Engelbert Humperdinck (singer)

Engelbert Humperdinck, born May 2 1936 in what was then known as Madras, India as Arnold George Dorsey, is a well-known pop singer. He was raised in Leicester, England and adopted the stage name Engelbert Humperdinck, after the German opera composer of the same name. Humperdinck has sold about 150 million records and has established himself as one of the world's premiere live performers in a number of sold-out tours.

Career in the 1960s and 1970s

Throughout the rest of the 1960s and into the 1970s, Humperdinck continued to produce million-selling albums of love songs, and developed increasingly more extravagant stage shows, sometimes over one hundred per year. While the mood of Top 40 radio quickly changed, Humperdinck's music, more akin to Broadway show tunes than post-Beatles rock, did not. Subsequently, Humperdinck's live performances became more crucial in reaching his fans, and the singer responded by producing lavish, energetic extravaganzas that set the standards for Las Vegas-style glamour. "I don't like to give people what they have already seen," Humperdinck was quoted as saying in a 1992 tourbook. "I take the job description of 'entertainer' very seriously! I try to bring a sparkle that people don't expect and I get the biggest kick from hearing someone say 'I had no idea you could do that!'"

Related Topics:
Beatles - Las Vegas

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By the late 1960s, Engelbert Humperdinck fan clubs had begun to sprout around the globe. By the next decade, the fan mania had grown to giant proportions, reportedly the largest such club in the world, with chapters including "Our World is Engelbert," "Engelbert...We Believe in You," and "Love is All for Enge." While an occasional fan ventured into the realm of obsession-several fanatics claimed to have been pregnant with the singer's offspring-Humperdinck's following of a reported eight million members guaranteed record sales with limited radio air play. "They are very loyal to me and very militant as far as my reputation is concerned," Humperdinck said of his devotees to Sherwood. "I call them the spark plugs of my success."

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The release of the album After the Lovin' in 1976 was a relative watermark in Humperdinck's career. In addition, the album received a nomination for a Grammy Award, the first major nod Humperdinck had received from critical corners. Perhaps part of the reason behind Humperdinck's critical neglect stemmed from his lack of involvement with the recording of albums, whereas he had so much control over live presentation. Until the late 1980s, Humperdinck had little say in which songs were selected for each album, a fact that might have supported claims that he was little more than a pawn of his label's executives. Over the years, this arrangement slowly changed, giving Humperdinck full creative freedom. Humperdinck's albums began to cover more musical terrain than ballads alone.

Related Topics:
1976 - Grammy Award - 1980s

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