For over 50 years, Engelbert Humperdinck has been one of the foremost faces of easy listening music. His sonorous, velvet vocals have been the driving force behind timeless traditional pop ballads, and he is still singing to this day at 83. Released in May as an ode to motherhood, Humperdinck impressed with the richness and warmth of his newest single, “You”. His live performance of the song has become a flagship of his recent tours, leaving ample room for the singer to pull heartstrings with its resonant chorus and crisp, full-bodied instrumentation.
In his decades of recording, Humperdinck has never done a proper music video until now. There have been live videos taken from his live performances. But his official video for “You” is the first time that he is performing in a conceptualized piece. The class and finesse that have pervaded so many of his performances prior is just as palpable here, just with the added twist of it being the long-standing artist’s first performance of this nature. The audiovisual presentation of “You” is a romantic gift to his wife, Patricia Healey, on her birthday, 10 September.
Humperdinck tells PopMatters, “I’m really loving introspective songs now that reflect on my life’s experience and put in meaningful words how I feel about myself and the ones I love most–my wife, my family, and my fans. A perfect example is my latest song ‘You’, written for me by renowned British songwriters Jon Allen and Jake Fields.”
“‘You’ has become a fan favorite and is now a powerful signature song for me, much like ‘My Way’ was for Frank Sinatra or ‘Yesterday When I Was Young’ for Charles Aznavour. It was very exciting for me to do my first proper music video for a single release, even more so for a song that’s so special to me. It’s a rare event for me but making this one has sparked the desire to do more. The location (the Houdini Estate) was spectacular and stirred up just the right magic to set this beautiful song to screen. I’m happy this performance won’t disappear. I hope the fans will enjoy it as much as I did filming it.”