Various Artists - NME Poll Winners' Concert, Empire Pool, London, Britain, 5-1-1966

I've already posted the NME Poll Winners' Concerts from 1964 and 1965. Here's the only other one known to be exist in the public sphere, the 1966 one.

This is arguably one of the greatest concerts of all time, just in terms of sheer star power. The last three acts were the Who, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles, for crying out loud! That was probably the one and only time those three acts appeared on stage in a row like that.

Unfortunately though... we're missing most of the good stuff, including all of those three performances! So sorry. And worse, of the remaining concert, we are missing half of that too. This concert was at least two hours long. So, to broadcast it on TV, it was split it two, and the two parts were shown on TV a week apart. It's pretty clear to me that only the second part survives, because all of the first part is missing. 

Here are all the musical acts that played in the first part: the Overlanders, Small Faces, the Spencer Davis Group, Roy Orbison, the Walker Brothers, the Yardbirds, the Seekers, the Alan Price Set, the Shadows, and Cliff Richard. If you add all those acts together, plus the ones we do have below (Sounds Incorporated, the Fortunes, Herman's Hermits, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, the Yardbirds, Crispian St. Peters, Alan Price Set, and Dusty Springfield), plus the three acts finishing the second set (the Who, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles), it's hard to argue this was the greatest collection of rock music talent ever on one stage in the 1960s. It's such a shame we don't have all of it!

Of course, the greatest loss is not getting to hear the Beatles' set. This would turn out to be the very last concert the Beatles performed in Britain, excepting the unannounced performance on top of Abbey Roads Studios in 1969. We do know the songs they played though: "I Feel Fine," "If I Needed Someone," "Day Tripper," "Nowhere Man," and "I'm Down."

To further frustrate you, these NME concerts continued until 1971. I couldn't find many details about the concerts after 1966. However, we know a bit more about the 1967 and 1968 concerts, because setlist.fm gives a list of the performers for each of those years.  

Here's a list of the known performers for the 1967 concert (in alphabetical order): Alan Price Set, Cat Stevens, Cliff Richard, Cream, Dusty Springfield, Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band, Lulu, Small Faces, the Beach Boys, the Dubliners, the Move, the Spencer Davis Group, the Troggs. 

And here are the known performers for the 1968 concert (also in alphabetical order): Amen Corner, Cliff Richard, Don Partridge, Dusty Springfield, Love Affair, Lulu, Procol Harum, Scott Walker, Status Quo, the Association, the Herd, the Move, the Paper Dolls, and the Rolling Stones. 

Man, what incredible concerts those would be to hear! Unfortunately though, no known recordings of any of the concerts after 1966 exist. I strongly suspect they weren't broadcast on TV, but I don't know for sure. Let's hope that the remainder of the 1966 concert and all of the 1967 to 1971 concerts are sitting in some vault and will be released to the public one day. 

Now, let's get to why we don't have the recordings of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Apparently, there was a big argument backstage. The popular version is that both Mick Jagger of the Stones and John Lennon of the Beatles argued that they were the biggest band in the world, and thus demanded to go on last. However, it appears this wasn't true. In fact, most of the members of the Beatles and the Stones were friends with each other. 

I found what appears to be the more accurate story at The Paul McCartney Project website. It has an impressive webpage dedicated to this concert, with lots of photos and text. You can find that here:

https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/concert/1966-05-01/

That webpage includes an excerpt from a book that extensively quotes Maurice Kinn, who was the owner of NME at the time. Here's what Kinn claims happened: 

"Halfway through the Stones' set, the four Beatles arrived at the foot of the stairs to the stage, with their guitars in hand. I told them they were 25 minutes early, but Lennon insisted that they were going on. I said they couldn't and John shouted, 'Didn't you hear me the first time? We're going on now, or we're not going on at all.' In a rapidly convened huddle with Brian Epstein, I outlined my dilemma, that I had promised the Stones, in writing, that the Beatles should not follow them immediately onto the stage. I had arranged for the awards presentation to come between the two acts and explained to Brian that if the Beatles did not come on at the previously arranged time, I would be left with no option but to send MC Jimmy Savile on stage to explain to 10,000 NME readers that the Beatles were in the stadium but they weren’t going to play. I explained to him very clearly what would happen then. There would be a riot! Half of Wembley would be destroyed and Wembley and the NME would both sue Epstein. Brian conveyed this to the Beatles and John exploded! He gave me abuse like you've never heard before in all of your life. You could hear him all over the backstage area. He said, 'We'll never play for you again!' But he knew that he had no choice. Fifteen minutes later, the Beatles went on stage, collected their awards and played the show."

