Engelbert Humperdinck: ‘I can hit notes that a bank could not cash’
Fifty years in show business is a remarkable achievement. Still performing on tour around the world after a half-century of success is an even more remarkable accomplishment. But the singer with one of the most unusual names in showbiz — Engelbert Humperdinck — brings his 50th anniversary tour to The Orleans Showroom on Saturday and Sunday.
What’s even more extraordinary is that he’s finally decided to forget the fact he’s a young, spry 80-year-old about to celebrate his 81st on May 2, and from now on when it’s birthday time, he’ll always celebrate his 50th.
I was living in England as a teenager when Eng found success in Europe in the mid-1960s with the smash single “Release Me.” It spent 56 weeks in the Top 50 of the British charts and reached No. 1 in 11 countries. His hits continued with “There Goes My Everything” and “The Last Waltz.” In 1969, his self-titled album reached No. 5 on U.S. and U.K. charts.
The song titles are known around the world. Eng continued to produce hits in the 1970s, including “After the Lovin’,” which became a Top 10 single in the U.S. and earned gold with 1 million in sales. His album of the same name charted in the Top 20 in the U.S. and was a double-platinum success.
As the years ticked by, Eng, far from his India birthplace and English home, became a household name in the United States thanks to appearances on “The Tonight Show” starring Johnny Carson and TV shows including “The Love Boat,” “Hotel” and “Fantasy Island.”
He has recorded with fellow music legends including Elvis Presley, Sir Elton John, Kenny Rogers, Neil Sedaka, Gloria Gaynor and Willie Nelson. The records are mind-blowing: He has recorded 64 gold and 35 platinum albums and has been nominated for four Grammy Awards. He has sold more than 150 million records.
Eng and I have been friends for a long time, in fact going back to when he was working with the name Gerry Dorsey. He was born Arnold Dorsey in present-day Chennai, India, in 1936, one of 10 children to a British Army officer. When he was 10, the family moved to England, and his music career began with the saxophone playing in nightclubs.
When he was 17, pals encouraged him to enter a talent contest in a Northern England pub. His impression of Jerry Lewis got people calling him Gerry Dorsey. But it wasn’t until after his British Army service in the 1950s and a fading nightclub career that he was hit with tuberculosis.
The then Mr. Dorsey was still struggling to become successful, and a former roommate, Gordon Mills, who had become Tom Jones’ manager, suggested the name change to Engelbert Humperdinck, the German 19th century composer of “Hansel & Gretel.” “Spanish Eyes” followed in the 1960s, then “Release Me” in 1967. The rest, as they say, is history.
At the height of its popularity, “Release Me” reportedly sold 127,000 copies a day. Two more hit ballads followed: “There Goes My Everything” and “The Last Waltz.” They are still in his setlist to this day. Eng credits his extraordinary range for his success, adding with a fun punch: “I can hit notes that a bank could not cash.”
His incredible career continued as the new century arrived. In 2000, his album “Engelbert at His Very Best” went Top Five. He still travels as far as Australia and obviously to Britain annually. Two years ago, his duets album featured Sir Elton, Kenny, Willie, Johnny Mathis, Olivia Newton-John and Dionne Warwick.
A staunch Catholic, he has been married since 1964 to Patricia Healey, and they have four children. He tries to visit a cathedral in every city that he performs on his global tours. He sold the former Jayne Mansfield pink palace home in Los Angeles in 2002 after living in it since buying it in the 1970s.
Before you read our one-on-one interview, take a moment to watch his performance of “You’re My World” to understand why he’s outlasted many to celebrate his 50th anniversary tour stop at The Orleans Showroom this weekend.
Anything different with this new tour stop in Las Vegas? What’s different than last time at The Smith Center?
It is a little different; every year is a bit different. This is my 50th anniversary with the song that changed my life. Making music for half a century is fantastic. I have put new songs in my show and even songs I haven’t recorded yet, so I’m trying out as a trial-and-error situation — see if the audience likes it, and they seem to have liked what I have chosen.
I’m recording next week, two songs, and hopefully one of them is going to be my next single. I’m not going to tell you the names because I want it to be a surprise.
Tough to pick just one, so try two or three: What are your favorite songs to sing and why?
Obviously No. 1 would be “Release Me,” which started the whole thing 50 years ago. Never let me go. The next one would be “The Last Waltz.” It literally is my own personal beginning, a lifetime relationship with my wife. Indirectly, although it wasn’t mine, it was played in dance halls all over the world, as you know, before the lights came up. It became my song and a big hit.
When I danced with my wife when I first met her, it was to “The Last Waltz.” The melody has played on, and we’re still together — 52 years of marriage, and it’s still beautiful. There’s also a song that I particularly love — “Love Is All,” love is all I have to give. It sums up my career, the entire story, and it was written by Les Reed and Barry Mason, who wrote several hits for me.
What’s an anecdote from your biggest No. 1 hit that you’ve never told before?
Every time I think of it, it still gives me goose bumps. The first time I heard it, it was an instrumental recorded by Frank Weir, who was a soprano sax player in England. It was beautiful, and I asked Gordon to try to find the lyrics. He found that it had been recorded with Etta James, I believe. But he took the song and presented it to Tom Jones, who was already a star.
