| Engelbert Humperdinck | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Arnold George Dorsey |
| Also known as | Engelbert, Gerry Dorsey |
| Born | 2 May 1936 Madras (now Chennai), India |
| Genres | Adult contemporary, soft rock, traditional pop, easy listening |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano |
| Years active | 1956–present |
Engelbert Humperdinck (born Arnold George Dorsey; 2 May 1936)[1] is a British pop singer, best known for his hits including "Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)" and "After the Lovin'" as well as "The Last Waltz" ("The Last Waltz with You").
Contents |
As Arnold Dorsey, Humperdinck was one of ten children born in Madras, India, to British Army officer Mervyn Dorsey and his wife Olive. His family moved to Leicester, England, when he was 10, and a year later he showed an interest in music and began learning the saxophone. He started work as an apprentice engineer and by the early 1950s he was playing the instrument in nightclubs, but he is believed not to have tried singing until he was 17 and friends coaxed him into entering a pub contest. His impression of Jerry Lewis prompted friends to begin calling him "Gerry Dorsey," a name he worked under for almost a decade.[2] Humperdinck is an Anglo-Indian – his mother being of Indian heritage.[3]
Though Humperdinck's music career was interrupted by his national service in the British Army Royal Corps of Signals during the middle 1950s, he got his first chance to record in 1958 with the Decca Records label after his discharge. His first single, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," was not a hit, but Humperdinck would record for the same company almost a decade later with very different results. Humperdinck continued working the nightclubs until 1961, when he was stricken with tuberculosis. He regained his health and returned to nightclub work, but with little success.
In 1965, Humperdinck teamed with his former roommate, Gordon Mills, who had become a music impresario and the manager of Tom Jones.[2] Aware that Humperdinck had been struggling for several years to become successful in the music industry, Mills suggested a name-change to the more arresting Engelbert Humperdinck, borrowed from the 19th-century composer of operas such as Hansel and Gretel. Mills also arranged a new deal for him with Decca Records.
Humperdinck enjoyed first real success during July 1966 in Belgium, where he and four others represented England in the annual Knokke song contest.[4] In October of the same year, he was on stage in Mechelen. Humperdinck also made a mark on the Belgian charts with "Dommage, Dommage" and an early music video was filmed, with him in the harbour of Zeebrugge.[5]
In early 1967 the changes paid off when Humperdinck's version of "Release Me," done in a smooth ballad style with a full chorus joining him on the third chorus, scored the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic and scored number one in Britain, keeping The Beatles' adventurous "Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane" from entering the top slot in the UK. "Release Me" spent 56 weeks in the Top 50 in a single chart run.[6] "Release Me" was believed to have sold 85,000 copies a day at the height of its popularity, and for years, it was the best known of his songs.
Humperdinck's easygoing style and good looks, a contrast to Tom Jones's energetic and overtly sexual style, earned Humperdinck a large following, particularly among women. "Release Me" was succeeded by two more hit ballads, "There Goes My Everything" and "The Last Waltz," earning him a reputation as a crooner, a description which he disputed: "If you are not a crooner," he told The Hollywood Reporter writer Rick Sherwood, "it's something you don't want to be called. No crooner has the range I have. I can hit notes a bank could not cash. What I am is a contemporary singer, a stylised performer."
By the end of the 1960s, Humperdinck's roster of songs included "Am I That Easy to Forget," "A Man Without Love," "Les Bicyclettes de Belsize," "The Way It Used To Be", "I'm A Better Man," and "Winter World of Love". He also recorded, during this time, a number of successful albums that would form the bedrock of his fame, such as Release Me, The Last Waltz, A Man Without Love, and Engelbert Humperdinck. His own television programme, The Engelbert Humperdinck Show,[7] was less successful, being cancelled after six months.
In 1964, Humperdinck married Patricia Healey.[1] They have four children and nine grandchildren.
By the start of the 1970s, Humperdinck had settled into a busy schedule of recordings, and a number of signature songs emerged from this period: "We Made It Happen," "Sweetheart," "Another Time, Another Place," and "Too Beautiful To Last".
As his kind of balladry became less popular, and after he adopted some Broadway influences, Humperdinck concentrated on selling albums and on live performances, developing lavish stage presentations that made him a natural for Las Vegas and similar venues.
