There's a Kind of Hush

1967 single by Herman's Hermits
the song

"There's a Kind of Hush" is a popular song written by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens. Originally recorded by Stephens' group the New Vaudeville Band in 1967 as a neo British music hall number, this version of the track became a hit in Australia and South Africa. However, in the rest of the world, a near simultaneous cover was a big hit for Herman's Hermits. The song was a charted hit 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 example 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 "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 British invasion group Herman's Hermits was released in the US in January 1967 to reach the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100 in three weeks and proceeded 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. The record notched two positions higher on the Silver Dollar Survey for 3–10 March 1967 on WLS, for an overall rank of #26 for 1967, and topped the Boss 30 for 8–22 March 1967 on KHJ. 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.

Chart (1976)RankCanada95New Zealand46U. S. (Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual)108U. S. Billboard Easy Listening10