The Forgotten Hits Interview with Peter Noone Part Four

With permission from Kent Kotal/ Forgotten Hits/the60sShop here is part four of the interview with Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits. To subscribe to FORGOTTEN HITS, which is a great newsletter if you are like me and into music of the 60's, you can e-mail them at The60sshop@aol.com. Here is part four of the series.

My conversation with PETER NOONE continues today in FORGOTTEN HITS ...

FORGOTTEN HITS: As a bit of a chart-aholic, I find it somewhat offensive that HERMAN'S HERMITS are often discounted when recounting the big British Invasion bands of the day ... you ALWAYS hear about THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES, THE KINKS, THE WHO, THE HOLLIES, THE DAVE CLARK FIVE ... yet the TRUTH is that HERMAN'S HERMITS had (in MANY cases) MORE hits than many of these other bands ... and, in fact, some early HERMITS material was later covered by artists later considered to be more significant like THE YARDBIRDS and THE HOLLIES!
PETER NOONE: This is because Allen Klein THINKS he owns the product and, as he hates music, he has trodden and traded down the works of not only my band but also the genius of Sam Cooke and anyone else he and his family have decided to steal from to pay for their lifestyle. My revenge is to have a happy life and denounce this fraudulent family at every occasion to the point that people think it is a personal vendetta, but I love my life and I bet his family will pay for their fraud one day. Every time someone asks to use a Herman's Hermits song in a movie (eg Naked Gun), I have to go and recreate the music and nothing can beat the original vibe and Allen owns it and hides it. Ever hear a Sam Cooke song in a movie? One of the greatest songs of all time, "A CHANGE IS GONNA COME" is never heard. How about all the other stuff he owns, like the CAMEO / PARKWAY tracks. His son and daughter now operate the catalogue in the same vein as their crooked father and one day bad things will surely befall them! (Scumbags!) You would think they would at least ask for permission to re-release all our stolen work, and one day the lawyers we throw money at to get these scum will expose them for who and what they are. I use them as an example to my daughter (who is also intent on being in the music business) of what she should avoid, and to try to always act honestly, unlike them.

FH: HERMAN'S HERMITS seemed to have been more popular here in The States than they were back at home in England, scoring 18 STRAIGHT TOP 40 HITS!!! (And 13 of those made The National Top Ten!!!) Any thoughts on why that may have been?
PN: Not true ... We had far more hits in the UK. Check your facts. This is a theme developed by 16 Magazine and other irrelevant newspapers like Rolling Stone.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Check out the HERMAN'S HERMITS HIT LIST at the end of today's mailing ... you'll see just how popular these guys really were!!! And, you can see for yourself just how many hits they had ... and just how BIG those hits were ... here in The States!!!)

PN: The idea that we were more popular in the US than in the UK is totally preposterous and was probably something somebody who warleked at Rolling Stone Magazine said so it became gospel along with all the other nonsense they wrote, incidentally excluding Herman's Hermits totally as if we never existed. I went to Jan Wenner's office once and was thrilled to see he had a broken Pete Townsend guitar on his wall which is the closest he will ever get to being a musician, no matter how much money his mum gave him.

(After compiling the list ... and sending it to PETER ... we covered some of the specifics)
FH: I said earlier that HERMAN'S HERMITS had more hits in America than Great Britain ... in truth, it appears to be a bit of a wash. HERMAN'S HERMITS' original popularity lasted a couple more years in Great Britain than it did here in The States ... but, song for song, our countries were pretty evenly matched. But THREE of your songs that went all the way to #1 here in The States were never even released as singles back home!!! Yet they're now amongst your most popular and well-known material. What were your thoughts at the time regarding DIFFERENT singles being released in America vs. what was being released back home?
PN: We made records. Some of them were decidedly more likely to hit the US charts than others. We had hits everywhere in the world and we lived for hit records. I never really worried much about the UK and always wanted to live in the US as an Englishman and become Terry Thomas.

FH: HERMAN'S HERMITS came along at a time when so many of the British bands were writing their own material yet most of the music you released was written by professional songwriters ... and some VERY big names at that. CAROLE KING and GERRY GOFFIN wrote I'M INTO SOMETHING GOOD ... P.F. SLOAN wrote A MUST TO AVOID ... even some of the early cover tunes (like SILHOUETTES and SAM COOKE's WONDERFUL WORLD) were decidedly American. Then you hooked up with some of Britain's most prolific songwriters. (GRAHAM GOULDMAN wrote LISTEN PEOPLE, EAST WEST and NO MILK TODAY along with several hits for other British Invasion bands like BUS STOP for THE HOLLIES ... which, if I'm not mistaken, HERMAN'S HERMITS actually recorded first. He then went on to record some of his own material as part of 10cc.) GEOFF STEPHENS (who later wrote WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL) wrote THERE'S A KIND OF HUSH and SUNSHINE GIRL. Was this a conscious transition ... once you were established ... to record the works of British songwriters? You then also worked with RAY DAVIES of THE KINKS (DANDY) and DONOVAN LEITCH (MUSEUM, another one of my favorites.) What was that like? Again, how was this material presented to you? And what was the selection process? Did you have any input as to which tracks would be released as singles?
PN: We recorded every song we could play. There may be 500 horrid recordings sitting in a vault somewhere. We recorded hundreds of songs. We were studio rats. We did them, we threw them away, we polished them, we tried different things with all of them. Some were better than others. At first it was me and The Hermits but after it was discovered that Barry the drummer had a studio problem (time) rather than replace him, (he was a friend and a nice bloke) we used The Hermits less and less, and unfortunately, Mickie Most and I discovered the process was faster if not as much fun and we stupidly left The Hermits out of all the decisions causing them to hate us and I think rightfully so, but in my callousness of youth I thought little of other people's feelings and destroyed my friendships in the name of super success, none of which I regret sadly enough, because the recordings are of the moment and I was in the moment and The Hermits weren't. At the time I mean. And, at the time, Donovan was in top form ... Ray Davies always was. We loved them and they tolerated us, because we were kids!