So it seems it's true there was an argument involving Lennon, but not Jagger. Jagger was performing on stage at the time and was probably totally oblivious about the conflict going on nearby. While I think Lennon is one of the greatest musicians of all time, he could be an asshole sometimes, and it looks like this was one of those times. Probably the Beatles were sick and tired of giving concerts by this time, and Lennon had lost all patience and just wanted to get this obligation over with.

Be that as it may, the Beatles didn't even allow the cameras to roll when they took the stage, due to the conflict mentioned above. I'm not sure how it came to be that the Who and the Rolling Stones also didn't allowing their performances to be broadcast either, but that's what happened. 

So anyway, while we can lament all the missing music, what we're left with is still pretty damn impressive. And we're lucky to have anything at all, since very few live recordings from 1966 survive. As for the sound quality, it's reasonably good, but not great. Consider this was probably recorded off a TV in 1966, so one has to lower one's standards a bit. I tried to improve it, but there wasn't much I could do, since I couldn't successfully separate the vocals from the instruments, or the instruments from each other. In the end, I just kept it the same. 

In case you're curious about who won the poll awards this year, there's a list at the NME website, which you can see here:

https://www.nme.com/nme-awards/awards-history/1966-606221

Also, note that I found a review for this concert from NME, thanks to the Paul McCartney Project website mentioned above. I included an image of it in the download file. It has comments about all the performances, including all the missing ones.

This album is one hour long. 

01 talk (Sounds Incorporated)
02 In the Hall of the Mountain King [Instrumental] (Sounds Incorporated)
03 Zorba's Dance [Instrumental] (Sounds Incorporated)
04 talk (Fortunes)
05 This Golden Ring (Fortunes)
06 You've Got Your Troubles (Fortunes)
07 talk (Herman's Hermits)
08 A Must to Avoid (Herman's Hermits)
09 You Won't Be Leaving (Herman's Hermits)
10 talk (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich)
11 You Make It Move (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich)
12 Hold Tight (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich)
13 talk (Yardbirds)
14 Train Kept A-Rollin' (Yardbirds)
15 Shapes of Things (Yardbirds)
16 talk (Crispian St. Peters)
17 Send Me Some Lovin' (Crispian St. Peters)
18 The Pied Piper (Crispian St. Peters)
19 talk (Alan Price Set)
20 Baby Workout (Alan Price Set)
21 I Put a Spell on You (Alan Price Set)
22 talk (Dusty Springfield)
23 In the Middle of Nowhere (Dusty Springfield)
24 You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (Dusty Springfield)
25 talk (Dusty Springfield)
26 Shake (Dusty Springfield)
27 talk (Beatles & emcee)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/L5VqhUHF

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/GvbEFGJxuHwyVLp/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. Sorry if it's misleading to have a photo of the Beatles but no actual Beatles music on the album. At least we do have the recording of the Beatles accepting their awards. This photo was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.

The Bee Gees & Friends - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 8-10-1973

Here's a full episode of the "Midnight Special" TV show. It was a rare episode with a theme, with the theme being a focus on British Invasion bands that were big around 1964. The Bee Gees were the hosts, but their role was less than usual, since there also were performances from Herman's Hermits, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders, the Hollies, the Searchers, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas.

For some reason, the Midnight Special TV show really liked the Bee Gees in 1973, even though their popularity was near a relative low point around that time. They hosted the show four times that year, and made additional appearances on top of that! I plan on turning that into four albums, with this one being the first to get posted. 

Generally speaking with these Midnight Special albums, I cut them down to just the host act and maybe one more, because I want them to stay musically consistent. But if the show has a musical theme, like this one does, I have no problem posting the whole thing. That's what I did here. However, there still are some cuts. For instance, I removed a section where the musical acts on the next episode are all named. I also did a lot of editing to get rid of the commercial breaks, usually smoothing them over with extra applause. 

This must have been one of the first mass media instances of a British Invasion revival, since it had been less than ten years since the "Invasion" actually happened. Unfortunately, show business is an unforgiving business, and most of the acts on this show were far from the singles charts in 1973. The only exceptions were the Bee Gees, though as mentioned above 1973 was a slow year for them, and the Hollies, who'd had a big hit with "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)" in 1972, and Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, who had some success with a solo career in the early 1970s. 

By the way, note that "Long Cool Woman" was co-written by Allan Clarke of the Hollies, who also was the lead singer on it. He left the Hollies in 1971, and rejoined in July 1973. But the lead singer seen and heard in this episode is band member Terry Sylvester. So this episode must have been filmed shortly before Clarke rejoined the Hollies. (Unfortunately, for virtually all the Midnight Special episodes, I only know the broadcast date, not the actual recording date, which I always prefer.)

