Chart entered : 20 August 1964
Chart peak : 1
Number of hits : 20
Another bunch of Mancunians, who made an instant impact that they could never quite repeat, at least in the UK.
The line up was Peter Noone ( vocals ) a child actor who famously played Len Fairclough's son in Coronation Street , Derek Leckenby ( lead guitar ), Keith Hopwood (rhythm guitar ) , Karl Green ( bass ) and Barry Whitwam ( drums ) though there is an unsettled controversy over how much the youngsters played on their own records.
The Popular entry is here Herman's Hermits
I would just add that since 2006 I can't hear this without recalling its devastating use in ITV's superb dramatization of the Moors Murder case See No Evil which opened with this playing as the backdrop to a sixties Manchester street scene with Joanne Froggatt playing Hindley's blameless sister Maureen pushing her pram. It was a perfect evocation of the innocent world that monster sprang from and which she was already in the act of destroying for ever.
For a time, I worked with the (sadly deceased) son of Keith Hopwood, and was assured that the Hermits did indeed perform on their own records.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, I was the only person in the workplace (nobody over 45, I believe) who knew who the band were, though a few know this song.