Engelbert Humperdinck ‘A Man Without Love’ (1968)

A true blue crooner, Humperdinck’s wonderfully rich baritone has been dazzling audiences for over 60 years and counting. During that time he’s sold over 140 million records, became one of the world’s finest balladeers, and continued to perform well into his 80’s to this day. A Man Without Love is Humperdinck’s most widely renowned album, featuring hits such as “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and “Quando Quando Quando”. It was the album that cemented Humperdinck’s spot in the 1960’s as a commercial radio powerhouse and has remained his most iconic album 55 years after its release.

Now onto the bullet points. This stuff simply just writes itself:

Born Arnold George Dorsey into a family of 10 children (!!!) he took on the nomiker Engelbert Humperdinck in 1965 after the 19th-century German opera composer who wrote Hansel and Gretel. Eddie Izzard has a brilliant standup bit about the chain of events leading up to this decision.
He disliked being called a crooner, famously saying “If you are not a crooner it’s something you don’t want to be called. No crooner has the range I have. I can hit notes a bank could not cash.”
In 2001 Humperdinck claimed Elvis stole his trademark sideburns look, the very ones that grace the cover of A Man Without Love. Remarking on this perceived slight he said “Everybody in the world grew their sideburns after me. There used to be Engelbert dolls with sideburns. Now they sell Elvis dolls with the sideburns. I don’t begrudge him for that though because he was always my favourite performer.”
Humperdinck’s wife once said that she could “paper their bedroom with all of the paternity lawsuits filed against my husband”. And although Humperdinck dealt with over 100 false claims during his career, he was successfully sued by two women for paternity in the late 70’s– a showgirl from California and a Sunday school teacher from New York.
Humperdinck owned a mansion in Los Angeles that served as his primary residence for the majority of his life due to tax reasons– basically he couldn’t spend more than 90 days in Britain to avoid paying double taxes. Nicknamed “The Pink Palace” it was located behind the Playboy mansion, was infamously owned by former playmate Jayne Mansfield, and featured a heart shaped swimming pool.
His hardcore female fans call themselves (you literally can’t make this one up) “Humperdinckers”.
During the mid-1980s, Humperdinck bought a hotel property in La Paz, Mexico, and renamed it La Posada de Engelbert. The hotel flourished for a time before being shut down in the early 2000’s.
During the recording of the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach, Humperdinck was asked by lead singer Damon Albarn to contribute to the album as a guest artist. The problem? Humperdinck’s management at the time never informed him of the offer, declining it without running past Engelbert. Humperdinck was appalled, stating that the missed opportunity was “the most grievous sin ever committed.” Not one to mince this words, this guy.
He originally was slated to record “Strangers In The Night” after being offered the song the song by German songwriter Bert Kaempfert alongside the songs “Spanish Eyes” and “Wonderland By Night” (which are featured on A Man Without Love). However, after Engelbert was getting ready to release his version, Kaempfert informed him that song had already been claimed. The artist who recorded the #1 hit? The one and only Frank Sinatra.