Performing for this show must have been a bit strange for most of the musical acts here. It hadn't been that many years since they had been big stars, and they basically looked and sounded the same as before. But other than rare short appearances like this show, most of them must have been touring supper clubs, on an oldies circuit. But kudos to this show for giving them a national TV platform like this, when their probably wasn't a big call for it.

Musically, I think the highlight has to be a long medley of Beatles songs performed by the Bee Gees in the middle of the show: "If I Fell," "I Need You," "I'll Be Back," "This Boy," and "She Loves You." If you're a Bee Gees fan, it's worth getting this just for that medley. They never put any such medley on an album. 

This album is an hour and two minutes long. 

01 talk by Wolfman Jack (Bee Gees)
02 New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Bee Gees)
03 talk (Bee Gees)
04 I'm Henry the VIII I Am (Herman's Hermits)
05 talk (Bee Gees)
06 How Do You Do It (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
07 I Like It (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
08 talk (Bee Gees)
09 The Game of Love (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
10 talk (Bee Gees)
11 Long Cool Woman [In a Black Dress] (Hollies)
12 talk (Bee Gees)
13 Needles and Pins (Searchers)
14 talk (Bee Gees)
15 If I Fell - I Need You (Bee Gees)
16 I'll Be Back (Bee Gees)
17 This Boy - She Loves You (Bee Gees)
18 talk (Bee Gees)
19 Little Children (Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas)
20 Ferry Cross the Mersey (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
21 talk (Bee Gees & Peter Noone)
22 Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (Herman's Hermits)
23 A Groovy Kind of Love (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
24 He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (Hollies)
25 Turn of the Century (Bee Gees)
26 Sweets for My Sweet (Searchers)
27 There's a Kind of Hush (Herman's Hermits)
28 Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying (Gerry & the Pacemakers)
29 I Can't See Nobody (Bee Gees)
30 Love Potion No. 9 (Searchers)
31 talk (Bee Gees)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/rCWB1ARe

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/a5Qh8RSzKdG23Zd/file 

The cover of the Bee Gees is a screenshot taken from this exact concert, during their Beatles medley.

Various Artists - NME Poll Winners' Concert, Empire Pool, London, Britain, 4-11-1965

I read an interesting article today (in January 2022) about how the sale of new music is continually falling to all time lows every year, while interest in older music continues to rise. It's a good article. I suggest you check it out:

https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/is-old-music-killing-new-music

As the article points out, there's still plenty of good new music, it's just that's not what gets promoted and makes it big, due to screwed-up record companies and other factors. Compare the artists on the top of the charts today to the quality of the mainstream artists at the time of this 1965 concert: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Animals, Dusty Springfield, Them (with Van Morrison), the Moody Blues, Donovan, and many more, all sharing the same stage! Is it any wonder that lots of people (including me) are more interested in this kind of music than the generic, pre-packaged pop of today? The amount of sheer talent bursting up the charts in 1965 was staggering.

The reason so many big names played this one concert was because it was an awards show of sorts for NME - New Musical Express, a British music magazine. NME began giving out yearly poll winner awards in 1953, and continue to do it until this day (2022 as I write this). At least through 1971, there were annual concerts to celebrate the winners. But unlike most awards shows, this concert just focused on music instead of bogging things down with lots of speeches and award presentations (though there was a short section for that). 

I would love to hear the 1966, 1967, and 1968 shows in full, since music just got better and better as the 1960s went on, in my opinion, and all sorts of interesting artists played in those later shows, including Cream, the Small Faces, the Move, the Beach Boys, Cat Stevens, the Who, the Yardbirds, and lots more, including more appearances by big names in this concert, like the Beatles and Rolling Stones. It seems only the 1964, 1965 and 1966 shows are available on bootleg. I'm posting the 1965 one first as I think it's more interesting, with these mostly British Invasion acts more fully developed by then.

The sound quality is excellent throughout. This concert was professionally recorded in order to be broadcast on British TV a short time afterwards. The TV version was edited down, but somehow luckily a recording of the entire show has made its way to the public. You can watch the entire thing on YouTube, though it's only in black and white.

This concert took place before artists typically stretched out with lots of soloing and jamming and such. These songs don't differ that much from their studio versions (with a few exceptions, like Them and the Animals). But I still think this is a fascinating listen, as there aren't many quality concert recordings from this early in the 1960s. In particular, there were many artists who were pretty big back in the day but have little to no surviving audio or video of them in concert. Even for major names like the Animals and Dusty Springfield, there's very little from around this time period. And for the lesser known acts, this is often the only evidence of them in concert that seems to still exist.

I'm a big Kinks fan, so a minor disappointment for me is that the Kinks only played two songs. Even at this early stage in their career they were a big enough name to deserve more time. Apparently, this has to do with them being late to the show, as they had just got off a plane coming from another country. You can hear guitarist Dave Davies apologize about this between songs. According to some accounts, they actually played after the Beatles, as the very last act. However, the recording I used had them just before the Beatles, and that seems to fit in terms of the audience applause and announcement and such, so I'm keeping it that way.

As far as naming the artists for each song goes, technically I should have put the names of the emcee or emcees on many of the talk tracks. Some of those had band members talking, some had the emcees, and some where a mix. But rather than spend time dealing with all that, I just put the name of the act being introduced, for simplicity's sake. (Unfortunately, one of the emcees was DJ Jimmy Savile, who later was disgraced in a child molestation scandal. Thankfully, his role here is very minor.) I only put in the DJ names on the very first and last tracks, since those weren't linked to any particular artists.

A couple of the performers here are rather forgettable. I was tempted to cut out Freddie and the Dreamers and Sounds Incorporated in particular. But ultimately I decided it was best to present the entire thing unedited (although I cut out some annoying laughter by Freddie and the Dreamers between songs). Overall, I think the percentage of quality performers is quite high. 

The Beatles only got to do a 15 minute long set, but it's nice that you can actually hear them perform instead of being totally drowned out by screaming, as was typical of the time. Apparently, the arena (Empire Pool, later renamed Wembley Arena), held about 10,000 people. I'm sure that, by 1965, the Beatles could have filled up a much larger venue in London all on their own.

In case you're curious about who won the poll awards this year, there's a list at the NME website, which you can see here: 

https://www.nme.com/nme-awards/awards-history/1965-606223

It seems there were even more musical acts who performed but didn't make it to the recording for one reason or another. I'm not entirely sure if they actually performed, but these other names were included in the program given to the audience and were at least scheduled to perform: Tom Jones, the Bachelors, the Rockin' Berries, and Twinkle.  

This concert is two hours and 23 minutes long. I cut out some dead air between songs. But there was surprisingly little of that to begin with. Either this was already edited down, or this was a tightly run show.

01 talk (Keith Fordyce & Jimmy Savile)
02 Bo Diddley - Pretty Thing (Moody Blues)
03 Go Now (Moody Blues)
04 talk (Freddie & the Dreamers)
05 Little Bitty Pretty One (Freddie & the Dreamers)
06 talk (Freddie & the Dreamers)
07 A Little You (Freddie & the Dreamers)
08 talk (Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames)
09 Yeh Yeh (Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames)
10 talk (Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames)
11 Walking the Dog (Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames)
12 talk (Seekers)
13 I'll Never Find Another You (Seekers)
14 talk (Seekers)
15 A World of Our Own (Seekers)
16 talk (Herman's Hermits)
17 Wonderful World (Herman's Hermits)
18 talk (Herman's Hermits)
19 Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (Herman's Hermits)
20 talk (Ivy League)
21 Funny How Love Can Be (Ivy League)
22 talk (Ivy League)
23 Sweet and Tender Romance (Ivy League)
24 talk (Ivy League)
25 That's Why I'm Crying (Ivy League)
26 talk (Sounds Incorporated)
27 Time for You [Instrumental] (Sounds Incorporated)
28 talk (Sounds Incorporated)
29 In the Hall of the Mountain King [Instrumental] (Sounds Incorporated)
30 talk (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
31 The Game of Love (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
32 talk (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
33 Just a Little Bit Too Late (Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders)
34 talk (Rolling Stones)
35 Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Rolling Stones)
36 Pain in My Heart (Rolling Stones)
37 Around and Around (Rolling Stones)
38 The Last Time (Rolling Stones)
39 talk (Cilla Black with Sounds Incorporated)
40 Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah (Cilla Black with Sounds Incorporated)
41 talk (Cilla Black with Sounds Incorporated)
42 Going Out of My Head (Cilla Black with Sounds Incorporated)
43 talk (Donovan)
44 You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond (Donovan)
45 talk (Donovan)
46 Catch the Wind (Donovan)
47 talk (Them)
48 Here Comes the Night (Them)
49 Turn on Your Love Light (Them)
50 talk (Searchers)
51 Bumble Bee (Searchers)
52 talk (Searchers)
53 Let the Good Times Roll (Searchers)
54 talk (Dusty Springfield)
55 Dancing in the Street (Dusty Springfield)
56 talk (Dusty Springfield)
57 Mockingbird (Dusty Springfield)
58 I Can't Hear You [No More] (Dusty Springfield)
59 talk (Animals)
60 Boom Boom (Animals)
61 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Animals)
62 Talkin' 'bout You (Animals)
63 talk (Kinks)
64 You Really Got Me (Kinks)
65 Tired of Waiting for You (Kinks)
66 talk (Beatles)
67 I Feel Fine (Beatles)
68 talk (Beatles)
69 She's a Woman (Beatles)
70 talk (Beatles)
71 Baby's in Black (Beatles)
72 talk (Beatles)
73 Ticket to Ride (Beatles)
74 talk (Beatles)
75 Long Tall Sally (Beatles)
76 talk (Keith Fordyce)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6niBfp48

