It’s topping my list next time for karaoke. Fun, achievable accent, not too much range required, and short.
And if you’re good, it becomes a sing along.
According to the (fairly detailed) article in Wikipedia, the song was originally written as “named” in 1910, but Peter Noone sings “I’m”, which is what I’ve heard him as singing for over 50 years now. Frankly, I think “I’m” is better comic construction—makes the joke land just a little better.
Ignorance Fought. I’ve always heard “named.” Learn something every day.
He’s been playing at the State Fair here for the last 50 years - what does he look like, close up? Because, bitch don’t seem to age.
Here’s the Wikipedia entries about the song and about Harry Champion, the first person to sing it:
The first line of the chorus used “I’m” and not “named”. However, the seventh line of the chorus includes the word “named”. The line was changed by Peter Noone into “I’m”. So originally the word was “I’m” in any line except the seventh and was “named” in the seventh line, but Noone changed that one to “I’m” also. The original version of the song included more than just this chorus, but Herman’s Hermits sang just the chorus of the song.
Anyone else think he sounds a bit like Johnny Rotten?
So let me get this straight. When I listened to the song, I realized that what I thought was the lyric was wrong, and what I thought I heard as the correct lyric was also wrong, but that wrong lyric was actually the correct one way back when the song was written in 1910.
I did not expect the truth of this silly ditty to be so convoluted.
You can’t handle the truth.
But you should never trust YouTube videos or online lyric sites to be correct. They might be, but they also might be the product of someone else’s mishearing or confused memory. Listen and trust your own ears, or admit that you don’t care if it’s right or wrong anyway.
If the line in a song is “Laurel and Chloe had a brainstorm about the green needle treadmill in their yanny”, you’re going to have a lot of problems understanding what the line actually is:
You could ask the F.B.I. to investigate, but they’ll probably say that it’s unintelligible at any speed:
I know I’m coming into the discussion way late, but I have to say, there’s something else about the song that I’ve apparently heard different from other people. Leaving aside the “called/named” controversy, I’ve always thought the next-to-last line went “I’m a rich old man named Hennery”, but everyone here is quoting it as “I’m her eighth old man named Hennery”. I just read the thread, and it put a bug in my ear so bad I had to look up and listen to the original.
Gawd DAMN! I have been hearing and singing that line totally WRONG ever since I first knew it was a song.
I’m…abashed.