Elvis Presley would have turned 80 on Jan. 8. Englelbert Humperdinck was a close friend of the Presley.
Humperdinck was a few years younger than the American rock star and he befriended the soon to be King of Rock and Roll when Humperdinck first broke into the U.S. market in the mid-'60s. They remained the closest of friends until Presley's death in 1977, reports Music-News.com.
"He was wonderful, one of the dearest people I have met in my life," Humperdinck tells Noise11.com. "He was one of the most kind-hearted, benevolent people you will ever come across. He would be driving in his car and see somebody on the street in bare feet and whatever he had in his pocket he would take and give it to them and say 'get yourself a pair of shoes'. He was that kind of guy."
Presley met Humperdinck when he came to one of Humperdinck's shows.
"The first time I met him he had come to meet me," Humperdinck recalls. "He came to see my show first before I went to see him. Believe me, it took me a good 10 minutes to quieten the audience down once I introduced him. He stood up and he had a cape on and he opened the cape as he stood in the booth in Las Vegas with the cape open like Batman. The audience went absolutely berserk and I said 'shhhh, this is my show.' No, I couldn't quieten then down.
"So I brought out some of my big gun songs to try and quieten them down which I did in the end. He came backstage and he said 'thank you very much, what a great show'. This is how humble he was. He said, 'thank you for introducing me.' Elvis! I said 'Elvis, I can't thank you enough for being at my show'. He was such a nice guy, a very nice guy," he told Music-News.com.
Humperdinck says Presley copied his trademark sideburns.
"I had them in 1965 and Elvis put his on in 1972," Engelbert said. "The true story is this: He had a lady sketching him to find an outfit for him to go on his world tour. That's where the white jump suit came in. She designed this white jumpsuit with the high collar and the long black sideburns. She presented it to him and he went 'Hell, that's not me, that's Engelbert Humperdinck.' So therefore you know who had it first.'"
Humperdinck also said that one of Presley's biggest problems was the wrong people around him.
"I think he was mishandled by his friends and he was a great loss to our industry," he said.
Humperdinck will turn 80 on May 2, 2016.