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/RBH3ooSgczT5hrW/file

When I first posted this album in 2022, I used a black and white photo of the Beatles from the concert that I colorized. But looking at the cover again in 2026, I decided the photo wasn't very good. So I used a different photo of the Beatles from the concert that is zoomed in closer, and has more detail. This one also was black and white, and then colorized by me with the use of the Kolorize program.

I took most of the cover text from advertisements of the show, though I added in the list of some of the artists.

Herman's Hermits - Herman's Hermits Sing Graham Gouldman (1965-1971)

Here's something I made for myself, but since it exists I figure why not post it? The Herman's Hermits are very uncool these days, but maybe there a few people who appreciate this.

I consider Graham Gouldman to be a great songwriter. In fact, I've already featured him in my "Covered" songwriter series. It turns out that in the 1960s, no musical artist covered his songs more than the Herman's Hermits. There's just enough for a reasonably long album, so I've put one together. 

The Herman's Hermits had a big hit with his song "No Milk Today," and some other minor hits by him. But they liked his material so much that they covered some of his songs that were big hits for others, like "For My Love," "Bus Stop," and "Tallyman." The only two big 1960s of his they didn't do were "Evil Hearted You" and "Look through Any Window."

Oh, I also posted this album so I could make an announcement for the other three Herman's Hermits fans out there: I recently redid all the albums by them that I'd previously posted at this blog. That means the four BBC sessions collections, plus "The Covers Album." I specifically redid all the BBC songs that had DJs talking over some of the music. Thanks to new sound editing programs like Spleeter and X-Minus, I could completely erase that talking while keeping all of the music, so that's what I did. 

Say what you will about the Herman's Hermits, but Gouldman's songs are very creative and tuneful, and this band knew how to do them well.

This album is 36 minutes long. A couple of the songs - "Bus Stop" and "Tallyman" - are BBC versions, but the rest are from albums or singles.

01 For Your Love (Herman's Hermits)
02 No Milk Today (Herman's Hermits)
03 East West (Herman's Hermits)
04 Listen People (Herman's Hermits)
03 Bus Stop [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
06 Marcel's (Herman's Hermits)
07 Upstairs, Downstairs (Herman's Hermits)
05 Tallyman [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
09 Ooh She's Done It Again (Herman's Hermits)
10 Lemon and Lime (Herman's Hermits with Stanley Holloway)
11 It's Nice to Be Out in the Morning (Herman's Hermits)
12 London Look (Herman's Hermits)
13 The World Is for the Young (Herman's Hermits with Sarah Caldwell & Stanley Holloway)
14 It's Alright Now (Herman's Hermits)
15 Because You're There (Peter Noone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/B1ahGkre

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/04u7ND0L05nAMvn/file

I consider myself quite lucky to find a photo of Gouldman with Herman's Hermits lead singer Peter Noone. It looks like Noone is signing a card on Gouldman's back. The photo I found was in black and white, but I colorized it.

Herman's Hermits - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: 1969-1972

Here's the fourth and last volume featuring Herman's Hermits performing at the BBC. 

This deals with a time when the band was losing popularity and falling apart. The first six songs are of Herman's Hermits with their long-time lead singer Peter Noone. But then Noone tried for a solo career. You can see in the credits which songs just feature him. There also are three more songs (tracks 11 to 13) of Herman's Hermits without Noone.

You might think the musical quality dropped along with the band's popularity, but I honestly don't think that's the case. For that era, the band was out of step with popular musical styles and well as a fashion image. (Note how they're STILL wearing suits on the album cover.) But decades after the fact, these things don't matter much. I'm sure the songs would have been much more successful if they'd been released a few years earlier.

The band actually still had fairly good success with some singles during this time. "My Sentimental Friend" was a number two hit in Britain, "Years May Come, Years May Go" and "Lady Barbara" were Top Ten hits there, and they had some other Top Forty Hits. But I think it's notable that the record company wouldn't let them put out any albums. Noone also had a big hit with a cover of the classic David Bowie song "Oh, You Pretty Things." Another song here, "Right On Mother," is a Bowie song that Bowie himself didn't release at the time.

After 1972, both Noone and what remained of Herman's Hermits had such low profiles that they effectively ceased putting out new music. As a result, they ceased performing for the BBC. But in my opinion, they were doing interesting things with their BBC sessions right until the end. Note especially the nice cover of Crosby, Stills and Nash's "Helplessly Hoping," which was never officially released.

