [16] ), and the music requires the name "Henery" (or "'Enery") to be pronounced as three syllables. The sheet music for the 1965 Herman's Hermits revival, however, presented the name as "Henry", as do sources referring to this version. [2] [17]
In the Herman's Hermits version, the band sings the lyrics three times. Between the first two choruses, Peter Noone calls out, "Second verse, same as the first!" The background singers on the version recorded by Connie Francis use this call as well.
Herman's Hermits are an English rock and pop group formed in 1963 in Manchester and fronted by singer Peter Noone. Known for their jaunty beat sound and Noone's often tongue-in-cheek vocal style, the Hermits charted with numerous transatlantic hits in the UK and in America, where they ranked as one of the most successful acts in the Beatles-led British Invasion. Between March and August 1965 in the United States, the group logged twenty-four consecutive weeks in the Top Ten of Billboard's Hot 100 with five singles, including the two number ones "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" and "I'm Henry VIII, I Am".
Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist and actor. He was the lead singer "Herman" in the 1960s pop group Herman's Hermits.
"I Really Don't Want to Know" is a popular song written by Don Robertson (music) Howard Barnes (lyrics). The song was published in 1953.
William Henry Crump, better known by the stage name Harry Champion, was an English music hall composer, singer and comedian, whose onstage persona appealed chiefly to the working class communities of East London. His best-known recordings include "Boiled Beef and Carrots" (1909), "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am" (1910), "Any Old Iron" (1911) and "A Little Bit of Cucumber" (1915).
Robert Patrick Weston was an English songwriter. He was responsible for many successful songs and comic monologues between the 1900s and 1930s, mostly written in collaboration with other writers, notably Fred J. Barnes and Bert Lee, and performed successfully by Harry Champion, Stanley Holloway, and Gracie Fields, among others.
"Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" is a popular song written by British actor, screenwriter and songwriter Trevor Peacock. It was originally sung by actor Tom Courtenay in The Lads, an ITV Television Playhouse play of 1963, and released as a single on UK Decca.
Henry VIII was King of England from 1509 to his death in 1547.
Keith Hopwood is an English pop and rock musician, singer-songwriter, composer, businessman and record producer, who served as the rhythm guitarist and backing vocals for the 1960s pop band, Herman's Hermits. Hopwood also served as a keyboardist, singer and guitarist for the post-Peter Noone outfit, Sour Mash, which recorded an unreleased album, A Whale of a Tale for RCA.
"Any Old Iron" is a British music hall song with lyrics written by Charles Collins and Fred E. Terry, and music by E.A. Sheppard. Harry Champion sang it as part of his act, and recorded it in 1911.
Herman's Hermits is the debut album of the band Herman's Hermits, first issued in 1965. As was typical of the time, the album's contents were different on the UK and US releases. UK albums tended not to include singles. The US edition of the album is sometimes called Introducing Herman's Hermits – a title used on the back cover and the record label but not on the front cover.
Herman's Hermits on Tour is the second album released in the US and Canada by MGM Records for the band Herman's Hermits. It was released in 1965. The cover drawing was by Jim Spanfeller and the design was credited to Michael Malatak.
The Most of Herman's Hermits is the name of a greatest hits album released in the U.K. by EMI Records' budget label Music For Pleasure for Herman's Hermits in 1971. The title refers to the producer Mickie Most and was first used for The Most of The Animals in 1966. This album became the band's highest charting UK album, reaching #14.
"The Story of My Life" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was published in 1957. It was recorded by Marty Robbins and reached number one on Billboard's country chart in 1958, and it became a number one hit song for Michael Holliday in the UK.
"I'm into Something Good" is a song composed by Gerry Goffin (lyrics) and Carole King (music) and made famous by Herman's Hermits. The song was originally recorded by Cookies member Earl-Jean on Colpix Records in 1964. Her version entered the U.S. Cash Box Top 100 charts in the US on 4 July 1964 and spent eight weeks there, reaching a high of number 42 on 15 August 1964, and number 38 Billboard.
Henry VIII and his reign have frequently been depicted in art, film, literature, music, opera, plays, and television.
Music hall songs were sung in the music halls by a variety of artistes. Most of them were comic in nature. There are a very large number of music hall songs, and most of them have been forgotten. In London, between 1900 and 1910, a single publishing company, Francis, Day and Hunter, published between forty and fifty songs a month.
This is the complete discography of the fictional music group Alvin and the Chipmunks.
The Very Best of Herman's Hermits is the name of a greatest hits album released in the U.K. by EMI Records' budget label Music For Pleasure for Herman's Hermits in 1984. The album's final track on Side 2, the cover version of David Bowie's "Oh You Pretty Things" is not Herman's Hermits but Peter Noone solo from 1971. EMI licensed the song for this LP from RAK Records. The cover uses the same photograph as earlier MFP compilation The Most of Herman's Hermits.
Hold On! is a 1966 American musical film directed by Arthur Lubin and starring Peter Noone, Shelley Fabares, Herbert Anderson, and Sue Ane Langdon. The film features performances by Herman's Hermits and stars the band as fictionalized versions of themselves. The soundtrack was released as an album, also called Hold On!.
Into Something Good: The Mickie Most Years 1964–1972 is a 4-CD box set by British pop group Herman's Hermits, released 2008 on EMI.