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.
Very interesting series, thanks for all the work turning this stuff up, and especially editing out those smarmy BBC hosts. I mean, it's interesting from a historical perspective, but who needs to hear the deejay ruining the intro to a song more than once?
ReplyDeleteAnd, just a heads up, the title of this post calls it Volume 3.
I agree. :) And good point about the title. I just fixed that.
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ReplyDeleteI just listened to all four volumes. Even gave 3 & 4 a couple extra listens. Excellent work here. I had no idea this stuff even existed. It's a nice companion to the Mickie Most Years set they released. Thanks for bringing this all together.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, there's tons of great BBC stuff from this era. Check my blog for some of your other favorite acts. If you like the Herman's Hermits, you probably like other similar groups.
DeleteI remember there were some problems with file sharing. At the moment I can't reach upload.ee (or - in some cases - can't download files). Please, check it. If you're OK, this may be my personal problem (and that'll be sad).
ReplyDeleteThe link looked like it still worked. But I want to update all the links anyway, eventually, so I just changed the Hermits ones.
DeleteSure, your blog is one of the most unusual around. And BBC collections are one of it's distinctive features. But I always wonder why you never indicate the dates of recordings (or broadcast) for these tracks? You think it doesn't matter or it's due to lack of information? Some bands have played the same tracks for BBC many times, so it would help to understand which version we have (thanks to your efforts).
ReplyDeleteThe information is ALL THERE! I've mentioned this countless times, but many people still don't seem to notice: all that info is in the mp3 tags, for every single album I post. If you don't know how to look at mp3 tags, look it up and get a program that allows you to do it. Personally, I use the programs Mp3tag and TagScanner. For instance, here's some of the mp3 tag info for Volume 1 in this series:
Delete01 Ain't That Just like a Woman - 1964 - Top of the Pops, BBC, London, Britain, 12-1964
02 Show Me Girl - 1964 - Top of the Pops, BBC, London, Britain, 12-1964
03 Can't You Hear My Heartbeat - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 2-16-1965
04 Silhouettes - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 2-16-1965
05 Wonderful World - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 4-13-1965
06 Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 4-13-1965
07 Dream On [Edit] - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 4-13-1965
08 I'm Henry the VIII I Am - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 4-13-1965
09 Travellin' Light - 1965 - Swing into Summer, BBC, London, Britain, 6-29-1965
10 I'm Talking about You - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 7-12-1965
11 Got My Mojo Working - 1965 - Rolling Stones Special, BBC, London, Britain, 8-20-1965
12 Just a Little Bit Better - 1965 - Rolling Stones Special, BBC, London, Britain, 8-20-1965
13 Sea Cruise [Edit] - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 9-6-1965
14 Take Love, Give Love [Edit] - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 9-6-1965
15 Walking with My Angel - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 9-6-1965
16 The Man with the Cigar - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 12-7-1965
17 Matchbox [Edit] - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 12-7-1965
18 A Must to Avoid - 1965 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 12-7-1965
19 Hold On - 1966 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 3-22-1966
20 Where Were You When I Needed You [Edit] - 1966 - Saturday Club, BBC, London, Britain, 3-22-1966
Fortune Teller - 1964 - Live 1964-1966 (Cavern Club, 1964)