In the 1970s Englebert Humperdinck

To me this was the other Tom Jones. It seemed to be the battle of the giants with Tom and Englebert fighting hard in the 1960s, with Tom entering the 1970s the clear winner. But Engelbert was not dead and gone far from it. He was born in 1936 India as Arnold George Dorsey and at the age of ten he and his family moved to the UK.

 After a few years of singing in clubs it was Tom Jones manager that took an interest in the Humperdinck and gave him his new name and in 67 had the classic “Release Me”. His fans were called Humperdinkers and one of those fans was Princess Anne herself. Two top thirty albums in the 1970s and single wise he did not do very well at all. Although still appearing in cabarets all over the world and being on TV as much as possible it was clear that his golden days were behind him in terms of single hits. Tom Jones was the clear winner. Engelbert had over twenty singles release in the 70s, but only three made the top thirty in the UK. 1970 saw “Sweetheart” nope I don’t remember it either.

 That was followed by “Another Time, Another Place” in 1971 and also “Too Beautiful To Last”. And it did not last, that chart wise was it for the Humperdinker.    

It would be fair to say that he had more sales and financial success in the U.S., then in the UK. But his talent remained in fact right through to singing in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 where he came second from last.