Engelbert Humperdinck (singer)

Arnold George Dorsey (born 2 May 1936), known professionally as Engelbert Humperdinck, is a British pop singer who has been described as "one of the finest middle-of-the-road balladeers around".

Arnold George Dorsey was born in Madras, British India (now Chennai, India) in 1936, one of 10 children born to British Army NCO Mervyn Dorsey, who was of Welsh descent, and his wife Olive who, according to the singer, was of German descent.

Various sources also say that he has Anglo-Indian heritage.

His family moved to Leicester, England, when he was ten years old.

He later showed an interest in music and began learning the saxophone.

Starting as a performer in the late 1950s under the name "Gerry Dorsey", he later adopted the name of German composer Engelbert Humperdinck as a stage name and found success after he partnered with manager Gordon Mills in 1965.

By the early 1950s, he was playing saxophone in nightclubs, but he is believed not to have begun singing until he was in his late teens.

His impression of Jerry Lewis prompted friends to begin calling him "Gerry Dorsey", a name that he worked under for almost a decade.

Dorsey's attempt to get his music career off the ground was interrupted by conscription into the British Army Royal Corps of Signals during the mid-1950s.

After his discharge, he got his first chance to record in 1959 with Decca Records.

He had been spotted when he won a talent contest in the Isle of Man the previous summer.

Dorsey's first single "Crazy Bells" (b/w "Mister Music Man") was not a hit despite him plugging the songs on two appearances on the ITV teenage music show Oh Boy! in February and March 1959.

He switched to Parlophone later that year but his first record for them, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (b/w "Every Day Is a Wonderful Day") was not successful either.

Dorsey would return to record for Decca again, but almost a decade later and with very different results.

Also in 1959 he became part of a touring show called "The Big Beat Show" with other pop singers of the time including Billy Fury, Vince Eager, and Terry Dene.

Further television appearances followed in 1959 on the ITV show "The Song Parade".

A tour as a support to Adam Faith followed and he continued working the nightclubs.

Two of his singles were among the best-selling of the 1960s in the United Kingdom.

In June 1961, however, he was stricken with tuberculosis and spent nine months in hospital.

He eventually regained his health and returned to show business in 1962 but had to start virtually all over again.

Dorsey went back on the variety stage and to nightclub work, but with little success.

In 1965, Dorsey teamed up with Gordon Mills, his former roommate while in Bayswater, London, who had become a music impresario and the manager of Tom Jones.

Humperdinck enjoyed his first real success during July 1966 in Belgium, where he and four others represented Britain in the annual Knokke song contest, winning that year's prize.

Three months later, in October 1966, he was on stage in Mechelen.

He made a mark on the Belgian charts with "Dommage, Dommage", and an early music video was filmed with him in the harbour of Zeebrugge.

In the mid 60s, Humperdinck visited German songwriter Bert Kaempfert at his house in Spain and was offered arrangements of three songs: "Spanish Eyes", "Strangers in the Night", and "Wonderland by Night".

He returned to Britain where he recorded all three songs.

He recognised the potential of "Strangers in the Night" and asked manager Gordon Mills whether it could be released as a single, but his request was refused, since the song had already been requested by Frank Sinatra.

He achieved international prominence in 1967 with his recording of "Release Me".

His recordings of the ballads "Release Me" and "The Last Waltz" both topped the UK Singles Chart in 1967, selling more than a million copies each.

Humperdinck scored further major hits in rapid succession, including "There Goes My Everything" (1967), "Am I That Easy to Forget" (1968) and "A Man Without Love" (1968).

In the process, he attained a large following, with some of his most devoted fans calling themselves "Humperdinckers".

In early 1967, the changes paid off when Humperdinck's version of "Release Me" topped the charts in the United Kingdom and hit No. 4 on the US Billboard 100.

"Spanish Eyes" and "Wonderland by Night" would be included on the singer's 1968 LP A Man Without Love.

During the 1970s, Humperdinck had significant North American chart successes with "After the Lovin'" (1976) and "This Moment in Time" (1979).

Having garnered a reputation as a prolific concert performer, he received renewed attention during the 1990s lounge revival with his recordings of "Lesbian Seagull" for the soundtrack of Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), and a dance album (1998).

The new millennium brought a range of musical projects for the singer, including the Grammy-nominated gospel album Always Hear the Harmony: The Gospel Sessions (2003) and a double album of duets, Engelbert Calling (2014).

In 2012, Humperdinck represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku with the song "Love Will Set You Free", and placed 25th out of 26.

After marking more than 50 years as a successful singer, Humperdinck continues to record and tour, having sold more than 140 million records worldwide.

Mills, aware that the singer had been struggling for several years to become successful in the music industry, suggested a name-change to the more arresting Engelbert Humperdinck, borrowed from the 19th-century German composer of operas such as Hansel and Gretel.