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By Jim Sullivan / Contributing Writer

Posted Jul 19, 2018 at 6:00 AM, Cape Cod Times

Engelbert Humperdinck will sing old hits and new songs Thursday at Cape Cod Melody Tent.

Engelbert Humperdinck – the 82-year-old English balladeer and ageless sex symbol - made a promise when I spoke with him around 2011. We’d been talking about how Frank Sinatra went out as a performer – not well, reading lyrics from a video prompter and not exactly full of voice.

Said Humperdinck: “I will know when to hang my hat up.”

“And that was seven years ago, right?” Humperdinck queried, last week on the phone from his Los Angeles office. “Well, I’m still going strong. I just love the business. I love being on stage. I haven’t slowed up in any way. On stage, I still dance around and do the things you’re supposed to do. And I’ve got a great following. They don’t quit on me so I’m not going to quit on them. I have a great affinity with my audience.”

Humperdinck – who was born Arnold George Dorsey in India and is “Enge” to his friends and family – relocated with his family to Leicester, England at age 10. He played out initially under his own name, and, as Humperdinck, has been recording since 1967, notching 63 gold and 24 platinum records.

Humperdinck released “The Man I Want to Be” album last November and just completed an as-yet-untitled Christmas album for release in September. (He’s taping a PBS show in Honolulu next month to air around the holiday.)

Humperdinck and his longtime band – six musicians, two female singers - will perform Thursday at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis. His set will no doubt include “Release Me,” “Crazy,” “The Last Waltz” and “Quando, quando, quando” and up to half a dozen new tunes.

“I love being in the contemporary world,” Humperdinck says. “That’s where I want to be, in my world, which is the romantic contemporary world.”

In the interview, he talked more about his long career:

Cape Cod Times: You used to do 140 shows a year and in 2011, you told me you’d scaled back to 90. How about now?

Humperdinck: That’s about it now. The show usually lasts about an-hour-40-minutes. (I tour) all over the world, which makes it interesting for me. I get to go to countries that I’ve been to before and not go in and out like I normally do, but go ahead and really test the waters, take a look

around, take some pictures and understand where they’re coming from.

CCT: Sometimes, musicians on tour can’t tell you anything about where they’ve been except which airport they flew into and the hotel rooms they stayed in.

Humperdinck: That’s something I can’t tell you about, hotels. I don’t remember much about hotels, but I do remember the countries.

CCT: Many musicians, entering a latter phase of performing, will say, “This is what I do, I don’t do anything else and I have the most fun doing this.”

Humperdinck: I’m still working hard, improving my shows that I give the people. I don’t just go there with a show that’s been done before. I give them something fresh every time. I’ve got a new album out, “The Man I Want to Be,” and I’ve got a lot of material from that I use in the show and it gives it a nice fresh appeal.

CCT: What is your secret in maintaining your voice?

Humperdinck: I wish I could tell you the answer to that because I don’t know myself. I’ve just been very lucky with my vocal cords and as I’ve aged, the vibrato slows down. I don’t use much vibrato in my voice now. It’s become a very commercial sound which (to me) is much more than I had 30, 40 or 50 years ago.

CCT: What about longevity? You’re one of the few singers, Tony Bennett being another, who has transcended fads, trends and eras. Any way you can account for that?

Humperdinck: I think mainly because of the style of music that I sing. It’s not something that comes and goes very quickly. I sing about romance, I’ve got good lyrics, good melodies that have a lasting appeal and that’s what we put on our albums. Normally, in today’s world, albums come and they go like – bang! nothing – and nobody remembers it after two or three weeks.

CCT: Tell me about the latest album. What Engelbert are you giving people in 2018?

Humperdinck: Well, there’s a lot of new songs on the album. Number one, is the fact that I dedicated this CD to my wife (Patricia Healy). It’s a love letter to my wife and there’s a couple of songs on it that are for her because she has Alzheimer’s. There’s only one duet on the album, and it was written by my daughter Louise (Dorsey) and her partner Tony Toliver. It’s recorded with her daughter, who was 9 years old at the time. She does an amazing portrayal of this particular song. It’s called “I’m Glad I Danced With You.” You see, I met (Patricia) when she was 17 at a dance hall and we’ve been together ever since. And the other song, “Just Like the First Time,” was written by a guy who must have done his homework because it really depicts my wife and I, our story together.

CCT: Is it hard to sing these songs in concert?

Humperdinck: No, because we are working hard to make her better. She’s had it for a long time (eight years), and it takes a little while before it can go away and I know it can go away. I have extreme confidence in that. It’s not a maybe; I’m positive it’s going to go away.

I also do a song from Bruno Mars called “Just the Way You Are.” There’s a nice story attached to that. I first met Bruno many years ago in Hawaii. I had a fan club party and he performed for me. He was 5 years old at the time. He was doing Elvis.

CCT: I know you and Elvis were friends. What’s the best “friendship” story and best “outrageous Elvis” story?

Humperdinck: I don’t know too much about outrageous. I want to say knowing him was the best thing that ever happened to me because I learned a lot from him by watching his show. We had good conversations. I asked him, “I hope you don’t mind if I sing some of your songs” and he said, “Don’t worry about that, pal, I’ve all your records and I do some of yours, too.”

Besides being an amazing entertainer, he was a great human being, had a lot of civility and he was very humble.

CCT: Being on somewhat the same level professionally, maybe you didn’t have to jump over this big gap and think, “Oh my God, I’m talking to Elvis!” He did what you do.

Humperdinck: (laughs) Well, he was a little bigger than I was. But I talked to him in a very ordinary way. I didn’t think “Oh my God, look who I’m talking to.” Although when I first met him it was “Oh my God!” but after a while it became OK.

CCT: You’ve done duets with Elton John, Smokey Robinson and even Kiss’s Gene Simmons, but I’m not sure if you’ve ever made a more radical choice than singing “Lesbian Seagull,” the song you had in the “Beavis and Butt-Head” movie.

Humperdinck: (laughs) You know, I’ve never performed that live. I feel it’s a great song and a great talking piece and has given me lots of publicity in many ways but putting it in my show could be a little bit dangerous.

CCT: Well, I’ve never heard a more beautiful song about a homosexual relationship between two birds.

Humperdinck: Exactly. I know.

http://www.capecodtimes.com/entertainmentlife/20180719/humperdinck-sings-about-man-i-want-to-be