Loving Herman's Hermits

I was going through my vinyl today and I found this among the piles of Beatles and Monkees LPs

I bought this album at a flea market sometime in the mid-eighties. I remember waving it madly at The Monkees 20 Anniversary tour, where Herman's Hermits (minus Peter Noone) opened, along with Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.

I was in love with their light cheesy pop music. I'm finding that I'm still in love with it. Hearing some of the songs again, brings a smile to my face. They have the same appeal as The Monkees and the early Beatles material. Innocence, pure and simple.

I only wish more of the band's music was available on CD in the US. A few albums are in print in Europe, but the prices here are out of the ballpark and even Half.com doesn't have any good deals.

So if I want to replace albums like Blaze or any of the others, I have to cough up at least 25 dollars, which is ridiculous considering the Monkees discs are less than 10 dollars on CD Universe. And even more bizarre is the fact that Herman's Hermits had a great deal of success in the US. So the fact that you can only get a few meager Best Of discs in this country is just a trifle disturbing.

I want my Hermany goodness, damn it!