Introduction
Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Please Release Me (Let Me Go)” stands as one of the most significant pop ballads of the 1960s. Though recorded and released in 1967—not 1989—this song marked a pivotal turning point in Humperdinck’s career .
Originally penned in 1949 by country songwriters Eddie Miller and Robert Yount (with early versions credited to Dub Williams), the song first gained traction through country artists like Jimmy Heap (1953), Patti Page, Kitty Wells, and Ray Price in 1954 . “Little” Esther Phillips revitalized it in 1962 with an R&B interpretation that reached the top ten in the U.S. pop charts .
Engelbert Humperdinck—born Arnold George Dorsey—was still performing as Gerry Dorsey when his manager Gordon Mills suggested a bold rebranding and pitched him “Release Me.” Engelbert first encountered the melody in a saxophone instrumental by Frank Weir and secured the lyrical version adapted by Charles Blackwell into a sweeping “orchestral country-pop” arrangement .
In early 1967, the single was shelved for three months until Humperdinck happened to fill in for Dickie Valentine on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. The televised performance immediately propelled the song to No. 1 in the UK on March 2, 1967, where it remained atop the charts for an unprecedented six weeks—derailing the Beatles’ “Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever”—and spent a record-breaking 56 weeks within the Top 50 .
It became the UK’s best-selling single of 1967, moving over 1.3 million copies . In the U.S., it reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 .
More than a career-defining hit, “Please Release Me” resonated as a cultural moment. Its plea for release from a relationship struck a chord amid the shifting social landscape of the era. Critics like Peter Hitchens later dubbed Sir Engelbert’s rendition a “revolutionary anthem” that echoed public sentiment away from conservatism