FH: It's no secret that THE HERMITS did not play on most of your studio recordings but rather "reproduced" those sounds on the road. Your "studio band" consisted of the EARLIEST stages of half of future headbanger rock and rollers LED ZEPPELIN. What do you remember about working with JIMMY PAGE? (This guy was playing on virtually EVERYTHING as a studio musician at the time!) When I tell people that the classic guitar riff that runs throughout SILHOUETTES was probably played by the legendary JIMMY PAGE, they cannot believe it!!! Also, what was the connection between FOR YOUR LOVE, HERMAN'S HERMITS and THE YARDBIRDS? (If I'm not mistaken, ERIC CLAPTON was THE YARDBIRDS' guitarist at the time of FOR YOUR LOVE ... and, reportedly, even quit the band over their trying "too pop" a tune at the time!)
PN: The Hermits played on the songs that they played well on. Sometimes (sometimes) other musicians played on tracks, mostly because the band's weakness was our drummer (the nicest guy in the band and therefore irreplaceable) because he had pretty unusual time and was therefore un-overdubbable (my word) so we started using Clem Cattini (Tornadoes) and Jim Page (Yardbirds), John Paul Jones, Herbie Flowers and whoever was around at the time. Lek is the guitarist on For Your Love so you can see he was very good. Eric, I think, quit the Yardbirds because they had no work. You guys really need to understand the financial side of being a rock star in the '60s. I think the Yardbirds got 30 quid a night.

FH: So, can you confirm then, once and for all, if JIMMY PAGE is the one who played the guitar riff on your original version of SILHOUETTES?
PN: Jim played on Silhouettes and Wonderful World and, once Karl Green faded, he was replaced on ALL the recordings by John Paul Jones, who also arranged almost everything and was our genius.

And there you have it ... right from the horse's mouth, as it were ... that IS JIMMY PAGE doing the cool little guitar licks on SILHOUETTES!!! More to come tomorrow in FORGOTTEN HITS!

P.S. We'll feature THE HERMITS' original version of FOR YOUR LOVE as a "Bonus Track" at the end of this special series.

***

The HERMAN'S HERMITS HIT LIST

1964
I'm Into Something Good (USA-7/Cash Box; CHI-1, UK-1)
Show Me Girl (USA-xx; CHI-xx; UK-19)

1965
Can't You Hear My Heartbeat (USA-1/Cash Box; CHI-3; UK-xx)
Silhouettes (USA-5/Billboard & Cash Box; CHI-1; UK-3)
Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter (USA-1/Billboard & Cash Box; CHI-1; UK-xx)
Wonderful World (USA-4/Billboard; CHI-3; UK-7)
I'm Henry The VIII, I Am (USA-1/Billboard & Cash Box; CHI-2; UK-xx)
Just A Little Bit Better (USA-7/Billboard; CHI-2; UK-15)

1966
A Must To Avoid (USA-6/Cash Box; CHI-5; UK-6)
Listen People (USA-3/Billboard & Cash Box; CHI-3; UK-xx)
You Won't Be Leaving (USA-xx; CHI-xx; UK-20)
Leaning On The Lamp Post (USA-8/Cash Box; CHI-9; UK-xx)
This Door Swings Both Ways (USA-10/Cash Box; CHI-9; UK-18)
Dandy (USA-5/Billboard; CHI-6; UK-xx)
East, West (USA-15/Cash Box; CHI-7; UK-37)

1967
There's A Kind Of Hush (USA-3/Cash Box; CHI-2; UK-7)
No Milk Today (USA-33/Cash Box; CHI-xx; UK-7 in 1966)
Don't Go Out Into The Rain (USA-13/Cash Box; CHI-22; UK-xx)
Museum (USA-21/Cash Box; CHI-28; UK-xx)

1968
I Can Take Or Leave Your Loving (USA-21/Cash Box; CHI-16; UK-11)
Sleepy Joe (USA-54/Cash Box; CHI-xx; UK-12)
Sunshine Girl (USA-82 / Cash Box; CHI-xx; UK-8)
The Most Beautiful Thing In My Life (USA-131 / Billboard; CHI-xx; UK-xx)
Something's Happening (USA-130 / Billboard; CHI-xx; UK-6)

1969
My Sentimental Friend (USA-xx; CHI-xx; UK-2)
Here Comes The Star (USA-xx; CHI-xx; UK-33)

1970
Years May Come, Years May Go (USA-xx; CHI-xx; UK-7)
Bet Yer Life I Do (USA-xx; CHI-xx; UK-23)
Lady Barbara (USA-xx; CHI-xx; UK-13)

Can you believe that THREE of HERMAN'S HERMITS' Biggest #1 Hits here in America were NEVER released as singles back home in the U.K.?!?!?!!! Incredibly, it's true ... British teens NEVER had a chance to buy CAN'T YOU HEAR MY HEARTBEAT, MRS. BROWN, YOU'VE GOT A LOVELY DAUGHTER or I'M HENRY THE VIII, I AM on 45s!!!