“Release Me” made Engelbert Humperdinck a star after years of trying; but he wasn’t the only singer at a low ebb who benefited from a lucky break provided by this ballad. The song itself has been sung in many genres: in the US, it is viewed as a country ballad, but it has also seen service as a soul heartbreaker. It kept music-publishing lawyers in clover for years. And for one cultural commentator, “Release Me” was a symptom of a cultural revolution.
“Release Me” was written in 1949 by Eddie Miller, Robert Yount and Dub Williams. Miller, a country singer scuffling for success, tried and failed to place the song with other artists, so he recorded it himself that year. Another vocalist, Jimmy Heap, heard Miller’s record on a jukebox, covered it, and his version sold 700,000 copies.
Further interpretations by Patti Page, Kitty Wells and Ray Price kept it in the public eye in 1954. In 1962, “Little” Esther Phillips was trying to rebuild her life after a traumatic teenage career which included heroin addiction and being on the bill when R&B star Johnny Ace shot himself on Christmas Day 1954. An arresting, highly accomplished vocalist, Phillips had several hits in the early 1950s but spent the rest of the decade off the charts. She fought her addiction in hospital and played the chitlin’ circuit, hoping for a break. It arrived in 1962 when singer Kenny Rogers caught her act and recommended Phillips to his brother’s record label, which issued her version of “Release Me”, sung in a style similar to Ray Charles’s country material. It became a top 10 US pop smash.
Jerry Lee Lewis sang “Release Me” in 1958, the Everly Brothers and Bobby Darin cut it in 1963. But the song remained unknown in the UK until a Leicester-raised balladeer used it to make his gimmicky name. In 1966, Gerry Dorsey was a hard-up crooner with six ignored singles and a debilitating battle with TB behind him. He signed with manager Gordon Mills, who changed the singer’s name to Engelbert Humperdinck, borrowed from the deceased German composer. His second 45 under his clunky new handle, “Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)”, hit number one. The song’s title had changed but its lucky nature remained: on April 2 1967, Humperdinck became a last-minute substitute for Dickie Valentine on the UK’s leading TV variety programme, The London Palladium Show. His record was already a hit, but the Palladium appearance broadened his audience considerably, and “Release Me” became the UK’s biggest single of 1967.
Pop was supposedly all LSD and hippies that year; the record at number two while “Release Me” ruled the chart was The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever”/“Penny Lane”. In 2014, writer Peter Hitchens called Humperdinck’s ditty “the real revolutionary anthem of the Sixties” and claimed that it represented the British people’s desire to ditch social conservatism. That idea is betrayed by the nation’s conservative taste in pop: Humperdinck’s calling card was one of six mawkish ballads to hit number one in 1967.
Numerous covers of “Release Me” followed, among them a heartfelt soul rendition by Johnny Adams (1968), whose voice resembled that of Humperdinck’s rival, Tom Jones. Elvis Presley gave it a rocking remake (1970) and there was a parody by metal band Def Leppard (1988). The song was the theme for the 1990s BBC sketch series, The Fast Show.
The writing credits for “Release Me” shifted down the decades. In 1957, they changed to Eddie Miller and WS Stevenson, the pseudonym of Bill McCall, the song’s publisher. Sensing that its success would be lasting, McCall bought the rights of Yount and Williams, though Williams was credited on Humperdinck’s recording. When the song’s publishing house changed in the 1980s, Bobby Yount received royalties again; payments were suspended for a decade until a court found in favour of the late Bill McCall’s estate in 1996. Considerable royalties were then... released.
Do you have any personal memories of ‘Release Me’? Whose version is the best? Let us know in the comments below.
‘The Life of a Song Volume 2: The stories behind 50 more of the world’s best-loved songs’, edited by David Cheal and Jan Dalley, is just published by Brewer’s
Music credits: Rarity Music; Bella Musica Edition; Daxa production; Charly; RCA/Legacy
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