I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am

"I'm Henry VIII, I Am"
"I'm Henry VIII, I Am"
Single by Herman's Hermits
from the album Herman's Hermits and Their Second Album! Herman's Hermits on Tour
B-side	"The End of the World"
Released	June 1965 (US); September 1965 (UK);
Recorded	De Lane Lea Studios, London, 1 February 1965
Genre	Beat; music hall;
Length	1:50
Label	EMI
Songwriter(s)	Fred Murray; R. P. Weston;
Producer(s)	Mickie Most
Herman's Hermits singles chronology

"I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am"
"I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am"
Song by Harry Champion
Written	1910
Genre	Music Hall
Songwriter(s)	Fred Murray; R. P. Weston;

"I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am" (also "I'm Henery the VIII, I Am" or "I'm Henry VIII, I Am"; spelled "Henery" but pronounced "'Enery" in the Cockney style normally used to sing it) is a 1910 British music hall song by Fred Murray and R. P. Weston. It was a signature song of the music hall star Harry Champion.

Joe Brown included the song on his first album A Picture of You in 1962. In 1965, it became the fastest-selling song in history to that point when it was revived by Herman's Hermits,^[2] becoming the group's second number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, dethroning "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". Despite that success, the single was not released in the UK. The Herman's Hermits version is a very short song, one of the shortest ever to be a number-one single in the US.

In the well-known chorus, Henery explains that his wife had been married seven times before, each time to another Henery:

I'm 'Enery the Eighth, I am,
'Enery the Eighth I am, I am!
I got married to the widow next door,
She's been married seven times before
And every one was an 'Enery
She wouldn't have a Willie nor a Sam
I'm her eighth old man named 'Enery
'Enery the Eighth, I am!

However, in the Hermits' version, Peter Noone ends each chorus with "I'm her eighth old man, I'm 'Enery" and never sings "named".

^ Stanley, Bob (13 September 2013). "Needles And Pins: The Beat Boom". Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop. Faber & Faber. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-571-28198-5.
^ MacInnes, Colin (1965) "The Old English Music Hall Songs Are New". The New York Times, November 28, 1965, p. SM62: "Henery — which hit the top of the record lists and, according to one American expert, was 'the fastest-selling song in history' — was in fact an old English music hall song enjoying a new lease on life. Description of Champion's performance: p. 95. Spelling of title: image on p. 62 shows title presented in all-caps, "I'M HENRY VIII, I AM." Text of article, however, uses the spelling "Henery" throughout, even when referring to the Herman's Hermits revival. Perhaps the most correct spelling is "'Enery"; that is certainly how Harry pronounces it.

[1] Stanley, Bob (13 September 2013). "Needles And Pins: The Beat Boom". Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop. Faber & Faber. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-571-28198-5.

[MacInnes-2] MacInnes, Colin (1965) "The Old English Music Hall Songs Are New". The New York Times, November 28, 1965, p. SM62: "Henery — which hit the top of the record lists and, according to one American expert, was 'the fastest-selling song in history' — was in fact an old English music hall song enjoying a new lease on life. Description of Champion's performance: p. 95. Spelling of title: image on p. 62 shows title presented in all-caps, "I'M HENRY VIII, I AM." Text of article, however, uses the spelling "Henery" throughout, even when referring to the Herman's Hermits revival. Perhaps the most correct spelling is "'Enery"; that is certainly how Harry pronounces it.

[1]

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