Charmer, but not a crooner

By Jerry Fink

Thursday, April 3, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Engelbert Humperdinck is still traveling the world, charming the ladies, turning out the songs.

Las Vegas has always been a favorite spot on his busy itinerary, but he didn’t make it last year. He was on a world tour promoting his album “Winding Road,” which celebrated 40 years in the business with a compilation of songs composed by natives of Great Britain, among them John Lennon, Elton John, Eric Clapton and even Charlie Chaplin.

Fans having Humperdinck withdrawals after suffering through a year without their favorite romance singer are in for a fix. The man with the tongue-tripping name will perform at the Orleans tonight through Sunday.

Humperdinck fans can see a trimmed-down version of their idol. He’s working out with a trainer and has dropped 20 pounds, with 20 to go. “They’ll have to come see my new show and my new appearance,” he said.

He’ll be entertaining with songs from the past, classics such as “There Goes My Everything” and “The Last Waltz,” and possibly from the future — he recently completed a country album that has not yet been released.

Humperdinck has sold more than 150 million albums since exploding onto the music scene in 1967 with the hit “Release Me.”

His manager persuaded the singer named Arnold Dorsey to change his name. Opera fans know he’s the namesake of the German composer of “Hansel and Gretel.”

“My first manager thought something unusual would make people talk about you, even if it was hard to pronounce,” Humperdinck said by telephone from his home in Los Angeles. “It became a talking point. I took the name and turned it into a romantic image, which was quite a feat — and I pat myself on the back for that.”

Humperdinck performs more than 100 engagements a year and has no plans to retire. “The word ‘retire’ is not even in my dictionary,” he says. “I don’t even think about it.”

One reason for his enthusiasm is a new management team headed by Elliot Wiseman, who managed Frank Sinatra for several years.

“It’s great to have a ‘wise man’ at the helm,” Humperdinck deadpans. “He’s going to keep my career at a peak. He’s a strong manager.”

Wiseman has a lot to manage. Humperdinck now has one of the most recognizable names in pop music. Some call him a crooner, a description he finds offensive.

“A crooner has a range of one octave and a few notes behind that,” he says. “I have a three-octave range.”

There was a time when Humperdinck thought about becoming a film actor.

“I wanted to be in movies but I had a manager when I first began who was totally interested in keeping me on the road,” Humperdinck says. “Staying in the studio for six months making a movie was not really capitalizing on what was happening, so he just buried all the scripts that came to his office.”