The Best of Herman's Hermits

Tonight's review is a little bit all over the place. We all weight 5-15 more pounds than we did yesterday morning, and those of you who shared in my Christmas feast of Jesus Christ Superstar are undoubtedly anticipating my words for the dangerously delectable wafer-thin mint they are sure to be...

... and now for something completely different.
Let's listen to The Best of Herman's Hermits. It's not the best of Herman's Hermits, because that would be at least a four record set, and half if those songs hadn't even been recorded at the time this record was pressed, that's why there are more greatest hits albums in their discography than regular ones (i didn't actually do the math, but there are many).

They are far and away my favorite of the British Invasion bands, but i'm more interested in the story they tell about the music business itself. When we think of a band that got "discovered" and turned into international superstars, we're thinking of these blokes. They were regular british teenagers with day jobs (though "herman's" acting career might stretch that description a little), who played in bands for fun. A guy heard them and thought "i can manage these kids." He called a guy who could handpick great songs for them to play, and thus a lot of people made money. They turned out to be way more popular over here than at home, so they came over here and made a lot more money. Sure, once they were actually famous everybody wanted their name included in the liner notes (like jimmy page and the other session musicians back home), but they weren't the kids hopping 6am flights to the next gig and eating cakes their fans brought to concerts for dinner. And let's not forget, these boys actually played their instruments.

I tried really hard to figure out who the June Harris that wrote the liner notes actually was, but i don't know for sure. Record collectors will know that the pre-woodstock era of big music was all about the hard sell, and it's a very interesting essay if you can find it somewhere (i'm too tired and lazy to type it or take photos). You don't even have to search out this particular album (which took way too long to identify as the 1965 one because nobody bothered to put the year of publication on these things until some certain someone made it a vitally important tool for litigation), just listen to some really lovely British pop-rock made for Americans.

If you're really paying attention though, you'll notice that "Mrs. Brown..." is here, three years before the actual album of that name. That's because the album was actually a soundtrack to the movie. To quote the non-ursine Yogi, "Deja vu all over again...".

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