Hmm, okay...

Hermans' Hermits. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

2014 marks fifty years since Herman's Hermits burst onto the music scene with their debut hit single, I'm Into Something Good. Unlike some of their contemporaries, such as the Rolling Stones and The Who, the Hermits sung light and fluffy songs. They had no pretensions of being subversive or making social or political statements. 

On first glance, their 1965 hit, I'm Henry the VIII, I Am, a revival of a 1910 British music hall hit by Fred Murray and R.P. Weston, also seems to be a novelty song. It tells the story of an unnamed widow who has been married seven times. All of her deceased former husbands were named Henry. The song doesn't reveal how they died.  Was it from natural causes, or could it be that this widow is a black widow who killed each of her former husbands in order to receive sizable life insurance payouts?

To avoid the same fate, Henry the VIII (his wife's eighth old man) needs to prepare all of his own meals, regularly check his car for signs of sabotage, and look over his shoulder. The other solution is to change his name to something other than Henry.