01 Green Street Green [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
02 My Sentimental Friend [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
03 Here Comes the Star (Herman's Hermits)
04 Years May Come, Years May Go (Herman's Hermits)
05 Bet Yer Life I Do (Herman's Hermits)
06 Lady Barbara (Herman's Hermits)
07 Together Forever [Edit] (Peter Noone)
08 Oh, You Pretty Things [Edit] (Peter Noone)
09 Right On Mother (Peter Noone)
10 Walnut Whirl (Peter Noone)
11 She's a Lady (Herman's Hermits)
12 Helplessly Hoping [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
13 Gold Mandela [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
14 Each and Every Minute (Peter Noone)
15 Shoo Be Doo Ah (Peter Noone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/caMH4TMJ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/pV6ORaoFAMqd8aA/file

The cover art shows the band playing on the "Top of the Pops" TV show in 1969.

Herman's Hermits - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1967-1969

Here's the third volume in a four volume series of Herman's Hermit's performing for the BBC. I don't want to repeat all my comments from the earlier volumes in this series, so I'll limit myself to saying don't dismiss this just because you see the "Herman's Hermits" name. Yeah, they were super uncool, but if you like the 1960s pop stylings of the Hollies and the Monkees, you should like this.

In 1967, psychedelic music was all the rage. Herman's Hermits began having few hits, because their poppy style was increasingly out of step with cultural trends. That said, I like this era more than their earlier era. They still were a million miles away from the likes of Jimi Hendrix or Cream, but they also had moved beyond the sometimes twee style of "Henry the VIII I Am" and "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter."

The vast majority of the songs are made up of cover versions of hits by others, with only a few hits originally by Herman's Hermits scattered in there. Around 1968, the band wanted to put out an album entirely made of covers of famous songs. It never came out, not even as bonus tracks or the like, so not much has leaked to the public other than these BBC performances. A couple of months back, I made an album entirely of my best guesses for the songs that would have been released on that cover album. You can see that here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-hermans-hermits-covers-album.html

There's a lot of overlap between that album and this one. But I figure anything the band did for the BBC belongs as part of this series.

By the way, note that one of the band's biggest (and best) hits was "I'm into Something Good," in 1964. It seems they never played that song for the BBC in 1964 or thereabouts. But for some reason, they decided to play it in late 1968. I'm glad they did, because I think these BBC albums make up a kind of box set length best of collection for the band. There would have been a big gap if that song hadn't been included.

Another by the way. If you've been following this blog, you've probably noticed how I don't like the BBC DJs talking over the starts and ends of songs sometimes on BBC recordings, and how I try to edit those voices out. This album is probably the worst case of that yet. No less than 14 out of the 18 songs had to be edited by me to fix this problem! You can see those with the "[Edit]" in the file names. But on the plus side, I think I'm getting better at doing this kind of editing, so I hope you won't notice when you listen.

01 New York Mining Disaster 1941 [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
02 Marcel's [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
03 Bus Stop [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
04 Memphis, Tennessee [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
05 Tallyman [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
06 Sleepy Joe (Herman's Hermits)
07 Dandy [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
08 Hello Mary Lou [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
09 Sunshine Girl (Herman's Hermits)
10 Keep On [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
11 It's All Right - Shout [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
12 Morning Dew [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
13 Love Is Blue [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
14 Something's Happening (Herman's Hermits)
15 I'm into Something Good [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
16 Save the Last Dance for Me (Herman's Hermits)
17 The Most Beautiful Thing in My Life [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
18 Little Green Apples [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/jFXU2swy

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/xWbjt3Zitss15P3/file

The cover art shows the band in 1967. Note how they seem totally unaffected by late 1960s fashion trends, still wearing suits.

Herman's Hermits - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1966-1967

Here's the second of four volumes of Herman's Hermits at the BBC. I've already made the case for not overlooking this band in two previous posts, so I won't repeat myself here. But to sum it up in one sentence, if you like British Invasion pop by the likes of the Hollies, don't overlook this band (despite their lightweight reputation and dumb name). 

Out of the four BBC volumes I'm posting here, I think volume one is the weakest. This one is markedly better. How anyone can dislike a song like "No Milk Today" - written by the great Graham Gouldman - is beyond me. In fact, this band probably covered more Gouldman songs than any other. He also wrote a few others here, such as "Listen, People" and "East West."

I'm not that familiar with every last song by this band, so I don't always know which songs here were only done in BBC versions. But I do know there were at least a couple here that are unique, such as "All Thing Things I Do for You Baby," "Little Boy Sad," "Tell Her," and the Tim Hardin classic "If I Were a Carpenter."

