#12: There Goes My Everything by Engelbert Humperdinck

City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: August 1967
Peak Position in Fredericton #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
YouTube: “There Goes My Everything”
Lyrics: “There Goes My Everything”

Arnold George Dorsey was born in 1936 in city of Madras (now Chennai) during the British Raj. His father was a British Army officer and the family returned to England in 1946. It was only in 1954 he first sang in public at a pub contest. He was conscripted into the British Army in 1955 and after being discharged he recorded his first record. Billed as George Dorsey, his debut single was Decca Records was “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again”. He worked in nightclubs until 1961 when he suffered from tuberculosis. In 1965 his former roommate, Gordon Mills, had become the manager of Tom Jones. Mills suggested Dorsey change his name to Engelbert Humperdinck, after a 19th Century German composer.

In 1966 he released “Domage Domage” which climbed onto the Belgium pop chart. But it was his debut English-speaking recording of “Release Me” that made him an international success. That recording, released in December 1966, went to #1 in the UK for six weeks (keeping “Penny Lane” by the Beatles out of the #1 spot), #1 here in Vancouver (BC) in May and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Between 1967 and 1968 Engelbert Humperdinck landed eight of nine singles in the Top Ten in the UK. “The Last Waltz” became his second #1 hit in the UK in the fall of 1967. The single failed to chart in Vancouver.

His next hit single was “There Goes My Everything”.

“There Goes My Everything” was written by Dallas Frazier, who was born in rural Oklahoma in 1939. As a teenager, he played with Ferlin Husky on the program Hometown Jamboree. He released his first single, “Space Command”, at age 14 in 1954. Frazier told a reporter decades later, “We were part of The Grapes of Wrath. We were the Okies who went out to California with mattresses tied on the tops of their Model A Fords. My folks were poor. At twelve I moved away from home, with my folks’ permission. Ferlin [Husky] offered me a job, and I started working with him when I was twelve. Then I recorded a side for Capitol Records when I was fourteen, and I did some country. I cut in the big circular building that’s still out there on Hollywood and Vine.”

In 1957, Frazier wrote a song titled “Alley Oop” which became a number-one pop hit for the Hollywood Argyles in 1960. In 1966 he wrote “There Goes My Everything” which was recorded by country star Jack Greene. Subsequently, Dallas Frazier earned a nomination for Best Country Song at the Grammy Awards. That year he also wrote and recorded a song titled “Elvira”. It was a huge hit when it was covered in 1980 by the Oak Ridge Boys. In 1968, Dallas Frazier had a song recorded by O.C. Smith titled “The Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp”. In 1988, Frazier left the music industry and became a minister. He suffered two strokes in December 2021 and died at the age of 82 in January 2022.

“There Goes My Everything” is a song about the end of a relationship. Listeners are given the context: “As my memory turns back the pages, I can see the happy years we had before.” But now the partner of many years has announced it is “goodbye forevermore.” A door has been closed and the man’s life is “shattered.” He laments the loss of his “only possession,” his “reason for living,” his “everything.”

“There Goes My Everything” peaked at #1 in Fredericton (NB), #2 in Wheeling (WV), #4 in Wilmington (DL), Houlton (ME), and Battle Creek (MI), #5 in Lowell (MA), #6 in Watertown (NY), and Hamilton (ON), #7 in Harrisburg (PA), #9 in Rochester (NY), Des Moines (IA), and York (PA), #10 in Easton (PA), and #11 in Winnipeg (MB).

In early 1968 his next hit “Am I That Easy To Forget” peaked at #3 in the UK. But, again, the single missed the pop charts in Vancouver (BC).

However, he climbed to #2 on the CKLG chart in Vancouver (BC) with “A Man Without Love (Quando M’innamoro)”.

For six months in 1969–1970, Humperdinck hosted his own television series The Engelbert Humperdinck Show on ATV in the United Kingdom, and ABC in the USA. His featured guests included Paul Anka, Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Ray Charles, The Four Tops, Dionne Warwick and others. From the early to mid-70’s he performed in Las Vegas with his backing singers The Three Degrees. The female trio had their own Top Ten international hit in 1974 titled “When Will I See You Again”. In 1972 Humperdinck hosted his own variety show for the BBC titled Engelbert with The Young Generation. In 1976 he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and performed his first Top Ten hit in a decade in the USA titled “After The Lovin'”.

Into the 1980’s Engelbert Humperdinck performed as many as 200 concerts a year for many years. Over the years he has released over eighty studio albums. In 1989 he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2003 Always Hear the Harmony: The Gospel Sessions was nominated for a Grammy Award. In the fall of 2019 Engelbert Humperdinck will perform at least six concerts in North America, including two at the River Rock Casino in Richmond (BC) on September 13 and 14.

January 29, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
Kev Geoghegan, “Engelbert Humperdinck: the Man Behind the Name,” BBC, March 5, 2002.
“Children of the Raj Celebrate their Unique Heritage,” The Age, Sydney, Australia, August 2, 2002.
Harriet Lane, ‘Call me Enge (rhymes with Penge)’, Guardian, October 7, 2001.
“Dallas Frazier who wrote hits for Country stars, Dies at 82,” New York Times, January 16, 2022.

CFNB 550-AM Fredericton (NB) Top Ten | August 19, 1967