It Was 50 Years Ago Today: The Beatles’ Streak of 17 Consecutive #1 Hits Is Broken By… Engelbert Humperdinck?
March 28, 1967
“Release Me” by Engelbert Humperdinck
#1 on the Record Retailer Singles Chart (UK), March 2 – April 12, 1967
The idea behind the Nashville Sound — that urbane style of country music that borrowed from traditional pop orchestrations — was to export a rural, working-class type of American music to mainstream and foreign audiences.
The UK responded especially well to this smoothed-out country sound: the top-selling songs of both 1964 (“I Love You Because”) and 1966 (“Distant Drums”) were recorded by Jim Reeves, the country crooner who died in July 1964. But while the Nashville sound succeeded by incorporating pop, at some point, pop began meeting it halfway.
On our last visit to the top of the UK charts, Tom Jones was scoring his biggest hit yet with “Green, Green Grass of Home,” a song originally made famous by country star Porter Wagoner.
Just seven weeks after Jones dropped from the #1 spot, another big-voiced singer of Welsh heritage (and future Las Vegas staple) reworked another country hit to equal success. Saxophonist-turned-singer Arnold George Dorsey had signed with Decca Records in 1958 under the name Gerry Dorsey, but a lack of hits and a bout of tuberculosis sidelined his recording career by the early ’60s. When Dorsey connected with manager Gordon Mills in 1965 — not coincidentally, the same guy who steered Tom Jones to stardom — Mills suggested a name change to signal a fresh start.
The name Mills chose was an absurd joke for a would-be pop star: Engelbert Humperdinck, after the 19th-Century German composer of the opera Hansel and Gretel. Its absurdity, however, was the very thing that would stick in the minds of the public, ensuring he wouldn’t get mistaken for anyone else. Humperdinck’s first single under the new name, 1966’s “Dommage Dommage,” was a hit in Belgium. His next would be a hit around the world.
Despite Humperdinck’s string-laden, theatrical interpretation, “Release Me” started life in 1949 as a humble country tune. In 1954, both Ray Price and Kitty Wells earned Top 10 country hits with their honky-tonk-flavored versions of the song.
Eight years later, R&B singer Esther Phillips covered the song in the crossover-ready vein of Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. Her rendition became an R&B #1 and a Top 10 pop hit in the US, as well as the inspiration for Humperdinck’s (decidedly less soulful) take.
Apart from its UK origin, Humperdinck’s version of “Release Me” could pass as an exemplar of the Nashville Sound: draped in strings and an echoing choir, buoyed by a walking bassline, and featuring precise, honeyed vocal phrasing inspired by Jim Reeves. Humperdinck’s sonorous baritone and powerful range also share a more-than-passing similarity to his comrade Tom Jones.
But while Jones’s Swinging London vibes and rock-influenced production allowed him to fit in with the youth culture, Humperdinck’s ballad-heavy repertoire and traditional, orchestral instrumentation pinned him decidedly in easy listening territory. He may have only been 30 years old when he recorded “Release Me” — just four years older than Jones — but Humperdinck’s niche was among Jones’s fans’ parents and grandparents, as well as the older siblings who had outgrown rock ‘n’ roll and were ready to enjoy proper adult music.
Perhaps this is why it stung so badly when “Release Me,” which spent six weeks atop the UK Singles Chart, kept the Beatles’ landmark single “Penny Lane”/ “Strawberry Fields Forever” from the top spot, breaking the band’s streak of 17 consecutive #1 hits. Had the Beatles been blocked by a respected rock rival like the Rolling Stones, or a Motown favorite like the Supremes, it might have been easier to understand — but a schmaltzy crooner? Years later, however, Ringo Starr would assert that missing the #1 position “took the pressure off,” allowing the band to experiment more freely.
For their part, the Beatles bounced back with two more chart-topping singles that year (“All You Need is Love” and “Hello Goodbye”), as well as Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which became 1967’s best-selling album in the UK.
The best-selling single of the year, however, remained “Release Me,” which Humperdinck followed with two more break-up ballads nearly as popular. The first, “There Goes My Everything,” repeated the feat of “Release Me” by dressing up an established country hit (this one by Jack Greene) in a tuxedo and pinkie ring. It peaked at #2, but Humperdinck’s last single of the year, “The Last Waltz,” restored him to his place at the top of the charts.
Humperdinck was also popular in the US: “Release Me” made the Top 5, and other singles regularly featured in the Top 40 for the rest of the decade. But the American singles chart of the post-Beatles era was far more focused on rock, soul, and youth culture than its UK counterpart.
Instead, Humperdinck would find his true success in America with his long-running Las Vegas show, as well as the comeback single “After the Lovin’,” which made the US Top 10 in 1976. By this time, the pop fans of the ’60s had started to mature, and the US pop charts had taken a turn toward softer, gentler sounds, more receptive to crooners like Humperdinck.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
