Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

came Engelbert Humperdink.

Ok, with psychedelic music being the order of the day, how is it that Engelbert consistently placed at the top of the charts in 1967 and 1968 with songs such as Release Me, There Goes My Everything, The Last Waltz, Am I That Easy To Forget and Les Bicyclettes de Belsize?

Older audience appeal, a return to the early 1960s, people worn out by drugs and harsh electronic sounds? What do you think?

Cynically speaking, good marketing.

JimK

Here's my take. Englebert and Tom Jones were the best known of a new breed of male singer, suave and sexy, yes and very corny, appealing to a broad age group of women and virtually no men. Their shows were mutual love affairs, naughty ones at that, throughout which an embarrassing assortment of undergarments would be tossed on stage like so many broken vows.

Call me crazy, but I view the trend as another example/result of the Feminist movement coming into its own. My mother's friends lost all bashfulness at these concerts. They were the equivalent of going out to a strip club. Mostly older women who had been dutiful wives throughout the 40's, 50's and 60's were participating in these pheromone-infused events as if to kiss their subservience goodbye...they were going out together, and they were expressing their wild libido with reckless---even panty-less---abandon. And it still happens to this day.

So, to me, Engelbert Humperdinck was all about the Sixties, yeah baby.

Definately an older audience appeal but the charts in UK certainly did throw up surprises and a mixture. Ken Dodd a Liverpool comedian essentially, still going strong, who will not mean a thing on here but in 1965, height of the beat boom had a number 1 with a song called Tears.

In fact Doddy had 19 top 50 hits between 1960 and 1981 far more thn bands like Searchers, Gerry etc.

Besides yourself Peter, James and Mark make good points, both Jones and Humperdinck had TV series at the time which clearly helped.

I think they both owe a lot to Gordon Mills.

Mark, I have to agree to some extent.

I can only add that artists such as you mention were also a welcome break from groups that had begun to have a revolving door mentality to membership. Or in the case of the Beatles, a complete breakup after a few years of transparent acrimony between certain individuals. The underlying message being that if your face no longer fits then you or the complete band are disposable.

The buying power of the very young female fan generally made artists into superstars and all this uncertainty and changing out players in a band generally did not sit well. At least at first. The Rolling Stones and The Small Faces for example went through some personnel changes and initially suffered somewhat at the hands of the media and their most ardent fans.

Englebert and Tom added older women to the fan base and they were "true" to their fans in every respect.

Personally I must add, I found both "stars" mentioned, to be corny and over inflated.

Gordon Mills, Mac Davis, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tom Jones...Is there some sort of trend here?...

They all look a bit similar...
And i agree, counting on female audience and "macho" image can be very effective.

Angelina Jolie lips, Q-Tip hair, soulful eyes.

Aside from these universal glandular stimuli, I see no similarities a-tall.

Women bought the lion's share of records in those days. JimK's right, cynical or not.

Are record execs cynical? Are they?

Naaaaah!!!

All correct answers as far as I know. But we forgot one: all of them routinely had underwear thrown at them while they performed.

So, careful what you wish for.

Well, they threw panties at Frank Zappa, too, so I'm not sure what that proves...

Englebert's fans were not worn out by drugs or harsh electronic sounds, as I'm sure they were the types to begin with that wouldn't have sought out those experiences.

When I think back on what portion of Englebert's "work" in the 60's I can recall, what I come up with more than catapulted lingerie is unbelievably banal melodies set to 'oom-pah-pah' rhythms that arenas full of white folks could clap on the beat to..."My Melody Of Love", for example, sounds like something out of a 1930's Bavarian beer tent.

Psychedelia obviously didn't fix everything...look at Branson, Missouri...

Indeed!

Cyrano de Bergerac nose, Brillo pad hair, pornographer eyes...

Hey, whatever works...

"Send those pants up here...here's some more
Okay, good-good!
Traditional cotton...oh, how sweet!
Um!...huh-huh-huh-huhhh...
HERE! Work these!"

(from "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats", The Man From Utopia, 1983)

A segue so early in the thread

Anyway my two cents. Frank Zappa was in a class of his own. I thoroughly enjoyed his body of work.

And look at that smoldering glance...

[quote from FZ's song censored]
Yaah. Definitely Zappa was very special.