There's a Kind of Hush

This article is about the song. For the Herman's Hermits album, see There's a Kind of Hush All Over the World. For the Carpenters album, see A Kind of Hush (album).
"There's a Kind of Hush"
Single by Herman's Hermits
from the album There's a Kind of Hush All Over the World
B-side "Gaslight Street" (UK)
"No Milk Today" (US)
Released February 1967
Format 7" single
Genre Baroque pop
Length 2:31
Writer(s) Geoff Stephens
Les Reed
Producer(s) Mickie Most
Certification Gold (RIAA)
Herman's Hermits singles chronology
"East West"
(1966)		 "There's a Kind of Hush"
(1967)		 "Don't Go Out into the Rain (You're Going to Melt)"
(1967)

"There's a Kind of Hush" is a popular song written by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens which was a hit in 1967 for Herman's Hermits and again in 1976 for The Carpenters.

First recordings

The song was introduced on the 1966 album Winchester Cathedral by Geoff Stephens' group the New Vaudeville Band; like that group's hit "Winchester Cathedral", "There's a Kind of Hush" was conceived as a neo-British music hall number although it is a less overt proponent of that style. The first single version of "There's a Kind of Hush" was recorded in 1966 by Gary and the Hornets, a teen/pre-teen male band from Franklin, Ohio whose version—entitled "A Kind of Hush" produced by Lou Reizner—became a regional success and showed signs of breaking nationally in January 1967; the single would reach No. 4 in Cincinnati and No. 3 in Erie PA. However an expedient cover by Herman's Hermits was released in the US in February 1967 to reach the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100 in three weeks and proceed to a peak of #4—affording the group their final US Top Ten hit—with Gold certification for US sales of one million units awarded that April. In the UK Herman's Hermits' "There's a Kind of Hush" would reach No. 7. The success of the Herman's Hermits version led to the release of the original New Vaudeville Band track as a single in some territories with both of these versions charting in Australia with peaks of No. 5 (Herman's Hermits) and No. 12 (New Vaudeville Band) and also in South Africa where the New Vaudeville Band bested the Herman's Hermits' No. 9 peak by reaching No. 4.

International chart peaks/ Herman's Hermits version

AUS AUT BEL
(FLE)		 CAN FRA GER IRE MAL NLD NZ SGP SOA UK US
5 19 16 2 21 26 7 2 15 10 2 9 7 4

The Carpenters version

"There's a Kind of Hush (All over the World)"

Cover to the Carpenters' single, "There's a Kind of Hush (All over the World)"
Single by The Carpenters
from the album A Kind of Hush
B-side "(I'm Caught Between) Goodbye and I Love You"
Released 12 February 1976
Format 7" single
Recorded 1976
Genre Pop
Length 2:57/3:06
Label A&M
Producer(s) Richard Carpenter
The Carpenters singles chronology
"Solitaire"
(1975)		 "There's a Kind of Hush (All over the World)"
(1976)		 "I Need to Be in Love"
(1976)

The Carpenters remade "There's a Kind of Hush"—as "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)"—for their 1976 album release A Kind of Hush for which it served as lead single, reaching No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and affording the Carpenters' their thirteenth No. 1 on the easy listening chart.[3]

The single's lack of comparative success indicated a drop in the Carpenters' popularity, it being the first lead single from a mainstream Carpenters' album to fall short of the Top 5 since "Ticket to Ride" from the group's 1969 debut album Offering, while the No. 33 chart peak of the A Kind of Hush album afforded the Carpenters' their first Top 20 shortfall since Offering (Horizon would prove to be their last album to reach the top 20 in the United States). "There's a Kind of Hush" would remain the Carpenters' final top twenty hit until 1981's "Touch Me When We're Dancing".

Richard Carpenter explained in the liner notes to the Carpenters' 2004 best-of compilation, Gold, that although he and Karen Carpenter loved the song, he was not particularly pleased with how their remake turned out:

"...one of Karen's and my favorite songs from the '60s. In hindsight, however, even though our version was a hit, I wish we'd never recorded it. Here are three reasons why: (1) The original was, and is, perfectly fine. (2) Our foray into the oldies should have ended with the medley featured on side 2 of Now & Then, 1973. (3) The use of a synthesizer in some of our recordings has not worn well with me, on this track, or just about any other track on which I used it."

"There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)" appears in the twentieth episode of the third season of The Simpsons.

Chart performance

Weekly singles charts

Chart (1976) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100 12
US Billboard Easy Listening 1
Canada 8
Japan 27
UK 22
Australia 33
New Zealand 5

Year-end charts

Chart (1976) Position
Canada 95
U.S. Billboard 108

Personnel

Other versions

Contemporary cover versions of "There's a Kind of Hush" appeared on 1967 album releases (indicated in parenthesis) by John Davidson (A Kind of Hush), Engelbert Humperdinck (Release Me), the Lennon Sisters (Somethin' Stupid), Susan Maughan (Hey Look Me Over), Matt Monro (These Years) and Margaret Whiting (Maggie Isn't Margaret Anymore).

Four Jacks and a Jill released a version of the song on their 1967 album, The House with the White Washed Gables.[4]

Pierre Lalonde recorded a French version of the song Donne-moi ta bouche in 1967.

Ed Ames recorded a version of the song from the album Who Will Answer? released in 1968.

In the summer of 1968 Karel Gott reached No. 7 in Czechoslovakia with his rendition of "There's a Kind of Hush" (sung in English); a Czech rendering of the song entitled "Požehnej, Bože Můj" would be featured on Gott's 1970 album Poslouchejte! Karel Gott Zpívá Lásku Bláznivou A Další Hity.

Jo Stafford recorded "There's a Kind of Hush" as her contribution to the 1969 album Big Bands/Big Hits.

As "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)" the song made a C&W chart appearance with a No. 42 peak in 1972 via a recording by Brian Collins.

Dana recorded "There's a Kind of Hush" for her 1976 album release Love Songs & Fairytales which was produced by the song's composer Geoff Stephens.

Perry Como recorded "There's a Kind of Hush" for his 1977 album, The Best of British; this version also appears on Como's 1978 album, Where You're Concerned.

Sam Hui, a popular Hong Kong Cantopop singer, recorded a cover "每事問" in 1980 in Cantonese.

b-flower, a Japanese indie band, covered this song in English on their 1999 album, Paint My Soul.

Bart Kaëll and Vanessa Chinitor remade "There's a Kind of Hush" for their 2001 collaborative album Costa Romantica credited to Bart & Vanessa.

Johnny Mathis recorded "There's a Kind of Hush" for his 2005 album Isn't It Romantic.

In 2006, the experimental rock band Deerhoof covered the song on their self-released, internet-only untitled EP.

Barry Manilow recorded the song for his 2006 album, The Greatest Songs of the Sixties.

Clay Aiken recorded the song on his 2010 album Tried and True.

"There's a Kind of Hush" has been rendered in Dutch as "'K voel me goed vandaag" recorded by Dana Winner, in Finnish as "Hetki Tää" recorded by Taiska, and as Hiljenee recorded by Finntrio, in French as "Qu'est-ce que tu deviens?" recorded by Claude François, and in Swedish as "Det Är Lugnt Och Tyst" recorded by Towa Carson and also by Anne-Lie Rydé.

Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal recorded a single of the song in 2011.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/top-100-1967.shtml
  2. ↑ http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1970.htm
  3. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–2001. Record Research. p. 47.
  4. ↑ Four Jacks and a Jill, The House with the White Washed Gables Retrieved May 13, 2015

External links

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