I have a huge soft spot in my heart for the Hermits, and for this song in particular. 1st record album I ever bought was “Herman’s Hermits On Tour”, which still holds up pretty well today, surprisingly. And my brother had their previous album, with “Mrs. Brown”, and “I’m Into Something Good” among other fine songs.
And that was the key to the Hermits – they actually had some good songs. And performed them in a breezy, cheerful way that just makes you smile. Nothing too deep, nothing groundbreaking, just sort of a riff on early Beatles vibe, in a commercial vein.
At one time, briefly, for about a year or so, this group’s popularity actually rivaled the Beatles themselves – though of course we know which band was the real Magilla, in retrospect. But the Hermits were actually big for me, as it happened, and “Into Something Good” was my absolute fave. Enough so that I made note of its writers, my first inkling of the greatness of Carol King.
THANKS, Susie!!!
As someone who had occasion to record a “soundalike” version of the song for the direct-to-video feature-length cartoon “The Brave Little Toaster Saves The World” (!), featuring vocals by Peter Noone hisself (!!), I have to say that it was first recorded by Earl-Jean for the Colpix label in 1964, and quickly scooped up by Herman’s Hermits:
Earl-Jean made some wonderful singles, both on her own, and earlier, as one of my fave girl groups, the Cookies (“Chains”, “Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad About My Baby”, among tons of others.) Knowing you to be the girl group fan you are, seek out, toot-sweet, a compilation called “The Complete Cookies”:
…both of which include Earl-Jean’s version of the song.
(Catty trivia about my band’s re-recording of the song–we recorded it in the original key that Herman’s Hermits did, but he couldn’t hit the high notes any more, so we had to slow the already-completed backing track down for his vocal overdub, and when sped back up, it was perfect, and sounded like Peter in his teens!)
***
…now then, if you meant the song was written for them as in “made for them”, I agree completely. 🙂
I didn’t know that. Thanks for all the background stuff! Yes, I do love the Cookies.
Herman’s Hermits Greatest Hits was my first album purchase. Thanks for the smiles.
I have a huge soft spot in my heart for the Hermits, and for this song in particular. 1st record album I ever bought was “Herman’s Hermits On Tour”, which still holds up pretty well today, surprisingly. And my brother had their previous album, with “Mrs. Brown”, and “I’m Into Something Good” among other fine songs.
And that was the key to the Hermits – they actually had some good songs. And performed them in a breezy, cheerful way that just makes you smile. Nothing too deep, nothing groundbreaking, just sort of a riff on early Beatles vibe, in a commercial vein.
At one time, briefly, for about a year or so, this group’s popularity actually rivaled the Beatles themselves – though of course we know which band was the real Magilla, in retrospect. But the Hermits were actually big for me, as it happened, and “Into Something Good” was my absolute fave. Enough so that I made note of its writers, my first inkling of the greatness of Carol King.
THANKS, Susie!!!
As someone who had occasion to record a “soundalike” version of the song for the direct-to-video feature-length cartoon “The Brave Little Toaster Saves The World” (!), featuring vocals by Peter Noone hisself (!!), I have to say that it was first recorded by Earl-Jean for the Colpix label in 1964, and quickly scooped up by Herman’s Hermits:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxr1sXgsp1w
Earl-Jean made some wonderful singles, both on her own, and earlier, as one of my fave girl groups, the Cookies (“Chains”, “Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad About My Baby”, among tons of others.) Knowing you to be the girl group fan you are, seek out, toot-sweet, a compilation called “The Complete Cookies”:
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Cookies/dp/B000000PRL/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1274506532&sr=1-1
…or this one, “The Cookies–The Dimension Links”, which is cheaper and looks even better:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chains-Dimension-Links-1962-1964-COOKIES/dp/B001PMRKGY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1274506645&sr=1-4
…both of which include Earl-Jean’s version of the song.
(Catty trivia about my band’s re-recording of the song–we recorded it in the original key that Herman’s Hermits did, but he couldn’t hit the high notes any more, so we had to slow the already-completed backing track down for his vocal overdub, and when sped back up, it was perfect, and sounded like Peter in his teens!)
***
…now then, if you meant the song was written for them as in “made for them”, I agree completely. 🙂
I didn’t know that. Thanks for all the background stuff! Yes, I do love the Cookies.
Herman’s Hermits Greatest Hits was my first album purchase. Thanks for the smiles.