I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am

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." In later versions recorded by Champion, "Willie" is changed to "William" because the former is a British slang term for "penis."

In 1961, this song was recorded and extensively performed live by the British star Joe Brown, who revived the song and made it largely known in the British pop world. His version has two choruses either side of his guitar solo (B-side, Piccadilly Records 7N 35005). George Harrison was a fan of Brown's and sang the song as part of the Beatles' early repertoire. The group never recorded their version.{{Cite web|url=https://secondhandsongs.com/performance/205029|title = Original versions of I'm Henery the Eighth I Am by Joe Brown [GB] | SecondHandSongs|website = SecondHandSongs}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KDn_AgAAQBAJ&dq=%22henry+VIII+I+am+%22+%22GEORGE+HARRISON%22&pg=PT65 |title = George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door|date = 17 September 2013|publisher = Omnibus Press|isbn = 9780857128584}} 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 in 1965; 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;{{AllMusic |class=song |id=mt0007726390 |tab=Overview |label=I'm Henry the VIII, I Am |first=Joe |last=Viglione |access-date=25 April 2019 }} indeed, their 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."{{cite news|newspaper=Billboard|accessdate=2021-03-12|date=June 26, 1965|page=43|title=Spotlight Singles|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/60s/1965/Billboard%201965-06-26.pdf}}

They performed the song on Hullabaloo{{cite web|url=https://www.thevideobeat.com/rock-roll-tv/hullabaloo-11-12.html|title=The best quality episodes of Hullabaloo|publisher=The Video Beat|access-date=25 April 2019}} 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.

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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"{{cite book|title=Philosophy of Music: An Introduction|first=R. A.|last=Sharpe|year=2005|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press|isbn=0-7735-2928-4}} "I shall give an example of the first, Harry Champion's music-hall song 'I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am', although I suspect readers may not thank me. (You probably won't be able to dislodge it from your mind for a week or two). [https://books.google.com/books?id=yJB7UV93CMgC&pg=PA161 p. 161]{{cite book|title=Mr. Noon|url=https://archive.org/details/mrnoon0000lawr_m9x8|url-access=registration|first=D. H.|last=Lawrence|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1987|isbn=0-521-27247-5}} "He strayed on inconsequentially, singing: Henery the eighth I am, I am/Henery the eighth I am" [https://books.google.com/books?id=q3nQnf3Vt1YC&pg=PA258 p. 258] (as do some old sources when referring to the historical King of England and Ireland{{cite book|title=The English and Scottish Popular Ballads|url=https://archive.org/details/englishscottishp01chil_0|first=Francis James|last=Child|author2=George Lyman Kittredge|publisher=Houghton, Mifflin|year=1883}} "And lowlye kneeled his prince before/And sayd, My soueraigne king, Henery the Eighth" [https://books.google.com/books?id=cHsicFK4rykC&pg=PA356 p. 356]), 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.{{cite book|title=Sheet Music Reference and Price Guide|first=Anna Marie|last=Guiheen|publisher=Collector Books|year=1995|isbn=0-89145-648-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sheetmusicrefere00pafi}} "I'm Henry the Eighth I Am by Fred Murray and L. P. Weston, 1965, Herman's Hermits" [https://books.google.com/books?id=vFECvOmdHi4C&pg=PA102 p. 102]

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.

• In the Flanders and Swann song "Greensleeves" (in which the duo purport to tell the tale of the classic song's creation), the monarch himself claims to be the true author of the piece, stating "We are Henry VIII, we are!"
• In the 1990 film Ghost, Sam (Patrick Swayze) sings this song on a continuous run in a bad Cockney London accent all night long, to Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) to annoy her into helping him.
• Homer Simpson - in the persona of Henry VIII - sings a parody of this song in The Simpsons 2004 episode "Margical History Tour", with the lyrics referencing Henry's voracious appetite.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks covered this song.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsI-tClvmJc |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/QsI-tClvmJc |archive-date=2021-12-22 |url-status=live|title=I'm Henry VIII, I Am - YouTube|publisher=YouTube|access-date=8 January 2021}}{{cbignore}}
• The original Harry Champion version of the song was used as the titles music of The Libertines 2012 music documentary There Are No Innocent Bystanders.

• Henry VIII
• Cultural depictions of Henry VIII

{{Reflist}}

• [https://archive.org/details/HarryChampion I'm Henery the Eighth] MP3 download of Harry Champion's 1911 recording at Internet Archive
• I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am lyrics at Wikisource

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Category:Herman's Hermits songs

Category:1910 songs

Category:1965 singles

Category:Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles

Category:Cashbox number-one singles

Category:Comedy songs

Category:Cultural depictions of Henry VIII

Category:Novelty songs

Category:Music hall songs

Category:Songs written by R. P. Weston

Category:Songs about kings