Fortunately for me, Tom turned it down. He could’ve kicked himself because, eventually, it started selling 80,000 copies a day, 90,000, 100,000; it went up to 127,000 a day. I know that because I used to call every day and ask what the figures were. Tom said, “It should’ve been my song. I was a fool I turned it down.”
How many miles or cities did you cover the last 12 months? Is that less or more or a normal year?
Better check my mileage cards here. We racked up plenty of miles last year. Boy did we go to places: In Egypt, I climbed up the Pyramids, at my age. Remember the plane that went missing? The very next day, I flew Egypt Airlines to Cairo, and they gave me a really warm reception.
They were so grateful that I was willing to travel during such uncertainty. They gave me an award for being so brave, so to speak, a Pharaoh. I was able to take a couple of days off, and they took me to a museum where they presented me with the artifact right out of the museum.
I brought it home to Los Angeles. In all, hundreds of thousands of miles of travel: We shopped in Singapore and rode in one of those three-wheeler cabs. Beirut gave me a wonderful welcome. We were in Manila, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.
What do you love about touring? What one thing about touring would you like to change?
I’m able to get a couple days by the end and really take my time and look around and absorb the country. Now with the phone, you can take pictures wherever you go, take movies wherever you go. I’ve got a memory all over the place, but before I used to go in and out like nobody’s business, and I didn’t even know I’d been there.
I love touring, but it did get a little hard these days with the time changes. But the back of the bus is really harder when you’re traveling on the bus. I still do that, BTW, I still travel on a bus when I do some one-nighters. Occasionally, I will take a private plane, and I feel flushed.
The road is your home? Is there no place like home? Or is the L.A. house an escape haven?
There are two places that I really love. As you know, I have a home in England and one in L.A., and I’m faithful to both of them. I took my wife back home to England this Christmas to meet family and friends. We hadn’t been home for quite some time.
As you know, my wife is not very well, and she doesn’t travel well, but it was New Year’s Day. We got up at 4 o’clock in the morning and came back to L.A. to see sunshine, but of course we didn’t. We had rain. I like both homes, I really do. But I really consider every place I go is a place to hang my head.
Your songs speak of love. How do you define love? What is it? How do you keep love alive?
To be honest, Robin, defining love is an easy thing. It comes in so many forms, but it’s when putting one’s self second, putting someone else first, that you really find the true definition. The type of love I define through my songs is just what I’ve written.
Love is about passion, and to keep that kind of love alive, you have to keep romance alive. Romance does still stay alive 50 years on. Damn right at 50, it’s still alive and kickin’ — or doing something.
If you’re in the mood for love, what record or singer might you turn on and why? Bear in mind that many singers choose you for their romance!
That’s great, isn’t it? What a great association to have of people making love to my music and making all kinds of — anyway, the funny thing about it is, I like listening to instrumentals, romantic-sounding instrumentals. There is one song that I dearly love and pick and has a great relationship with how I feel.
Remember “An Affair to Remember” with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr? The song was recorded by Vic Damone, and Nat King Cole had a version of it. These are the kind of songs I think people should put on when they are in a romantic mood. Songs like “When I Fall in Love.”
It’s the first single I ever bought for my wife when I was first with her, when I was 20 years old. I bought a little record player that I paid 50 cents a week for — I couldn’t afford the whole amount, and she played that song on it. It was a wind-up record player.
Looking back over a 50-year career, did you ever dream that it would become all of this, last this long and still have loyal fans after a half century?
Unbelievable, isn’t it? It’s still going strong. I’m very thrilled with that situation, and I’m still amazed at the fact that I can go to any place in the world and my songs are known and sung by the audiences. As a matter of fact, I’m getting a much better reception today I think because of my experience and connection with the audience.
I have a better rapport with them because learning how to handle an audience, I guess I have 50 years’ experience. I’m just able to do that at this point in my life. I’m sorry you’ll be away and not able to see the show because it has a lot of changes in it, plus a nice, different stage setting, different lighting, new music and Johnny Harris, an arranger who is back in my life.
He did arrangements for me 48, 49 years ago, and he’s living in L.A. He arranged new stuff for me. You would be amazed at the sound of the arrangements. They’re so good and professional. It’s brought new life to my stage performances. I think the audience is going to be very pleased with what they see and hear when I come back to Las Vegas.
It’s funny, but I’ve never asked you: If it hadn’t been Humperdinck, what would it have been? Did you love or loathe it at the beginning?
I think that it would’ve remained Dorsey, but that name is forever linked with Jimmy and Tommy. It would have been a problem trying to tell people that we’re not related, but it was Jimmy, when I first heard him, his music and heard him play an arrangement of a song called “So Rare” that made me want to play the saxophone.
With the new name, people started talking and laughing about it, but they were all listening to this fairytale name. They laughed at it, they called me Pumpernickel and a lot of others. I didn’t like the idea that people laughed at it, let alone couldn’t pronounce it, but they were talking about it, which made it valuable. Gordon Mills had a point, and it stuck for the rest of my life.
