A lovely girlfriend treated some of us to watch the recent one-day showing of Engelbert Humperdinck’s concert at the historic Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. We’ve all heard his popular songs when we were in high school and we were all surprised to see a nostalgic performance and experience the 79-year old Humperdiinck’s charm and enigmatic voice belting out the cherished songs of our youth.
Arnold George Dorsey (Humperdinck’s real name), was born in “Madras, British India (now Chennai, India), on May 2, 1936. He was one of the 10 children to British Army NCO Mervyn Dorsey, who was of Irish descent and his wife Olivia, who was of German descent. Their family moved to Leicester, England when he was ten years old He soon showed interest in music and began learning to play the saxophone. Soon after, he began playing saxophone in nightclubs, but he is believed not to have tried singing until he was seventeen, when friends coaxed him into entering a pub contest; His impression of Jerry Lewis prompted friends to call him “Gerry Dorsey,” a name he used for almost a decade.”
Engelbert Humperdinck
Dorsey’s music career was interrupted when he had to serve in the British Army Royal Corps of Signals but when he was discharged, he had the opportunity to record with Decca Records in 1958 with his first single, “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.” Though that single wasn’t a hit, he continued working the nighclub circuit until 1961 when he was stricken with tuberculosis for a short while, until he “regained his health and went back to nightclub work with little success.”
“In 1965, Dorsey teamed up with Gordon Mills, his former roommate in the Bayswater area of London, who had become the music impresario and manager of Tom Jones. Aware that Dorsey had been struggling for several years to become successful in the music industry, Mills suggested a name – change” to the more powerful sounding “Engelbert Humperdinck,” borrowed from the 19th century composer of operas such as “Hansel and Gretel” Thus, Dorsey adopted the name “professionally but not legally” giving way for Mills arranging a “new deal with Decca Records and he performed under his new name except in Germany where he can only use “Engelbert” as a stage name because the former composer’s family has disallowed his use of the full name.”
Consequently, Engelbert Humperdinck’s career plummeted, including filming a music video in Belgium with his song “Dommage, Dommage,” and in the mid-60’s he collaborated with another famous German songwriter named Bert Kaemfert in his house in Spain where they recorded the three-song arrangements of “ Spanish Eyes,” “Strangers in the Night,” and “Wonderland By Night.”
“Realizing the single record potential of “Strangers in the Night” Humperdinck asked his manager Gordon Mills if he can release the song as a single, but his request was refused, because the song had already been requested by Frank Sinatra.” However, the “changes paid off in the end when Humperdinck’s version of “Release Me” was recorded in a smooth ballad-style with full chorus joining him on the third refrain, and this made the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic and number one in Britain. “
Humperdinck’s “Release Me” single ran “56 weeks in the Top Ten charts and 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. His easygoing style and good looks earned him a large following, particularly among women.” He went on to record other hit singles such as: “There Goes My Everything,” “The Last Waltz,” “A Man Without Love,” “Am I That Easy To Forget,” :The Way It Used To Be,” “I’m a Better Man” (with Burt Bacharach anf Hal David), and “Winter World of Love.”
Appearing in a dramatic red silk open buttoned-shirt and a black tux, a lot of us in the audience sang with him as he sang his popular songs: “Am I That Easy to Forget,” “A Man Without Love,” “Quando, Quando,” “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,”
The Shadow of Your Smile,” “Secret Love,” “After The Lovin’,” “Stranger in Paradise” and of course, “Release Me.”
The crowd was just overwhelmed toward the end of his two-hour show. It was really an evening filled with the memorable songs of yesteryears.
Engelbert Humperdinck goes on a world tour. Catch his show when you can. I promise you an evening full of memories.