Я Генрих Восьмой (I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am)

1910 music hall song

"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. But in 1965, it became the fastest selling song in history to that point when it was revived by Herman's Hermits, 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".

According to one source, Champion "used to fire off [the chorus] at tremendous speed with almost desperate gusto, his face bathed in sweat and his arms and legs flying in all directions." To the present day, Brown often performs it in concert.

The rock and roll stylings of the song gave Herman's Hermits their second US number one hit; like the Brown arrangement, it contains only the chorus (and none of the three verses) of the original. As a result, the tune is a mere one minute and fifty seconds long, one of the shortest ever songs to top the Billboard singles chart. In their short and fast take of the song, the guitar and bass are considered proto punk and were a direct influence on the Ramones, (indeed the song "Judy Is A Punk" includes the line "Second verse, same as the first" as in the Hermits' tune.) The speedy guitar work at the break by lead guitarist Derek Leckenby evokes Chuck Berry sonically (e. g. “Johnny B. Goode”) then memorably shifts into quoting the melody. Billboard praised the song's "strong dance beat and vocal performance." They performed the song on Hullabaloo as well as The Ed Sullivan Show. This version was also performed on the third season premiere of The Jimmy Dean Show with Jimmy Dean and Jim Henson's Rowlf the Dog wearing wigs, three months after Herman's performance on Sullivan.

Chart (1965)PeakpositionAustralia 27Canada RPM Top Singles2New Zealand (Lever Hit Parade)2South Africa (Springbok)15Sweden 3U. S. Billboard Hot 1001U. S. Cash Box Top 1001

Chart (1965)RankU. S. Billboard Hot 10046U. S. Cash Box 56

Connie Francis recorded a version for her 1966 album Connie Francis and The Kids Next Door.

The song is traditionally sung in a Cockney accent. Earlier sources usually spell the name "Henery" (as do some old sources when referring to the historical King of England and Ireland), and the music requires the name "Henery" (or "'Enery") to be pronounced as three syllables. The sheet music for the 1965 Herman's Hermits revival, however, presented the name as "Henry", as do sources referring to this version. In the Herman's Hermits version, the band sings the lyrics three times. Between the first two choruses, Peter Noone calls out, "Second verse, same as the first!". The background singers on the version recorded by Connie Francis use this call as well.