"There's a Kind of Hush" is a popular song written by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens which was a hit in 1967 for Herman's Hermits and again in 1976 for The Carpenters.
The song was introduced on the 1966 album Winchester Cathedral by Geoff Stephens' group the New Vaudeville Band; like that group's hit "Winchester Cathedral", "There's a Kind of Hush" was conceived as a neo-British music hall number although it is a less overt proponent of that style. The first single version of "There's a Kind of Hush" was recorded in 1966 by Gary and the Hornets, a teen/pre-teen male band from Franklin, Ohio whose version—entitled "A Kind of Hush" produced by Lou Reizner—became a regional success and showed signs of breaking nationally in January 1967; the single would reach No. 4 in Cincinnati and No. 3 in Erie PA. However an expedient cover by Herman's Hermits was released in the US in February 1967 to reach the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100 in three weeks and proceed to a peak of #4—affording the group their final US Top Ten hit—with Gold certification for US sales of one million units awarded that April. In the UK Herman's Hermits' "There's a Kind of Hush" would reach No. 7. The success of the Herman's Hermits version led to the release of the original New Vaudeville Band track as a single in some territories with both of these versions charting in Australia with peaks of No. 5 (Herman's Hermits) and No. 12 (New Vaudeville Band) and also in South Africa where the New Vaudeville Band bested the Herman's Hermits' No. 9 peak by reaching No. 4.
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As All Music Guide’s Bruce Eder writes, “Hermans Hermits were one of those odd 1960’s groups that accumulated millions of fans, but precious little respect." The group first worked as the Heartbeats in 1963 and included guitarist Keith Hopwood, guitarist Derek “Lek” Leckenby, bassist Karl Green, and drummer Barry Whitwam. When the Heartbeats’ regular lead vocalist did not show up for a gig one night, Peter Noone sat in. Noone became the lead singer, with Hopwood, Leckenby, and Green providing backing vocals. Several things set Herman’s Hermits apart from the other successful British Invasion bands. For one thing, Noone had been a child star back in the 1950s. Therefore, despite his youth when he joined the band (he was 16), he had more show business experience than his 16-18-year-old bandmates. With all of Herman’s Hermits being younger than any of the members of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and some of the other British Invasion musicians, they had a greater potential for teen appeal. In addition, their relative youth meant that none of the members of Herman’s Hermits had experienced the development of British Invasion rock the same way as their older countrymen.
ReplyDeleteProducer Mickie Most signed the group in 1964 and capitalized on Peter Noone’s good looks and accompanying appeal to young female fans. For the most part, Most selected pop and easygoing soft rock songs for the group. He also liberally employed studio musicians to play on the band’s records. In part, it was the fact that band members contributed instrumentally so little—especially to their hit singles—that is behind the lack of respect that Herman’s Hermits received. The band was quite popular, however, especially in the United States. Hit singles such as their cover of the Goffin-King song “I’m into Something Good,” the rock version of the Edwardian-period music hall song “I’m Henry the VIII, I Am,” the innocent-sounding “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” and the ballads “The End of the World” and “There’s a Kind of Hush (All over the World)” made Herman’s Hermits one of the biggest-selling Top 40 bands of the 1964-1967 period.
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