As with all these volumes, every single performance here remains officially unreleased. I had the usual problem of BBC DJs talking over the starts of some songs, but I got lucky with this volume, as there are only four such cases (marked with "[Edit]" in the title). As usual, I did my best to edit those voices out.

01 Listen, People (Herman's Hermits)
02 You Won't Be Leaving (Herman's Hermits)
03 Got a Feeling [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
04 This Door Swings Both Ways (Herman's Hermits)
05 For Love (Herman's Hermits)
06 The George and Dragon (Herman's Hermits)
07 Little Boy Sad [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
08 Je Suis Anglais [L'Autre Jour] [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
09 No Milk Today (Herman's Hermits)
10 All Thing Things I Do for You Baby (Herman's Hermits)
11 East West (Herman's Hermits)
12 Dial My Number (Herman's Hermits)
13 There's a Kind of Hush (Herman's Hermits)
14 Jezebel (Herman's Hermits)
15 My Reservation's Been Confirmed [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
16 If I Were a Carpenter (Herman's Hermits)
17 Tell Her (Herman's Hermits)
18 I Can Take or Leave Your Loving (Herman's Hermits)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mfWYubCu

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/8kC3I4IyfC5PoYh/file 

The album cover photo dates to August 1966.

Herman's Hermits - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1964-1966

Some weeks back, I posted an unreleased cover songs album by Herman's Hermits that should have been released around 1968. I hope a lot of people here got to listen to it and realize the band is better than their reputation, because, let's be honest, their reputation is awful. When people look back at the big British Invasion bands, Herman's Hermits are usually considered the most slight and forgettable. To be honest, some of their material is rather cringe-worthy. But they also did a lot of excellent stuff. Yeah, they were very poppy, but in my opinion there are few things better than a really catchy and well put together pop song.

It doesn't surprise that Herman's Hermits played for the BBC a lot in the 1960s. I have no doubt the conservative BBC was more comfortable with their type of music than the likes of Pink Floyd or Jimi Hendrix. But what does surprise me is that NONE of the band's BBC recordings have been officially released. I suspect that's because their uncool image still dogs them until the present day. But that's a shame, because I think one can make a stronger case for the band through their BBC material than their albums and singles. The BBC versions tend to be less produced and more spontaneous, and those are almost always good things, in my opinion. But also, they played a fair number of songs they never recorded in the studio, and these songs are often more rocking. There's only a bit of that on this early volume, but they do play the blues classic "Got My Mojo Working" and the Carl Perkins rockabilly classic "Matchbox."

If you like the pop style of the Hollies, you should give this a try. I think they're still hurt by their image. For one thing, their name is awful. "Herman's Hermits" sounds like a name you shouldn't take seriously, something for teenyboppers. I wonder how different their reputation would be simply if they'd had a cool name, or even a generic name. And the looks and persona of lead singer Peter Noone also suggested an entertainer aimed at teenyboppers. But if you can look past all that and just focus on the music, there's a lot to like, even though there may be a few clunkers here and there. 

This album is 45 minutes long. It's the first of four volumes.

Ironically, the bonus track "Fortune Teller" is the only officially released song here, yet it easily has the worst sound quality. (Thus its bonus track status.) I included it because it's a very rare example of the band playing in concert in their early days. Apparently when they got started they could hold their own with other British bands that were heavily influenced by American R&B, and this is an example of that.

01 Ain't That Just like a Woman (Herman's Hermits)
02 Show Me Girl (Herman's Hermits)
03 Can't You Hear My Heartbeat (Herman's Hermits)
04 Silhouettes (Herman's Hermits)
05 Wonderful World (Herman's Hermits)
06 Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (Herman's Hermits)
07 Dream On [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
08 I'm Henry the VIII I Am (Herman's Hermits)
09 Travellin' Light (Herman's Hermits)
10 I'm Talking about You (Herman's Hermits)
11 Got My Mojo Working (Herman's Hermits)
12 Just a Little Bit Better (Herman's Hermits)
13 Sea Cruise [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
14 Take Love, Give Love [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
15 Walking with My Angel (Herman's Hermits)
16 The Man with the Cigar (Herman's Hermits)
17 Matchbox [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
18 A Must to Avoid (Herman's Hermits)
19 Hold On (Herman's Hermits)
20 Where Were You When I Needed You [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)

Fortune Teller (Herman's Hermits)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/MoenkyBn

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/aOJSPmTtiZtS825/file 

The cover art photo comes from 1964. I find it interesting to see them dressed in leather, given the tame image they would be known for.

