Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
Please release me from my grief
Consumed with sorrow since his wife of 56 years died, Engelbert Humperdinck reveals how a new album and an unlikely renaissance have given him fresh will to live
Mills, who suggested he change his name from Arnold Dorsey to Engelbert Humperdinck, borrowed from the 19th-century German composer of the same name. In 1967 Enge had his first Number One with Release Me. ‘It happened when I was asked to stand in at the last minute for my friend Dickie Valentine on Sunday Night At The London Palladium and I performed Release Me,’ he says. ‘It was a turning point I’m truly grateful for. It brought the song to such a huge audience and it spent 56 weeks in the top 50. It even stopped The Beatles from having their 13th Number One.’
He and Patricia were able to move from a tiny flat to a luxurious home in Surrey where John Lennon was a neighbour, before making the move to California. They then brought up their family between their LA mansion and their home in his native Leicester (the late Queen, who he sang for four times, used to call him Leicester Boy), complete with its own pub and a red telephone box.
At his peak he’d have to travel with 150 shirts as frenzied women would tear them off his back every night and throw their underwear at him, but these days he’s more muted about that heady time. ‘It was a phase and it never used to upset me, it was quite a compliment,’ he says.
What hasn’t changed is Enge’s lustrous locks. ‘I’ve been grey since I was 25, so I decided to colour it to avoid looking old. But at least I’ve still got hair to colour,’ he laughs. ‘And I’ve still got my sideburns too, after starting the fashion in the 60s. Everyone had them – The Beatles and my friend Elvis. I said to him, “You stole my sideburns!” And he said, “If it looks good on you then it’s going to look good on me!”’
Patricia loved sitting behind that ‘glorious head of hair’ when she rode pillion on his motorbike, and he still rides his Harley-davidson around the Hollywood Hills. He’s pleased to have been able to be by her side for her last years, just as she had been by his. After the Alzheimer’s diagnosis he tried every kind of treatment, from stem cells to electroacupuncture, and she seemed to be making an astonishing recovery, saying his name again after being unable to speak for three years. ‘I really thought she’d come out of it,’ he says. ‘Then along came the pandemic, which weakened her.’
But Patricia was far from weak. In his 2004 autobiography she confidently wrote her own chapter, which addressed his affairs and what she
My wife shot from the hip and told it like it is. That’s what I loved about her. She didn’t pull any punches
called ‘enough paternity suits to wallpaper a bedroom’. She described how, far from being the long-suffering wife, she was not only robust but also took strength from dealing with these situations and encouraging Enge to tell the truth. ‘Men are so different and sex doesn’t always mean there’s any love attached,’ she wrote. ‘Men need it. That’s why I didn’t give two hoots about it, as long as it was sexual. But when it becomes a relationship that’s when it becomes hurtful. I always said to myself, if ever he bought a flat or a home for someone then that would be it, because I would know then that the person meant a lot to him.’
Enge only read his wife’s chapter after the book was published, and today he says, ‘It was hard to read. I haven’t read it for a while, but it is important so I think I’ll read it again. My wife shot from the hip and told it like it is. I never met anybody as honest and straightforward as her. That’s what I loved about her. She didn’t pull any punches.
‘I was so proud of her for writing that, and it was a release valve for me too. I needed to say a few things. As a matter of fact, I do have more to say, so maybe I’ll write another. But for now Patricia would want me to just keep carrying on with the show, because there’s no business like showbusiness. I just love it.’