She Has a Lovely Daughter

When I decided to use this song in the continuing Brown theme for November, I had to go research my family history. You see, this is a song that’s kind of infamous in our family. Oh, no, none of my relatives performed it or anything, but it has a history in the family.

The song is “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter” performed by Herman’s Hermits. The original version came out in 1963, but the Herman’s Hermits version is the one that went to number 1 in the U.S. So…let’s see 1965. My mom’s closest brother in age would have been fourteen years old.

He was in love with a girl, we’ll call her Jane, who didn’t love him back. Oh, the heart-break! The agony of unrequited young love! Fast forward about ten years and my uncle is married to a beautiful bride he met in South Korea while doing his tour in the Army. She came to the U.S. six months pregnant in 1976, he followed soon after.

Then, if I remember my family lore correctly, Bubba saw Jane again. After all this time. Now, I don’t know who was dumb enough to tell Aunt Chong about Bubba’s teenage crush on Jane, but whoever did was trying to stir up trouble.

Have I mentioned how jealous Chong is over what she calls “the Bubbas”? No? Well, she’s very jealous of him and she hated Jane. She hated the mention of Jane. She hated her name. She never wanted to see, or hear about Jane ever again. Thirty years later, after learning about Jane, she would still get that angry, evil look in her eyes and she’d scowl at “the Bubbas” and say “Aigoo!” (we all know that means she isn’t happy).

But whenever this song is played, someone mentions it. All I can say is thank goodness we don’t listen to a lot of Herman’s Hermits when we’re all together. Chong would probably stab us all with a fork (because she actually uses her chopsticks). So today’s song is for anyone not in my family. Unless you plan to tell Chong about Jane…and then I’ll have to hunt you down and hit you with the rice spoon (which has happened to me when I have displeased the Aunt Chong).

Herman’s Hermits performing “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter”. Enjoy!