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Dr Engelbert Humperdinck joins his fellow honorary graduates along with civic and University of Leicester representatives on the formal procession following the ceremony at Demontfort Hall

Oration for Engelbert Humperdinck

Oration by Professor Gordon Campbell, University of Leicester Public Orator

Engelbert Humperdinck is one of this city’s most famous sons. His fame has been achieved not by noble birth or the hand of fortune, but rather by enormous talent and sheer hard work. He was born, like many citizens of Leicester, in India, where he was one of the ten children of a British officer and a mother who was a talented violinist and singer. His birth name was Arnold George Dorsey. After the family returned to England, young Arnold attended schools in Leicester and took up the saxophone. He began to play in local pubs and then to sing, initially under the stage name of Gerry Dorsey.

Gerry Dorsey gradually established a reputation on the UK club circuit, but his career was cut short by the onset of tuberculosis. Absence from the limelight at that stage of a career is a disaster, because one simply disappears, and so he relaunched his career in the UK and then America, always ensuring that he maintained his roots in Leicester. His new image was accompanied by a new name, that of Engelbert Humperdinck. Opera fans recognised it as the name of the 19th-century composer of Hansel und Gretel, but for most people it was simply outrageous and memorable; it would clearly cause confusion in the German-speaking world, so there he is marketed as Engelbert.

This wilful confusion with the world of opera is not inappropriate. Engelbert’s mother had an operatic voice, and the genes that she transmitted to her son gave him a vocal range of 3 1/2 octaves. His chosen medium is the ballad, but the sonority of Engelbert’s voice and its capacity to convey a range of strong emotions have resonances and indeed origins in the world of opera. His power as a balladeer relates more to presence than to voice, in that he gives the impression that he is singing for the individual listener, to whom both the narrative and the articulation of the emotions seem to be directed. Engelbert does not sing to all of us, but rather to each of us individually.

Success, as Engelbert explains in his recently-published autobiography What’s in a Name, arrived like a meteor. The name of the meteor was Release Me, and it soared to the top of the charts in the week of 8 April 1967, preventing the Beatles’ Penny Lane from reaching that coveted spot. Release Me sold 85,000 copies a day. Many other hits were to follow, among them The Last Waltz, After the Lovin', Quando Quando and, most recently, Lesbian Seagull, from the soundtrack of Beavis and Butthead do America.

Release Me led to the formation of a great following. By 1970 Engelbert had established 250 fan clubs around the world. Almost four decades later, it is still the world’s largest fan following. In the course of his career Engelbert has sold 130 million records, including 70 Gold and 23 Platinum albums. Recognition has included his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It seems astonishing this acclamation and adulation has never gone to Engelbert’s head.

The chronology of this career defies our common sense of musical history. Jimi Hendrix was introduced to the UK and began his career as the first half of Engelbert’s show. Even Elvis owed a debt to Engelbert, because the sideboards were introduced by Engelbert and then borrowed by Elvis. Engelbert and Elvis subsequently became friends, and sang each other’s songs. Engelbert sang ‘Love me tender’ and Elvis sang ‘Release me’ and ‘There goes my everything’. At a later stage, on the Las Vegas concert circuit, Engelbert earned the friendship and respect of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

This is the public Engelbert, behind which stands a modest private man. Three aspects of the private man distinguish him from many of his fellow entertainers. First, he is a family man: his wife Patricia and their four children are all involved in the family business of Engelbert’s career, and he remains close to his family in Leicester. Second, he remains loyal to his Leicester roots: the centre of his global career has been America, but Engelbert still spends part of every year in his house at Great Glen, a few miles south of Leicester. Third, his ability to earn money gives him the opportunity to support and contribute to his charities, and the focus of his generosity and substantial amounts of his time is a range of medical charities. In America he has supported the Leukemia Research Fund, the American Red Cross, and the American Lung Association. He has also supported a range of AIDS charities, for one of which, called Reach Out, he wrote and performed an anthem of the same name. Here in Leicestershire he is patron of County Air Ambulance and has also supported the University Hospitals of Leicester.

Mr Chancellor, on the recommendation of the Senate and the Council, I present to you Engelbert Humperdinck, that you may confer upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Music.