Two years later, Peter joined Manchester group the Heartbeats and then three of the group, including Peter, merged with members of another local band to form Herman’s Hermits. Before their rise to fame, the band was still nameless. As teenagers rehearsing in a local pub in England, Peter Noone, a fan of Buddy Holly, would wear thick, black-rimmed glasses and mimic Holly’s voice. One day, the pub owner bluntly asked, ‘What are you doing? You don’t look like Buddy Holly – you look like Sherman from the Bullwinkle show.’ This offhand remark became the inspiration for the band’s name.

Herman’s Hermits’ UK hit singles included the number one ‘I’m into Something Good’, as well as ‘Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat’, ‘Silhouettes’, ‘Wonderful World’, ‘A Must to Avoid’, ‘No Milk Today’, ‘There’s a Kind of Hush’ and ‘My Sentimental Friend’. They also notched up numerous hits in the US, including two number ones in 1965: ‘Mrs Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter’ and ‘I’m Henry VIII, I Am’. That year, they ran out as Top Singles Act of the Year in the Billboard chart, with The Beatles at number two. In 1966, they were nominated for three Grammy Awards, and between 1964 and early 1968, no Herman’s Hermits single failed to make the US Top 40. John Lennon promised Peter that he and Paul McCartney would write a song for him, so imagine his delight when in the office at EMI Manchester Square, he saw a tape box with ‘For Noone’ written on it. It was actually The Beatles song ‘For No One’! He never got the song. The band also appeared in films, including When the Boys Meet the Girls, Hold On! and Pop Gear. Their final single, as Peter Noone & Herman’s Hermits, was ‘Lady Barbara’ in 1970. The following year, Peter left to pursue a solo career, recording, touring and having a hit with David Bowie’s ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’ (retitled as ‘Oh You Pretty Thing’). As busy as an actor as he is as a singer, Peter has made appearances in such TV series as Married … with Children, Dave’s World, My Two Dads, Too Close for Comfort, Quantum Leap, Laverne & Shirley and the soap As the World Turns. He also toured the US in the lead role in The Pirates of Penzance and won the 2019 Las Vegas casinos Entertainer of the Year award.

A big Buddy Holly fan, Peter admits, ‘Buddy and the Crickets were my inspiration. As a lad I had the old Dansette Major record player and a really nice lady who owned a record shop in Woodsend Circle in Flixton would alert me to any findings of 78s, 45s or 33 1/3rds and I sat and dreamed and sang along, never imagining that one day I’d be allowed to sing the great stuff for others. I still remember the moment I heard the incredible and impossible descending string part on “Raining in My Heart” and thinking: That’s it … Kismet, Hardy!’

Mike Read