In 1976, Humperdinck recorded "After the Lovin'," a ballad produced by Joel Diamond and released by CBS subsidiary Epic. The song, a Top-10 hit in the US,[8] marked another peak in his career; nominated for a Grammy Award, it went Gold, and won the "most played juke box record of the year" award. The album of the same name reached the Top-20 [8] on the US charts, and was a Double Platinum hit for the singer.[9] Diamond went on to produce a series of albums recorded by Humperdinck for Epic, including This Moment In Time from 1979 (the title song topped[10] the US adult contemporary charts) and two Christmas albums (the two remain good friends to this day).
It was a conscious effort to update his music and his image. "I don't like to give people what they have already seen," Humperdinck was quoted as saying in a 1992 tourbook. "I take the job description of 'entertainer' very seriously! I try to bring a sparkle that people don't expect and I get the biggest kick from hearing someone say, 'I had no idea you could do that!'" He also defended his fan mania, which helped him continue to sell records when radio play largely ended for him. "They are very loyal to me and very militant as far as my reputation is concerned," Humperdinck had told Sherwood. "I call them the spark plugs of my success."
But he later revealed that he had little if any say in the selection of songs for his albums, a fact that had sometimes brought into question whether he was his own or his manager's or record label's pawn. As his career moved on, however, Humperdinck began gaining more creative freedom, and his albums accordingly brought several kinds of songs into his reach beyond syrupy ballads. But he kept romance at the core of his music regardless, and his fans still tagged him as "the King of Romance," even as of April 2010.
By the 1980s, approaching his fiftieth birthday, Humperdinck continued recording albums regularly and performing as many as 200 concerts a year, yet maintained a strong family life. He and wife Patricia raised four children (Bradley, Scott, Jason and Louise) who are said to have become involved in their father's career, even as the family alternated between homes in England and in southern California.
In 1988, Humperdinck filed a libel suit against the National Enquirer. The origin of the libelous statements was said to be Kathy Jetter, the mother of Humperdinck's illegitimate child, and were made in an affidavit filed by Jetter in New York Family Court in an effort to increase child support payments from Humperdinck. Jetter lost the action.[11] Jetter had successfully brought a paternity suit against Humperdinck following the birth of her daughter Jennifer in 1977.[12]
Humperdinck was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989 and won a Golden Globe Award as entertainer of the year, while also beginning major involvement in charitable causes such as the Leukemia Research Fund, the American Red Cross, the American Lung Association, and several AIDS relief organisations. He wrote a song for one group, the theme anthem for Reach Out. "He's a gentleman," longtime friend Clifford Elson has been quoted as saying of him, "in a business that's not full of many gentlemen."
In 1989 he recorded the album Star Of Bethlehem, released as Ich Denk An Dich in Germany. All the songs on the album were written by Dieter Bohlen, and some were written with Barry Mason. Star Of Bethlehem (Ich Denk An Dich) contained the singles "Red Roses For My Lady," "I Wanna Rock You In My Wildest Dreams," and a version of Dieter Bohlen's first hit, from the album Modern Talking, "You're My Heart, You're My Soul."
Humperdinck sang The Star-Spangled Banner before the start of the 1996 Daytona 500.
Humperdinck—who changed his name legally to his stage name at the height of his career—hit the top five British album charts in 2000 with Engelbert At His Very Best, and returned to the top five four years later, after he appeared in a John Smiths TV-advertisement.
In the spring of 2003, Humperdinck collaborated with Grammy Award-Winning artist-producer Art Greenhaw to record the roots gospel album Always Hear the Harmony: The Gospel Sessions; joining Humperdinck on the album were The Light Crust Doughboys, The Jordanaires and the Blackwood Brothers Quartet. The critically acclaimed album was nominated for a Grammy for "Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album of the Year", while Humperdinck was photographed with generations of fans at the 2004 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, where he was an honoured Nominee guest.
In August 2005, Humperdinck auctioned his Harley-Davidson motorcycle on eBay to raise money for the County Air Ambulance in Leicestershire, where he spent much of his British youth.
In September 2007, Humperdinck released The Winding Road, a tribute to British composers.
