Usually in the music business, singers change their names when the ones their parents gave them are too hard to spell. But in the case of Arnold Dorsey, he changed his name to make it longer and weirder.
So why did Dorsey want to become Engelbert Humperdinck? The British singer wanted to draw attention to a career that had previously gone nowhere. It worked.
After he changed his name in 1967, he had a smash hit with his version of "Release Me."
After that, Humperdinck became known as the king of adult-contemporary music. While he was mocked during the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s, he had a huge following — mostly among women who adored both his good looks and sultry voice.
Even weirder than his name is the fact that he's drawing a younger crowd who rediscovered their parents' music back when MTV started featuring Tony Bennett.
Humperdinck is now considered a cool, retro show for a young couple's date night.
But the weirdest fact about Engelbert Humperdinck is how he came up with the name.
He didn't invent it — he borrowed it. The first Engelbert Humperdinck (who was born with the name) was a German composer born in 1854. Why him? The second Engelbert Humperdinck has never really explained it.