Engelbert Humperdinck, in New Zealand for a four-show North Island tour, says the secret to a 50-year international music career is to not fake it, writes Shane Gilchrist.
The Hump, as he known by legions of fans, some of whom go so far as to call themselves Humperdinckers, is on the phone from Los Angeles, where he has a house significant enough to be listed on one of those celebrity mansion websites.
Fair enough.
Engelbert Humperdinck has sold more than 150 million records, including 64 gold albums and 35 platinum, earning him a fortune estimated at more than £100 million.
He has had four Grammy nominations, a Golden Globe, and there are stars with his name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Las Vegas Walk of Fame and, yes, the Leicester Walk of Fame.
He has performed for the Queen, various United States presidents and other heads of state.
At one point, he even had a limited edition series of golf drivers named after him.
Why? Why not? He likes the game.
When he’s not in Los Angeles, Humperdinck lives in a mansion in his home town of Leicester.
That’s where he keeps his collection of Rolls-Royces and, occasionally, serves a pint to friends and family from behind the bar of the pub he had built on the property.
He also serves his fans well, he contends.
So what if he has recently turned 80. Merely going through the motions when performing is not an option.
"Every time I walk on stage — and I’m not just saying this to make an impression on you — I perform from my heart. I don’t put myself on automatic pilot, that’s for sure.
"People say to me, ‘gosh, you look great for your age now’. Well, I must have looked like s... before," he laughs, adding: "Actually, I feel like I’m in my 50s. I look after myself. I keep myself in shape. I punch the bag every day."
Engelbert winds up his whistlestop New Zealand tour with a concert in New Plymouth tomorrow.
He was to have performed in Dunedin and Christchurch but those shows were cancelled, "due to circumstances beyond the artist’s control", according to a press release that arrived a fortnight after this interview.
He likes coming to New Zealand he says, recognising that one song in particular, Ten Guitars, has wormed its way into the cultural consciousness.
Ten Guitars, the B-side to Humperdinck’s 1967 hit single, (Please) Release Me, became a hit in New Zealand after radio programmers picked up on the upbeat track with its "Maori strum".
Then followed various Kiwi versions (including by John Rowles and Howard Morrison), who embraced its chorus of "oh, dance, dance, dance, to my ...".
"I’m so proud of the way Ten Guitars has influenced so many people and been embraced so strongly by the New Zealand public.
"It was written by my friend Gordon Mills, who later became my manager. One day we were sitting in his apartment and he started humming ... ‘dum dah dum da dah’ ... Gordon, who is no longer with us, wrote it and gave it to me and I do love it.
"That song is connected to the single that started my musical career," Humperdinck says, referring to (Please) Release Me, which held the top spot in the UK singles chart for six weeks.
A No1 in 11 countries, it remained in the UK charts for 56 weeks and, on its release, prevented The Beatles’ double A-side release, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, becoming the Fab Four’s 13th consecutive No1.
The second youngest of 10 children, Arnold George Dorsey was born on May 2, 1936, in Madras, to Mervyn, a non- commissioned officer in the British Army and his Indian wife, Olive.
The family moved to England, settling in Leicester when he was 11. By that time, he was showing an interest in music, including learning the saxophone.
Once quoted, "I can hit notes the bank can’t cash," Humperdinck claims he has a vocal range of three and a-half octaves.
Perfect, then, for swooning and crooning his way through Spanish Eyes, There Goes My Everything, The Last Waltz, Quando, Quando, Quando and Am I That Easy To Forget?
Yet he only started singing at 17.
"Obviously, I didn’t have the voice I have today. I was still learning. I knew I could sing, but no way like I can today," he says.
After serving in the British Army Royal Corps of Signals, he began singing in nightclubs in the early 1950s.
However, he struggled to make a living and, following the advice of manager Gordon Mills (who played a hand in Tom Jones’ hit It’s Not Unusual), he changed his name to Engelbert Humperdinck, after the 19th-century German composer and creator of the opera Hansel and Gretel.
Then came what he terms his "big break", in 1967.
"I took the place of a person who had got sick for a show at the London Palladium. His name was Dickie Valentine. I had six minutes to establish myself there.
"I performed (Please) Release Me for the very first time and from the very next day we had sales of 80,000 a day. It launched my career immediately. I didn’t look back. From that one song, my life was sorted.
"Until that point I had a day job and performed in clubs at the weekends to gain experience. I needed that. I served my apprenticeship in those clubs and it did me the world of good. It helped me when I turned professional."
In his 2012 autobiography, What’s In A Name?, Humperdinck covers plenty of territory, from an upbringing that included witnessing his mother’s prowess as a singer and violinist, to his father’s many anecdotes, to rubbing shoulders with members of swing music’s Rat Pack in Las Vegas in the 1960s, to his annoyance at sound engineers who didn’t get it right (he once went through four in a week).
"I have had some extraordinary experiences. I have had someone try to shoot me and another try to kidnap me. Thank God that happened some time ago," he says, adding that, yes, women were at the heart of those incidents.
And, yes, he has been married, to Patricia, since 1964. The couple have four children.
"I’m very proud of the fact I still have the same lady as when I started. I still have my first wife.
"I haven’t always been Mr Goodie Two Shoes, but she has stood by me."
