If you’ve ever wondered where I get my unfortunate sense of humor from, look no further than the song my grandparents used to share: Please Release Me by Engelbert Humperdinck:
If my grandmother called my grandfather while he was out, he would play this song on the juke box and hold the phone up to it. The lyrics read: “Please release me let me go. For I don’t love you anymore. To waste our lives would be a sin. Release me and let me love again.”
Needless to say, many years and seven children later, they were still crazy about each other.
Awwwww. How adorable.
And how unfortunate for Engelbert. His parents must have had a cruel streak. Oh and if that was a stage name he must have had brain damage.
What a great picture! And in a bar….my favorite place.
Tam: Brain damage. His birth name was Arnold George Dorsey.
I will always remember his appearance on an episode of Fantasy Island. So bizarre.
That’s an absolutely incredible photo. Gets me all misty…
See, that photo and having a crazy ‘our song’ are really the only reason I’d ever want to be married. Not that I have much of an option anyway…
Hey, Craiggers, why don’t WE just get our OWN crazy ‘our song’??? That way, whenever you call me, and I’m out, I can put my iPod up to the phone and play it for you!
Now, I just gotta figure out what that song should be….
HUGS…
Tam: Gordon Mills gave Englebert that stage name, certainly an easy one to remember. Dunno about the brain damage — Mills gave several stars their stage names, perhaps most famously Sir Tom Jones (thus linking the Welsh singer to the persona of the Fielding character, at a time when the film adaptation of that book was all the rage).
If a successful manager thought my career would improve if I went on-stage with a goofy name, I’d probably go for it.
Then again, maybe there is some evidence that Englebert had some brain damage.
TwoPi: Oh yeah, brain damage. I can’t listen to more than a few min. because people are going to ask why I’m laughing in my office soon.
Say what you want, but Engelbert Humperdinck is a very memorable name.
Awesome photo! Your grandparents look like they loved each other very much. Your grandfather was so tan, did he work outside?
john: I don’t think so. He worked in boiler repair. Some people in my family have been blessed with naturally tan skin. I am clearly not one of those people.
Craig: My mom is Portuguese and Canadian (Nova Scotia). I look just like her, but without the pigment. I got that from my Irish dad. I’m a total white boy. I don’t tan, but nobody burns like me. My wife is Italian with a tiny bit of French. She tans like nobody I know. We got married in February and she still had tan lines form the year before.
Also, I don’t twitter, but reading your line I now have Run DMC’s Tricky running through my head, but with the word “Twitchy”: “It’s twitchy to rock a rhyme that’s right on time it’s TWITCHY!” Lay off the coke man.
Have you guys seen “Dressed to Kill” by Eddie Izzard when he does a bit about how they came up with Englebert Humperdink? Hilarious!!!!
Craig: I’ll comment on your twitching. When I’m stressed or over-tired my eye twitches like mad. Sleep and killing the cause of your stress will usually do the trick and you’ll be twitch free.
You know whats always good for twitching? Hardcore painkillers
Aww. That’s cute. Like John, I was wondering where your grandfather was hanging out without Grandma that gave him such a tan. (Being dramatic) my first thought naturally went to an affair in Florida, but I guess he was just naturally tan.
Very Sweet.
Tricky. Thanks a lot john.
How sweet! I have to write something to be read out at some friends’ wedding, but I don’t think Humperdinck would go down too well. Damn people and their inability to see the irony on the big day.
That is a fantastic picture of them!
Pardon the late comment (been running around like crazy lately). Cute story and photo. Your grandfather was a bit of a snazzy dresser. My grandparents on my fathers side both always seemed to be tan. I did not inherit that particular gene. It must be amazing to fall totally in love with someone special and grow old with them. I am going to work on getting started on that this spring.