"Mrs Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" is a popular song
written by Trevor Peacock. It was originally sung by actor Sir
Tom Courtenay in
The Lads, a British TV play of 1963.
The best-known version of the song is by Herman's Hermits,
who took it to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in
April 1965. Herman's Hermits had two U.S. number-ones, the
other being "I'm Henry VIII, I Am". The band never released
them as singles in Britain. "Mrs Brown, You've Got a Lovely
Daughter" was recorded as an afterthought in two takes and
featured unique muted rhythm guitar by Keith Hopwood and
heavily accented vocals by Peter Noone with backing from Karl
Green and Keith Hopwood. The band never dreamed it would be a
single let alone hit number one in the U.S.(Hopwood pers.
correspondence.) According to Pete Noone, the song was well
known to British bands; it would often be performed at birthday
parties, substituting the name of the girl whose party was
being celebrated, i.e. "Mrs. Smith" or "Mrs. Jones" instead of
"Mrs. Brown".
The song was released in Japan on Odeon records, a
subsidiary of Toshiba, as OR-1272. It was backed by the song
Wonderful World.
Herman's Hermits also featured in a film of the same name,
and recorded an album in 1968 with the same title.