Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter was a music-hall novelty Peter Noone heard on his television.
He taped it off the screen, taught it to Herman's Hermits, and sang it at weddings.
In May 1965 the throwaway album track spent three weeks at number one in America.
Table of Contents
- A Song That Started on a TV Screen
- The Two-Take Afterthought
- Number One With No British Release
- What the Record Left Behind
- FAQ
A Song That Started on a TV Screen
The song was not written for a pop group at all.
British actor and writer Trevor Peacock wrote it for The Lads, a 1963 play on ITV's Television Playhouse.
Tom Courtenay, then a rising film actor, sang it on screen.
Decca put Courtenay's version out as a single that same year.
Because the tune came from a broadcast play, the band could perform it live without paying a songwriting royalty.
How Peter Noone Found It
Noone held a portable tape recorder up to the television speaker and caught the performance.
Herman's Hermits learned it from that scratchy tape.
They worked it into their stage act and their wedding-band sets.
Noone would swap in the bride's mother's name, singing Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Jones to order.
The Two-Take Afterthought
Herman's Hermits cut the track at De Lane Lea Studios in London on 1 December 1964.
Studio time was running short, so they recorded it fast as filler for their first album.
The whole thing was done in two takes.
Derek Leckenby and Keith Hopwood muted their guitar strings with a cloth for the soft, plucked sound.
Noone laid a thick Manchester accent over the top and pushed the vaudeville feel hard.
Mickie Most Wanted It Buried
Producer Mickie Most did not want the recording released at all.
He later called it probably the worst record ever made, or at least the worst one he had been associated with.
Most knew hits, having already produced the Animals and House of the Rising Sun.
This time his instinct was wrong.
Number One With No British Release
MGM left the song sitting on the album for months.
American radio programmers found it, pulled it off the record, and put it on air themselves.
MGM rushed out a single in April 1965 to catch up.
It entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number twelve.
That was the third highest debut of the entire decade, behind only two later Beatles singles.
It reached the top three weeks later and held number one through May.
Canada and Australia sent it to number one as well.
The RIAA certified it gold on 16 June 1965, and it sold around three million copies worldwide.
The band never released it as a single in Britain, and did the same with their next American number one, I'm Henry VIII, I Am.
Where the Single Peaked
Here is where the single landed in 1965.
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| US Cash Box Top 100 | 1 |
| Canada (RPM) | 1 |
| Australia (Kent Music Report) | 1 |
What the Record Left Behind
Success on this scale pulls imitators.
The hit spawned a small industry of follow-ups and spin-offs:
- Answer records such as Mrs. Schwartz, You've Got an Ugly Daughter and Mrs. Jones, Your Son Gives Up Too Easy
- A 1968 MGM film built around the title, starring the band
- A Billboard ranking that placed Herman's Hermits above the Beatles as America's top singles act for 1965
Trevor Peacock kept acting and later became loved as Jim Trott on The Vicar of Dibley.
FAQ
Who wrote the Herman's Hermits song Mrs. Brown?
British actor and writer Trevor Peacock wrote it.
He wrote it for a 1963 television play called The Lads.
Was Mrs. Brown a hit in the United Kingdom?
It was never released as a single there.
The band kept it and I'm Henry VIII, I Am as American-only singles.
Who sang the original version?
Actor Tom Courtenay sang it in the 1963 play The Lads.
Decca released his recording as a single that year.
How long did the song stay at number one?
It held the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in May 1965.
It also reached number one in Canada and Australia.
Why did Mickie Most not want to release it?
Most thought the track was weak and too far from a pop single.
He later called it close to the worst record he had ever been part of.
The record still sounds like what it was, a joke tossed off at the end of a session.
It reads well next to the full Herman's Hermits story and the wider British Invasion that carried it to America.
Back to the 1960smusic.net homepage to explore every genre of the decade.
More than sixty years on, Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter remains the unlikeliest number one of the British Invasion.