Videos: Humperdinck’s ’74 Bermuda Show

Superstar Englebert Humperdinck swapped the glittery showrooms of Las Vegas for some quainter Bermuda settings in a 1974 TV special which featured Canadian songbird Ann Murray and local acts Hubert Smith & The Coral Islanders and the Clayhouse Inn Steel Band.

Featuring the singer duetting with Ms Murray in the back of a horse-drawn carriage, sitting in with the Coral Islanders on a rendition of the calypso classic “Marianne” and performing on the ramparts of Fort St. Catherine, the hour-long special topped North American ratings when it originally aired.

Best known for his hits “Release Me [And Let Me Love Again]“, “After the Lovin’” and “The Last Waltz”, Mr. Humperdinck — who was born Ronald Dorsey — was a fixture on the international musical charts in the ’60s and ’70s as a balladeer in the tradition of Tom Jones.

He has been performing regularly on the Las Vegas Strip for more than 40 years and remains one of the top drawers in America’s gambling and entertainment capitol.

“I honestly feel this is the best thing I’ve ever done on television,” the star said when the Bermuda special first aired.

“We were all over the island, using historical places as sets. We took a good deal of care in making it.

“I was up at 5:30 every morning and they taped little microphones to my body. I felt like the Six Millon Dollar Man.”

Mr. Humperdinck sang many of his past hits in the special and staged an improvised concert at the Elbow Beach Surf Club before a specially invited audience.

“Bermuda is a very special place to me,” the star told an interviewer when the special was in production. “Rather than do a documentary travelogue, I wanted to sing different songs in interesting, colourful and unusual settings.”

The crooner — who was a frequent visitor to Bermuda in the 1970s — said he personally selected the local backdrops used in the special, which also included the Natural Arches in Tucker’s Town and the Southampton Princess Hotel [now the Fairmont Southampton].

“Its perched on top of a hill and has lovely, panoramic views of the Great Sound,” he said of the hotel. “Not only that it’s got terrific facilities:  Ann Murray and I were able to take some time out between shots to play a round of golf and some tennis.”

“There’s more of me in this special than in any of my previous television shows,” he said.

He had hosted a variety hour TV series which lasted only one season in the late 1960s.

“In my other TV shows, I’d be like a traffic cop, doing nothing more than introducing guests and singing a few songs,” he said.  ”There’s more of me in this show.

“And I love the fact I can introduce Bermuda — my special hideaway — to the rest of the world.”

The ultrasmooth balladeer was often billed as “the King of Romance,” and for millions of fans around the world, he more than lived up to that title.

During his heyday in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Humperdinck cultivated the image of a mysterious heartthrob, sporting shaggy sideburns and a flamboyant wardrobe that, when coupled with his rich, silky crooning, drove female fans wild.

He was especially popular in Europe and his native UK, and his worldwide record sales — counting both albums and singles — eventually totalled well over 100 million.

The singer was born in Madras, India in 1936 where his father worked as an engineer for the British Army.

In 1967, the singer — who took his stage name from a 19th century Austrian composer — cut a pop-ballad version of “Release Me,” previously a hit for country singer Ray Price and R&B chanteuse Esther Phillips; Mr. Humperdinck’s cover made the song a standard.

Given some exposure by the singer’s last-minute addition to a bill at the London Palladium, it rocketed to the top of the British charts and sold over a million copies, ultimately keeping the Beatles’ seminal double-sided hit “Penny Lane”/”Strawberry Fields Forever” out of the top spot. It also went to number four in America, where the accompanying album made the Top Ten.

“Release Me” kicked off a streak of seven straight worldwide hits which lasted into 1969.

Those hits included “There Goes My Everything,” the million-selling number one “The Last Waltz,” “Am I That Easy to Forget,” “A Man Without Love,” “Les Bicyclettes de Belsize,” and “The Way It Used to Be.”

Now 75, the star still performs in Las Vegas, tours internationally and records new albums.

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