Saturday, April 3, 2021

POP-A-LOOZA: Hold On! It's NORMAN'S NORMANS!

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is my celebration of a film I refer to as "the Citizen Kane of Herman's Hermits pastiche movies," Norman's Normans in Ripped!

There may not be much more that one could say about Norman's Normans. But given my decades-long affection for the music of Herman's Hermits, it's a little bit surprising I haven't written more about Peter, Derek, Karl, Keith, and Barry. A 5 Above piece about my five favorite Hermits tracks sits in my idea queue, and I've considered (and may still write) a Greatest Record Ever Made! entry for "No Milk Today."  The published posts include an emotional Virtual Ticket Gallery piece called "Brian Wilson, Herman's Hermits, and the Pet Sounds Of The Soul," and an installment of Didn't Hear THAT Coming! (Unexpected Covers In Concert), which discusses The Flashcubes (sort of) covering "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter." Other than that? Our Hermits are among the acts mentioned in "The Bands That Would Be Kinks!," "5 Great Movie Songs (From Films I Either Didn't Like Or Never Saw)," and an LP Cover Cavalcade, while Peter Noone's early '80s new wave group The Tremblers turn up in one of my Comics And LP Cover Cavalcades. I like Herman's Hermits--I always have--and (by coincidence) there happens to be a Herman's Hermits track on this week's exciting edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. Sunday night! 9 to Midnight Eastern at http://sparksyracuse.org/!

In a separate post recalling my introduction to Herman's Hermits, I wrote, "Herman and the lads were just always there, weren't they? I don't know if I heard "I'm Into Something Good" in 1964 (a year which my four-year-old self would insist belonged exclusively to The Beatles), but I probably heard "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" and "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter" in '65. A bit later, I saw Herman's Hermits in a simply awful film called Hold On! at The Hollywood Theater in 1966." An awful film, sure, but still the inspiration for the sincere flattery of a latter-day tribute called Ripped! The Citizen Kane of Herman's Hermits pastiche movies is the subject of the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

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Volume 1: download

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Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
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