After living in Madras, India, where Humperdinck was born, for a decade, the Dorsey family moved to Leicester, England, where Humperdinck started taking an avid interest in music, particularly in the saxophone. He started playing the sax in nightclubs as a young teen, and began singing at the age of seventeen, soon after which he took the stage name Gerry Dorsey after a successful public impression of Jerry Lewis.
After serving in the British military in the mid-50s, Humperdinck (who was going by the name Gerry Dorsey) recorded his first single, "I’ll Never Fall in Love Again," with Decca Records in 1958. Unfortunately, the single was not a hit, so he went back to the clubs for a few years until he contracted tuberculosis. Then in 1966, awhile after his recovery, Humperdinck hooked up with Gordon Mills, an ex-roommate and new music producer and manager who was managing Tom Jones. This is when he made the stage-name switch from Gerry Dorsey to Engelbert Humperdinck and made a new deal with Decca Records.
In 1967, when rock music ruled the day, Humperdinck released his smooth-ballad version of "Release Me," around the time when Frank Sinatra made a bit of a comeback. The single, which became Humperdinck’s signature song for a long time, was a smash success, and even beat out The Beatles’ "Strawberry Fields Forever" for top spot.
He soon garnered quite the fan following with the release of more hit singles, including "There Goes My Everything," "The Last Waltz," "Am I That Easy to Forget," "A Man Without Love," "The Way it Used to Be," and "I’m a Better Man."
After the 1960s and into the 1970s, Humperdinck—who changed his name legally to Engelbert Humperdinck—began making, releasing, and selling albums as well as performing live in concert, which became his focus as the top-40 radio scene no longer seem interested in his particular easy listening style. His hit single "After the Lovin’" beat out "Release Me" in its popularity and garnered him a Grammy nomination for his After the Lovin’ album. Into the 1980s, Humperdinck continued to make albums and perform regularly. 1989, when he was just over fifty years old, was a big year for the star, when he won a Golden Globe Award for Entertainer of the Year, and was granted a coveted Hollywood Walk of Fame star. Then, in 2000, Humperdinck made the top five British album charts with his album Engelbert At His Very Best.
Humperdinck is also known for purchasing the famous Pink Palace, actress Jayne Mansfield’s former home, in the 1970s, which he later sold for a whopping $4 million. He also has one daughter, Louise Dorsey, who acts as his PR consultant and sometimes sings with him and had an extremely short-lived TV career, with a guest appearance on Angela Lansbury’s Murder, She Wrote and voice work on Jem.
YUDDY