During the recording of the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach, Humperdinck was asked by Damon Albarn to perform on a selection. However, after listening to the proposed selection, his manager declined the offer without Humperdinck knowing. Humperdinck later stated in an interview that his manager declining the collaboration offer was: "the most grievous sin ever committed". And that he would have gladly collaborated with the Gorillaz if he had known they asked. He has since stated that he fired his management and now has his son as his manager. He also said at the end of the interview: “I’d really like to rekindle that suggestion again and bring it back. Hopefully they will ask me again. My son Scott will definitely say yes”.[13][14]
On 25 February 2009, Leicester City Council announced that Humperdinck would be given the Honorary Freedom of Leicester alongside author Sue Townsend and former professional footballer Alan Birchenall.[15]
19 December 2009, saw Humperdinck perform at Carols in the Domain, a popular Christmas event held in Sydney, Australia. 17 October 2010 found him in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the prestigious Orchestra Hall, in a performance arranged by the booker Lilly Schwartz. In November 2010 he returned to Australia for a number of concerts, while adding a new studio album, Released, to his discography.[16]
Notable debuts and covers recorded by Humperdinck include:
| Year | Title | US Chart Position |
UK Chart Position |
US AC | US Country | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | "Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)" | 4 | 1 | 28 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1967 | "There Goes My Everything" | 20 | 2 | – | – | ||||||||||||
| 1967 | "The Last Waltz" | 25 | 1 | 6 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1968 | "Am I That Easy to Forget" | 18 | 3 | 1 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1968 | "A Man Without Love (Quando M'Innamoro)" | 19 | 2 | 3 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1968 | "Les Bicyclettes de Belsize" | 31 | 5 | 3 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1968 | "Quando Quando Quando" | – | 40 | – | – | ||||||||||||
| 1969 | "The Way It Used to Be" | 42 | 3 | 4 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1969 | "I'm A Better Man" | 38 | 15 | 6 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1969 | "Winter World of Love" | 16 | 7 | 3 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1970 | "My Marie" | 43 | 31 | 2 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1970 | "Sweetheart" | 47 | 22 | 2 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1971 | "When There's No You" | 45 | 47 | 1 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1971 | "Another Time, Another Place" | 43 | 13 | 5 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1972 | "Too Beautiful to Last" | 86 | 14 | 16 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1972 | "In Time" | 69 | – | 12 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1972 | "I Never Said Goodbye" | 61 | – | 18 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1973 | "I'm Leavin' You" | 99 | – | 17 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1973 | "Love Is All" | 91 | 44 | 33 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1974 | "Free as the Wind (Theme from Papillon)" | – | – | 34 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1974 | "Catch Me, I'm Falling" | – | – | 43 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1975 | "This Is What You Mean to Me" | 102 | – | 14 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1976 | "After the Lovin'" | 8 | – | 1 | 40 | ||||||||||||
| 1977 | "I Believe in Miracles" | – | – | 15 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1977 | "Goodbye My Friend" | 97 | – | 37 | 93 | ||||||||||||
| 1977 | "Lover's Holiday" | – | – | 26 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1978 | "The Last of the Romantics" | – | – | 28 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1978 | "Love's in Need of Love Today" | – | – | 44 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1978 | "This Moment in Time" | 58 | – | 1 | 93 | ||||||||||||
| 1979 | "Can't Help Falling In Love" | – | – | 44 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1979 | "A Much, Much Greater Love" | – | – | 39 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1980 | "Love's Only Love" | 83 | – | 28 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1981 | "Don't You Love Me Anymore" | – | – | 41 | – | ||||||||||||
| 1983 | "Til You and Your Lover Are Lovers Again" | 77 | – | 17 | 39 | ||||||||||||
| 1988 | "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You" | – | 93 | – | – | ||||||||||||
| 1989 | "Red Roses for My Lady" | – | – | – | – | ||||||||||||
| 1996 | "Lesbian Seagull" | – | – | – | – | ||||||||||||
| 2000 | "How to Win Your Love" | – | 59 | – | – | ||||||||||||
| 2002 | "Once in a While" | – | – | – | – | ||||||||||||
| 2010 | "Tell Me Where It Hurts" | – | – | – | – | ||||||||||||
| "–" denotes a release that did not chart or was not issued in that region. | |||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||