The Forgotten Hits Interview with Peter Noone Part Five

With permission from Kent Kotal/ Forgotten Hits/the60sShop here is part five 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 five in the series.

FORGOTTEN HITS: One of my upcoming series will be spotlighting some of the GREAT, UNDISCOVERED AND FORGOTTEN B-SIDES ... I think that HERMAN'S HERMITS recorded some of the BEST B-SIDES of the '60's ... songs like WHAT IS WRONG, WHAT IS RIGHT, your version of SEA CRUISE, the previously mentioned THE END OF THE WORLD and NO MILK TODAY ... I GOTTA DREAM ON, WALKIN' WITH MY ANGEL and GOT A FEELING are amongst my favorites from your catalog. (By the way, as a serious music collector, I've gotta ask you: are you aware that I GOTTA DREAM ON appears TWICE on your new 2-CD Greatest Hits package?!?!?)
PETER NOONE: Wow ... then it was a B-side twice then! The B-sides were always left to the Hermits and we did what we could and I am proud of all of them except Truck Stop Mamma and I walked out of that session because Herman cannot sing about a Truck Stop Mama.

FH: I've heard you say in concert that THE END OF THE WORLD is one of your very favorite HERMAN'S HERMITS recordings ... what are some of your other personal favorites? Are there any songs that you felt SHOULD have been bigger hits than they were ... or maybe a couple of songs that you feel weren't given the chance that you're especially proud of?
PN: I think the end of Herman's Hermits was Allen Klein. It became a constant thorn in the side of the band that we made records that were number one in the USA AND WE GOT A GOLD RECORD BUT NO CHECK TO GO WITH IT. We decided to stop giving the US records thinking that this would make them pay up, but actually that was their plan all along. Remember, Allen Klein was a bag carrier auditor. My mum and dad did the same thing so I know how it works. He weaseled his way into every band's office and lied and cheated us all and now his children are spending the royalties from I'm Henry the VIII I Am. Why don't you ask them how they can justify never having paid Herman's Hermits? That is a real story for you! I am fortunate because I actually made a lot of money, but think of Derek Leckenby's family when they hear a record of their late father's on the radio and imagine Klein's children getting paid for the sale??????????? I hope Lennon was right about karma.

FH: ALLEN KLEIN is probably BEST known for his associations with THE BEATLES and THE ROLLING STONES (good, bad or otherwise.) How did HERMAN'S HERMITS first come to be involved with him? Wasn't it pretty much the contracts of HERMAN'S HERMITS and THE ANIMALS that he first picked up?
PN: No idea who was first but look at all the music he has touched (even Cameo / Parkway and Sam Cooke) and you will see unhappiness everywhere with the exception being The Stones, who have overcome his deft and dastardly skills. He should be remembered as the destroyer of bands. Can you name a band he has been involved with who haven't had shit happen?

FH: This HAD to have been perceived as a GOOD thing at the time, no??? A big step forward for the band? Big, successful, rich American businessman with a proven track record takes on British artists like HERMAN'S HERMITS and THE ANIMALS ... when and where did things start to go sour?
PN: His trick was to tell everyone he could save us taxes. That's all. No musical knowledge other than he was a cash register expert and can play it better than anyone and maybe his son can play it, too, so it will continue.

FH: I've got absolutely NO problem covering the ALLEN KLEIN thing in greater detail either ... it's something I've never understood since (greedy bastard that he is) HE would make more money, too, by licensing out this material!!! (Makes absolutely NO sense to me!)
(EDITOR'S NOTE: I asked this particular question four or five times before I got ANY kind of answer ... with no further explanation than this, here is what PETER NOONE had to say):
PN: He is an accountant. Both my parents were accountants and I heard them discuss taxes but they always said it was a good idea to pay them rather than have them disappear.

FH: I, for one, absolutely LOVED the remake you did of I'M INTO SOMETHING GOOD and the video (with LESLIE NIELSEN) for THE NAKED GUN ... that seemed to be the point where you sort of "became" HERMAN again. How did all of that come about? (I know that you mentioned earlier the reason for having to re-record this track ... and I personally happen to think it's a GREAT remake ... I've been looking for a copy for YEARS!!!) How were you first approached about working on this project? I especially love the video. That had to be good fun.
PN: Back to Klein ... They wanted to use the song in the movie. Klein declined because he knew he would have to ACCOUNT TO SOMEBODY (eg Paramount). As he hates to account to anyone, because he can't cheat and lie, he had to say no. The producers and writers contacted me with their story and I said, "I can make a copy exactly like the original and nobody will be able to tell the difference." When it was done, we decided you couldn't tell the difference so we took off the guitar and replaced it with a whahhoo machine so Klein wouldn't say it was the original. It's a tragedy that Klein and his witless children stop all the product they control from being in movies so they can steal ALL the money. A question: Have any songs under the Klein families' control ever been used in movies, commercials, tv shows? Doesn't anyone ever wonder why? Surely there would be one Herman's Hermits song, one Animals song. One song from a Cameo / Parkway artist, one Sam Cooke song, just one, that would work in a motion picture????
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Again, I'm unclear here ... wouldn't ALLEN KLEIN have even MORE "money to steal" if he licensed these songs for theatrical use??? I'm confused!)

FH: Speaking of movies, some people don't realize that HERMAN'S HERMITS appeared in a couple of movies back in the '60's ... what was it like making the transition to "movie star"? (Having started out as an actor, was this an easy transition for you?) Obviously, the HERMAN'S HERMITS movies were more "romps" than serious acting ... but have you pursued acting over the past 25 years? Is that something you would be interested in?
PN: Read the bio. Rock movies were romps where 1) The Beatles ran away from girls; 2) The Dave Clark Five ran away from girls; and 3) Herman ran away from girls. Do you think we didn't slow down for the healthy ones? That was acting.
***

One of the films starring HERMAN'S HERMITS was a little throw-away ditty called HOLD ON. Ironically, the title theme from the film was stuck onto the B-SIDE of THE HERMITS' then latest single, LEANING ON THE LAMP POST (a #8 Hit in the Spring of 1966, and also used in the film.) LEANING ON THE LAMP POST continued that "Tin Pan Alley" sound that PETER NOONE had so well established with some of his earlier hits like I'M HENRY THE VIII, I AM. With THE BEATLES scoring #1 "soundtrack" hits with A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and HELP!, THE DAVE CLARK FIVE hitting big with CATCH US IF YOU CAN and even GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS topping the charts with FERRY 'CROSS THE MERSEY, it seems extremely odd that HOLD ON never charted at all in its own right ... yet the song that you would normally EXPECT to be the B-SIDE (although included in the film) became the bigger hit.

I have to admit that HOLD ON is NOT one of my favorite HERMAN'S HERMITS' B-SIDES ... but I remember it receiving enough airplay to qualify for at least a nomination in this special poll. (Besides, we've got more of our PETER NOONE interview to run ... so it ends up as one of today's featured tracks!) Along with HOLD ON, I'm also sending along GOT A FEELING, a B-SIDE that I actually DO like. This one came on the flip side of LISTEN PEOPLE in early 1966. (By the way, DIDJAKNOW that HERMAN'S HERMITS performed LISTEN PEOPLE in the CONNIE FRANCIS flick WHEN THE BOYS MEET THE GIRLS???) Remember, you can vote for ANY of the songs mentioned in this special B-SIDES Series ... and you can vote as often as you like. If something catches your fancy, drop us a line and let us know. When it's all over, we'll countdown your All-Time Top Ten B-SIDES Favorites!