They say time heals all wounds. But for Engelbert Humperdinck, some memories don’t fade — they simply get tucked away in a drawer that no one opens.
A letter with no recipient
In 1965, at the height of his rising fame across Europe, Engelbert wrote a letter. Not to a fan. Not to a manager. But to a woman named Evelyn — his best friend, his confidante, and almost… his wife.
Evelyn wasn’t a celebrity. She was a music teacher in Leicester, the first person who believed in Gerry Dorsey before the world knew him as Engelbert. They would spend spring afternoons listening to Sinatra on the radio, dreaming of a tiny house with ferns outside the window.
But when fame came too fast, Engelbert chose silence. He feared that love might break the bond of friendship — and that he could never offer her the quiet life she deserved.
Lines never delivered
The letter was written in Vienna, after a triumphant performance, its ink rushed but sincere:
“If I disappeared from the stage tomorrow, you’d be the only thing I’d carry with me. Every song — from ‘Release Me’ to ‘There Goes My Everything’ — holds a piece of you. I just never had the courage to say it.”
The letter was never sent. It was left inside an old suitcase, only discovered decades later by his son while organizing Engelbert’s archives.
Love — through every note
Perhaps Engelbert never said the words aloud to Evelyn. But whenever he sang “There Goes My Everything,” his eyes told a story his lips couldn’t. Audiences might not know the letter, but they felt the emotion — honest, quiet, and heartbreakingly pure.
That’s what made Engelbert more than a voice. He was a soul still unfinished — like a letter that never reached its destination.
🎵 Suggested listening: There Goes My Everything – and listen closely, as if every line was meant for someone who never got to hear it.
Lyrics :
I hear footsteps slowly walking,As they gently walk across a lonely floor,And a voice is softly saying,Darling, this will be good-bye for ever more.There goes my reason for living,There goes the one of my dreams,There goes my only possession,There goes my everything.As my memory turns back the pages,I can see the happy years we had before,Now the love that kept this old heart beating,Has been shattered by the closing of the door.