Engelbert Humperdinck

Engelbert Humperdinck (Arnold George Dorsey MBE, b. 1936) is a British pop ballad singer and crooner. He had numerous chart hits in the late 1960s, including the no.1 singles "Release Me" and "The Last Waltz". His success continued into the early 70s, resulting also in recognition in the US and worldwide. Humperdinck's career has been through periodic revivals and in 2012 he represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest. (read more on Wikipedia)
==Links to Peel==
Humperdinck's songs and style were always a far cry from Peel's own tastes. His rise to fame coincided with the DJ's return to the UK and the two singles mentioned above were played on Radio London and topped the national UK singles charts. Radio London engineer Russ Tollerfield, who worked with Peel on the Perfumed Garden, developed an interest in the "phasing" sound applied to some records in the psychedelic era and experimented with it on a few records, including Humperdinck's biggest hit, "The Last Waltz", of which the station had an advance copy (it wasn't officially released until 18 August 1967, a few days after Radio London had closed down), Peel played it on the PG, but said that in this case the phasing made no difference and it was still a terrible record. Unfortunately no sound recording appears to have survived, although Robert Chapman refers to it in his book Selling The Sixties, (p.128).
In a 1968 edition of Disc & Music Echo, when the singer's "Am I That Easy to Forget" single was at no.7, Peel wrote, a little more respectfully, in the "Hit Talk" column:Engelbert's (single) is well recorded, well arranged and fairly well sung, but immeasurably boring. [...] This, and all the other ballads in the chart are just wallpaper music, and unfortunately I can't see any immediate change.Ironically, the singer featured on the only Top of the Pops hosted by Peel in the 1960s when the aforementioned single was at no.2. An archive clip of Humperdinck also featured in the 20th anniversary edition of the show, hosted by Peel & Jensen in 1984. Peel's comment was, "..what a hunk, eh?". 
In 1988, hosting a programme celebrating Radio 1's 21st birthday and looking back on the station's first week in 1967, JP played a brief extract of "The Last Waltz", then #1 in the chart for for a fourth consecutive week. He observed that although 1967 was popularly associated with "flower power", the singles chart was full of middle-of-the-road records - including another one by Humperdinck.
==Sessions==
*none
==Shows played==
*Perfumed Garden (August 1967, unknown date): The Last Waltz ("phased" version - see above)
*John Peel Remembers 1967 (1988) - The Last Waltz (short extract)
===Top of the Pops===
*01 February 1968 (TOTP) - Am I That Easy to Forget
*05 January 1984 (TOTP) - The Last Waltz (clip from 26/12/67)
==See also==
*Mighty Avengers
*Record Mirror
*UK Singles Chart Number Ones ‎
== External links ==
* Discogs.com
* Officialcharts.com
Category:Artists