NEWS

By Richard Duckett

Telegram & Gazette Staff

Posted Apr 12, 2018 at 8:00 PM

WORCESTER — What’s in a name?

We talked about Engelbert Humperdinck with Engelbert Humperdinck.

“The name is 51 years old now,” said the iconic English pop singer/balladeer who spectacularly rose to fame in 1967 with the hit single “Release Me.” “It’s kept me in good standing all these years.”

Closing in on his 82nd birthday May 2, Humperdinck is still going strong, and he’ll be at the The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts for a show at 7:30 p.m. April 17. His latest album, “The Man I Want to Be,” was released late last year.

The man who would be Engelbert Humperdinck was born with the name Arnold George Dorsey. He lived for a while as a child with his parents in India before they returned to England and settled in the city of Leicester. Dorsey performed as Gerry Dorsey but his singing career was sidelined for a while by illness. His manager/agent suggested a change of name and, implicit in that, image. Engelbert Humperdinck (1854–1921) was a German composer best known for the opera “Hansel and Gretel.”

The new name was audacious. “Nevertheless it did prove itself,” Humperdinck said during a recent telephone interview. There’s no shame in the name. “It’s a good name ... It was fun. It turned a stage name into a romantic image.”

With a smooth singing voice and good looks and appearance, he’s kept the image going. “I have a great following wherever I go,” he said. Of all ages? “Very much so,” he said. “They definitely stimulate me in such a way it makes you want to work hard for them.”

Humperdinck is still celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Release Me.” Last year Decca, his old label, released “The Complete Decca Studio Albums,” an 11-CD box set. Then in November Humperdinck put out “The Man I Want to Be.”

“I’ve got a lot of new things to offer,” he said. “A lot of new songs that I’m very proud of. It’s a great performance by me, I think.”

And yet it is very bittersweet as well.

His wife, Patricia — whom he met at a dance hall when she was 17 and has been married to for 53 years - has Alzheimer’s disease.

“The album is dedicated to my wife, Patricia. It’s a love letter to my wife. There are songs that are specifically written for her,” Humperdinck said.

They include “I’m Glad I Danced With You,” which he sings in a duet with his 9-year-old granddaughter, Olivia. Also very touching is “Just Like the First Time.”

Humperdinck said his producer bought the songs to him. “He really made a great arrangement that really touches people’s hearts, including mine.”

Elsewhere the album has other new material such as the title song and the country-sounding “Absolute Beginners,” and covers that include “Photograph” by Ed Sheeran and “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars.

Humperdinck said he’d like to record a TV special later this year, preferably in Hawaii. He noted that Elvis Presley did his last show in Hawaii and said that the two were great friends. Asked if he was influenced by Presley, Humperdinck said, “Oh yes, by a long way. He never took himself too seriously. I think that was wonderful. He had a lot of humility. He was a very down-to-earth person.”

Humperdinck wasn’t keeping company with such big names when the single “Release Me” was released. “That was the one that started my life,” he said of the ballad-style plea for release from a failing relationship with a full chorus joining in on the final verse. The song hit No. 1 on the British charts, blocking the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane” from Top of the Pops - the first time in four years that a Fab Four single hadn’t made No. 1. “I hope they didn’t hate me,” Humperdinck said. “I was an unknown person who came from nowhere.” That was changing. By the end of the year Humperdinck had had two more big hits, “The Last Waltz” and “After the Lovin’ ”

“I came over (stateside) and did the Ed Sullivan Show and that was it,” Humperinck said. “He (Sullivan) was a very, very good man for people who were new in the business. He had an amazing way of making people stars.”

Other hits that followed included “A Man Without Love,” “Les Bicyclettes de Belsize” and “Am I That Easy to Forget.”

These days, Humperdinck divides his time between homes in California and England, and performs about 80 to 90 live shows a year.

He said he doesn’t have a fitness regime. “I wish I did. I used to have a great fitness regime. I do try to keep myself as fit as possible.”

Humperdinck will be bringing a band to The Hanover Theatre. “I always have a band. I travel with my band everywhere I go.”

Of course he’ll be singing the hits. “I can’t come without doing that,” he said. And there will be the new songs as well.

“My show is very moving and uplifting,” Humperdinck said. “At times it has its sad moments, but it’s very entertaining.”

http://www.telegram.com/entertainmentlife/20180412/engelbert-humperdinck-to-perform-in-concert-at-hanover-theatre