ENGELBERT: A LOVE THAT NEVER ENDS

Details: Category: Celebrity Insider; Published on Tuesday, 12 August 2025 22:28; Written by Bobbie Katz

Engelbert starts a new world tour at The Orleans

For the last 59 years, legendary international superstar Engelbert Humperdinck, long known as the “King of Romance,” has been crisscrossing the oceans of the world to entertain. And he hasn’t missed the boat yet – more than 150 million records sold -- 72 gold albums and 23 platinum albums-- have reportedly made him the fifth top recording solo artist in the world while his persona and consummate performing style have garnered him sold-out concerts all over the globe to millions of adoring fans spanning four generations. And while it’s readily apparent that his ship came in for the long-haul decades ago, it’s far from ready to be dry-docked. In fact, for the record, Engelbert is looking to find himself in “hot” water once again.

The beloved iconic artist’s multitudes of fans couldn’t have been more relieved to hear that news. They were afraid that his ”The Last Waltz Tour,” which he embarked on in 2024 and is named for one of his big hits, was just that – his ode to his retirement. But after not performing for all of January, February, and March of 2025, and with no one to come home to since the passing of his beloved wife, Patricia, in February 2021, Engelbert himself just couldn’t get over The Hump.

“I sat at home last year for those three months and I was climbing the walls,” he reveals. “I called my manager and told him that I needed to get back to work. I wanted to get back to being on the road and doing what I love the most, my life’s blood. Now, this year I'm doing my Celebration Tour. I'll be at the Westgate Las Vegas April 17-18, after which I will be touring New Zealand and Australia, for starters. I first performed at the hotel when it was the Las Vegas Hilton. In fact, in 1982, I filmed a special there. But I performed on that stage for several years. It will be fun to be back after such a long time. Of course, this is the stage that Elvis performed on. We were good friends and we used to go to each other's shows when I was at the Riviera in the 70's, having been brought to Las Vegas by Dean Martin, who was part-owner of the Riv. To me, Elvis was the best entertainer ever."

Undoubtedly, Engelbert's return to the Westgate stage is something to write home about. Not only will he turn 90 a couple of weeks later but he is coming back with a new show, brand new album, and a new single.

“I would like to have another hit record,” he admits. “It keeps you fresh and also keeps the high bar. However, it’s searching for a needle in a haystack to find that song. I was lucky in the early days with ‘Release Me’ when I had one, two, three songs on the charts at the same time. It's 58 years later and people are still singing along to my songs. While my forte is a balance and substance of good melodies and lyrics, I've got a new album coming out that’s a bit out of my comfort zone. It consists of songs from the 80’s from bands like Kiss. Journey, the Beatles, and Aerosmith. All the original bands on those recordings have backed me on this album. Plus, my new single is being released on May 2, my 90th birthday. I worked with my friend Joel Diamond, who produced many of my early and biggest hits such as "After the Loving," "This Moment in Time" and others. He brought me this new song and asked me what I thought and I said, 'Let's do it.'"

With no thought of retiring, the handsome star possesses the looks of a man 25 years his junior. His beautiful, renowned, 3 1/2-octave voice is as golden as ever, not to mention that he has always possessed a rare magnetism that has his audiences rushing the stage towards the end of his performance, standing 10-20 deep, wanting to be up close and personal with him or to shake his hand as he finishes his show.

Add to that the fact that recent TV series and movies featuring his songs (“Moon Knight,” “Umbrella Academy,” and “Bullet Train”) and being back on the charts, getting millions of views from the streaming of his music, and having 500,000 subscribers on You Tube has brought to his concerts younger audiences whom he quips “come to see what an Engelbert Humperdinck is.” It all accounts for the fact that, in surviving decades of changing trends in music, the British icon has never steered himself wrong by staying true to himself and his brand. And as he sings a Toby Keith hit in his shows, he has no plans to "let the old man in."

Among his mega-list of honors and accolades, Engelbert now has an MBE (the Honor of Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday Honors List 2021) after his name. He relates that he chose to go in a romantic direction with his music early in his career.

“I wanted to be a balladeer,” he muses. “I wanted to tell stories that mean something, stories that people could relate to and bring out feelings that involve them as well. A lot of my songs hit home. People have gotten married or engaged or fallen in love to my music. It’s nice to be someone who creates relationships without even knowing it and does somebody some good. It’s also nice to have music that people can relate to and can say, ‘That’s a Humperdinck song.’ Some have learned English by listening to my music.”

With it all, Engelbert doesn’t analyze his success. After starting off on his journey as Gerry Dorsey and experiencing his first little acclaim, he professed that he was going to be a millionaire by the time he was 30. He was determined to fulfill his prophecy, knowing that he would not make it the easy way, but rather the hard way. He actually lived in a damp, dingy cellar in London for some time while he was working on his craft but he always had the notion in his head that something was going to happen.

“A Jewish lady I stayed with when I was working clubs in the north of England said to me, ‘You’ve got mazel (luck) and you’re going to be known all over the world,’ Engelbert recalls. ”Then came ‘Release Me.’ My manager, Gordon Mills, and I had found that needle in a haystack.”

“Gordon found the melody and he played it for me,” he continues. “It was actually a saxophone instrumental by a musician named Frank Weir. I told Gordon that it sounded great – I fall in love with a song just hearing the melody. We found the lyrics – the song was written in 1949 and had been recorded five times, the last time by Etta James although Ray Price had had a hit with it. I had never heard his version but I listened to Etta James’ version. Hers was R&B so I changed it, recorded it, and gave the song a country feel. And that was it.”

When “Release Me” hit in January of 1967, it hit huge. After Engelbert performed it on a British TV show called “Sunday Night at the Palladium, it sold 86,000 records a day and eventually hit 127,000 sales a day, ending up in the Guinness Book of Records for its incredible 56 weeks on the charts. “Release Me” went to number one in 11 countries

Engelbert remembers that the global success of “Release Me ” felt like winning the lottery to him.

“All of a sudden, I found myself in a zone I couldn’t understand,” he says. “I didn’t know it would be as successful as it was. Who knows our destiny until it comes? I played ‘I Spy’ with Destiny until Destiny finally found me. There are many barriers to overcome but I believe we create our own destiny. You have to make that your mindset and not give up. You have to fight for it.”

Still, there is one aspect of his career that the artist laments.

“I feel that I didn’t have a fulfillment of life,” he explains. “In the early days, people didn’t take advantage of my talent and ambition. I received movie offers but they were thrown away because I was a moneymaker on the road. Gordon Mills wanted me there, not making movies.”

“I call myself a thespian of song,” Engelbert adds. “When you talk, you have to use your body language and eyes. Singing is talking in tempo. It’s how you portray your story and how you get emotionally involved in the whole thing. If you don’t demonstrate it, you don’t appreciate it. I’ve always said that the honesty of a performance comes through the performer’s eyes.”

Born Arnold George Dorsey, he humbly emotes that he has always just been Arnold George Dorsey and that Engelbert Humperdinck is his stage handle and the name the world knows him by. When he’s at home, he does two crossword puzzles each morning; he listens to music every day; watches TV series and movies and learns from the dialogue; exercises 45 minutes to an hour daily; enjoys going out to eat; keeps in touch with friends and family (he calls England every day); and writes poetry every day. He wants to put his poetry to music and plans to record it in all original songs in Nashville. He also wants to write another autobiography since there was so much left out in the first one because he didn’t want to hurt people.

“I love challenges,” he sums up, noting that he has always been a go-getter and a bit of a dreamer. “Everything I attempt is a challenge. Nothing comes easy.”

If it sounds like Engelbert is just getting started, he is. As for last year's Last Waltz tour, the last line of the song is "the last waltz will last forever." That's cause for 2026's Celebration, for sure.