Elvis Presley impersonators might just really be imitating Engelbert Humperdinck instead. Engelbert had the jump suit and sideburns first.
“I had them in 1965 and Elvis put his on in 1972,” Engelbert tells undercover.fm. “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 side-burns. She presented it to him and he went (in Elvis voice) “Hell, that’s not me, that’s Engelbert Humperdinck”. So therefore you know who had it first”.
Elvis and Engelbert were great friends. “I loved the man,” he said. “The first time I met him he had come to meet me. 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 then 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.
VIDEO: Watch the complete Undercover video interview with Engelbert Humperdinck here:
