From last week’s full review of ABKCO’s LP reissue of Herman’s Hermits’ Their Greatest Hits:
Amongst the insults lobbed at Herman’s Hermits over the decades: fabricated, shallow, calculatedly commercial, utterly safe, disposable. At home they scored hits and in the US became one of the most popular imports of the mid-‘60s, though for many they are simply a Brit Invasion phenomenon connecting the Frankie Avalon/Fabian ‘50s scene and the eventual rise of bubblegum. Any folks curious as to what the fuss was all about might want to look into ABKCO’s LP reissue of Their Greatest Hits.
Herman’s Hermits can be considered the UK equivalent of and predecessor to The Monkees, though they had to fight longer for a redemption that is still in progress, as many persist in evaluating them as eternal inhabitants of Squaresville, damned to never ascend phoenix-like from the circumstances thrust upon them by their era.
The ever-growing legion of Pop scientists will chalk this up to plain Rockism, but it’s a little more complex than that. Prior to getting captured in the viselike clutches of Mickey Most, Herman’s Hermits were a highly amiable small-time gigging Manchester-based band, one initially shouldering the rather unimaginative moniker of the Heartbeats; it was subsequent to Peter Noone’s arrival that a name change, reportedly inspired by managers Harvey Lisberg and Charlie Silverman, occurred.
Herman’s Hermits is a sly appellation; unlike the Heartbeats, it stuck in the memory, and it straddled the lingering and soon to resurface pop idol angle while acknowledging if not fully succumbing to the post-Beatles vogue for leaderless units. Once in league with Most the only member of the act to unfailingly appear on their studio efforts was the gent some mistakenly thought was Herman; the front-man, or in the parlance of a certain UK group called the High Numbers, The Face.
It wasn’t unusual for studio professionals (including Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones) to occasionally sub for the Hermits, namely guitarists Keith Hopwood (rhythm) and Derek “Lek” Leckenby (lead), bassist Karl Green and drummer Barry Whitwam. Mickey Most was notorious for the activity, even demeaning Rock cornerstones The Yardbirds in the process, and he wasn’t the only producer guilty of audio perfectionism on a tight schedule in the service of teen music.
Some continue to reduce the worth of Herman’s Hermits to the pop construction of Most and the not insubstantial leadership capabilities of Noone, but that’s shortsighted. Those two qualities do dominate, but they also utilized a three-pronged operational attack, dishing out oldies-station prescient cover selections, well-mannered Merseybeat that would instantaneously command deeper respect if derived from another source, and most distinctively and in fact somewhat accidentally, the resurrection of songs approximating or nabbed from the Brit Music Hall tradition.
Enter to win Herman’s Hermits’ Their Greatest Hits on clear vinyl as shown above by citing in the comments below just what all the fuss was about with your personal favorite track from the lads. We’ll choose one enthusiastic entrant with a North American mailing address a week from today, 9/10.
