ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK - “The Last Waltz”
(#237, 9th September 1967)
After the write-up of “Release Me” I got several comments and emails from Engelbert fans. They ran along familiar lines: Engelbert is a superb performer, he has a remarkable voice, his fame and renown will far outlast your puny blog.
The last of these I concede without a quibble (though perhaps with an eye-roll or two). As for the others: yes, Engelbert Humperdinck has a magnificent, rich, sumptuous voice. But “The Last Waltz” is evidence that he’s not any kind of a performer.
Each verse of “The Last Waltz” carries different weight: unexpected triumph in the first - unsought loss in the second. It’s a song of bittersweet regret and hard-gained experience, that Humperdinck takes in a well-greased monotone, swooping and booming and investing nothing of himself at all. There’s no inflected difference between the verses, no emotional hooks, the performance is just an unctious slick on a torpid pool.
At the end he bellows “It’s over!” (you might reach for Roy Orbison here, but let’s spare Engelbert the embarassment). But it isn’t over, there’s a chorus of “la la la”s to take us to the finish. Tricky things, “la la la”s - nothing specific to convey, which can make them the hardest part of a performance to get right, the moment where you know for sure whether the singer’s pulled it off and got inside the mood of a song. The “la”s in “The Last Waltz” are - sadly, expectedly - a cocoon of nothing.
But what a magnificent voice! 1
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jeff w on July 5th, 2006
Testing.
Nice new look. Also I anticipate much fun from the “related articles” feature (Spiritualized?).
FT's Admin on July 5th, 2006
“waltz”
markgamon on July 6th, 2006
1 point? That seems kind…
Daniel_Rf on July 6th, 2006
I’m sort of amazed that there are rabid Engelbert roxx u r all gay fans on the modern interweb!
FT's rosie on July 27th, 2006
Good heavens, I turn my back for a week and Popular is not only in lively action again but I need my Ray-Bans!
I likes the new look!
I have to say that a 1 flatters this ditty. It’s not stupendously awful, it’s just boringly kitsch! Never mind.
FT's Doctor Mod on July 31st, 2006
Unbearable moldy CHEESE. Urgh!
Waldo on April 9th, 2007
This was actually Number One the day Radio One began. History records that the first record played was The Move’s “Flowers in the Rain”, which was Number Two and got stuck there. I think the Radio One managers, depite being fusty old geezers who were to oversee many a cock-up in the future, at least got that one right.