Herman's Hermits - The Covers Album (1968)

I'm psyched to be presenting this, even though it's from the notoriously uncool band Hermit's Hermits. It turns out that in 1968, Herman's Hermits planned to release an album made up entirely of cover versions of well known songs. It never was released, probably because the band's commercial fortunes were rapidly declining in the late 1960s. Every song here remains officially unreleased, so this is a true "lost album." I think it's pretty darn good, especially if you're into the "sunshine pop" genre. If you're into this type of music at all, you should give it a listen.

I know you're probably thinking, "Herman's Hermits?! What the hell?!" It's true they have a bad reputation as an inconsequential and lightweight pop group from the 1960s. And there's some truth to that, for sure. But I've been putting together material for a series of BBC albums from them, and I've been pleasantly surprised by what they did for the BBC, which is often superior to their studio recordings. I plan on posting those BBC performances soon. This is going to serve as a kind of teaser, because most of these songs come from their BBC sessions, though some do not.

Here's what I know about their covers album. Apparently, in 1968, the band recorded about 50 (!) songs for a proposed cover album. None of them have ever been officially released, nor have any of their BBC performances. But some have appeared on bootlegs, so I've collected everything I could find. Twelve of the songs are from BBC sessions. I'll be including them on BBC albums as well, but I figure they can do double duty here too. I'm not sure if all of these were part of the covers album, but I included all the covers they did at the BBC from mid-1967 to early 1969.

Seven more songs from the covers album have leaked out in other ways. Most of these were played on the "Come to the Sunshine" podcast by Andrew Sandoval in 2012. Unfortunately, all of these songs were cut off about two-thirds of the way through. In each case, I did my best to restore the missing parts, usually by repeating verses and/or choruses from earlier in the song. Generally, there was just enough to make this work, with the versions generally going just past the second verses. But for the song "Friends," the end of the second verse got cut off. So if you listen carefully, the last word is actually from the end of the first verse.

I had a similar problem with the BBC performances. In almost every case here, a BBC DJ talked over the starts or ends of the songs. I think I did a pretty good job of restoring the missing bits though, usually by patching in sections from later in the same song.

In terms of the music, I think the band made some excellent choices which they do well in their poppy style. They sound a lot like the Association on many of these songs, with lush harmony vocals. This band was nowhere near the cutting edge, but even so, I was pleasantly surprised to see them do songs by the likes of Buffalo Springfield, Tim Hardin, and Jeff Beck. You don't have to be a fan of Herman's Hermits to enjoy this; just a fan of 1960s pop music in general.

If the band really did record 50 songs for their covers project, that could have easily been a double album with some songs left over. As it is, I was only able to find 47 minutes worth of music. But that so happens to end up being the length of generous single album from that era, so that works out rather nicely.

Here are the original artists for each song:

01 Walk Away Renee - Never My Love - Left Banke - Association
02 Rock and Roll Woman [Edit] - Buffalo Springfield
03 If I Were a Carpenter - Tim Hardin / Bobby Darin
04 New York Mining Disaster 1941 [Edit] - Bee Gees
05 Memphis, Tennessee [Edit] - Chuck Berry
06 Tallyman [Edit] - Jeff Beck
07 Hello Mary Lou [Edit] - Gene Pitney / Ricky Nelson
08 Keep On [Edit] - Bruce Channel
09 It's All Right - Shout [Edit] - Impressions - Isley Brothers
10 Morning Dew [Edit] - Bonnie Dobson / Grateful Dead
11 Love Is Blue [Edit] - Vicky Leandros
12 Save the Last Dance for Me - Drifters
13 Little Green Apples [Edit] - Bobby Russell / O. C. Smith
14 Friends [Edit] - Beach Boys
15 People - Barbra Streisand
16 Daydream [Edit] - Lovin' Spoonful
17 What to Do [Edit] - Buddy Holly
18 Windy [Edit] - Association

Here's the usual song list:

01 Walk Away Renee (Herman's Hermits)
02 Rock and Roll Woman [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
03 If I Were a Carpenter (Herman's Hermits)
04 New York Mining Disaster 1941 [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
05 Memphis, Tennessee [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
06 Tallyman [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
07 Hello Mary Lou [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
08 Keep On [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
09 It's All Right - Shout [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
10 Morning Dew [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
11 Love Is Blue [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
12 Save the Last Dance for Me (Herman's Hermits)
13 Little Green Apples [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
14 Friends [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
15 People (Herman's Hermits)
16 Daydream [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
17 What to Do [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)
18 Windy [Edit] (Herman's Hermits)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Wp2fubaB

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/u1oKBjcQmYzVevy/file

The cover art shows the band playing on an unknown TV show in 1968. I'm very glad to have it as the cover, because it shows the band bending ever so slightly to the prevailing cultural winds of the late 1960s, especially with the background imagery, while staying somewhat square. That perfectly describes their music on this album too.