The first song to debut at number one in the charts

(Credits: Far Out)

Wed 28 January 2026 14:00, UK

Generally speaking, 1965 was one of the greatest years in music history. We had The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Byrds and more all vying for chart domination and a shift away from the stale, stagnant sounds of the decade prior.

Generally speaking, and for all of the same reasons, it was also one of the most innovative years in music history. After all, number ones across the board included the Fab Four’s ‘Help!’ and ‘Yesterday’ alongside the Stones’ ‘Get Off of My Cloud’ and ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’. There were also entries like The Byrds’ ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ and The Supremes’ ‘Stop! In The Name of Love’.

So, all in all, a wildly excellent year for music. And beyond that, it birthed some of our longstanding iconic cultural moments, too, like Bob Dylan’s not-so-infamous electric shift at the Newport Folk Festival, while championing new music and challenging monopolisation shifted to new arenas with the rise of certain pirate radio stations. 

All of these achievements are especially impressive when you consider that, again, in a broader sense, 1965 was also one of the most challenging years, not just for those trying to cut through the noise that was the British Invasion but also for those fighting to pick up speed during an era when relying on the older, more traditional sounds of the 1950s would leave you by the wayside and taking too many risks would leave people disengaged to begin with.

What was the worst number one of 1965?

This also means that, while it was no doubt one of the best years for music, it was also one of the most questionable when it comes to those who did well versus those who didn’t. For instance, while we have a handful of indisputably amazing songs that reached the coveted top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, there are a few that you look at now and wonder how they managed to get there in the first place.

The worst of these was undoubtedly Herman’s Hermits’ ‘I’m Henry the Eighth, I am’. In 1965, Herman’s Hermits were almost a match for the Fab Four with good, catchy tunes and an image that seemed safe enough for those not wanting to venture close to the more far-out attitudes of the pool’s more rebellious acts, like the Stones.

However, ‘I’m Henry the Eighth, I am’, despite its position at the top of the Hot 100, is one of the most jarring and insufferable songs of all time. If you’re not convinced by the general way it sounds, specifically the accent and, well, literally everything else about it, then their performance of the song on The Ed Sullivan Show will surely do it. 

Maybe it’s not for those especially prone to cringing at too-cheesy numbers, or maybe it’s that there’s an essence there that’s more obviously attempting to be a parallel Beatles rip-off, but either way, the song does little to prove the worthiness of its high charting position during one of the most competitive eras in music. At the same time, its lack of lasting impact does well to prove that it was really just a manifestation of culture’s strangest corners at that specific moment in time.

Mostly, the song just feels like something you come across accidentally and wish you hadn’t, and then if you’re curious to go digging deeper, it leaves you wondering what on earth people were hearing at the time that made them keep coming back to it. 1956 was one of the best in music, but it was also one of the most intriguing when it came to what did well and what, for whatever reason, fell behind.

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