Release Me (and Let Me Love Again)

Album: Release Me (1967)
Charted: 1 4
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Songfacts®:

  • A country classic recorded by well over 100 artists, "Release Me (and Let Me Love Again)" dates back to the late '40s, and has a convoluted history. It was written by Eddie Miller and two of his bandmembers: guitarists Bobby Gene Yount and Dub Williams. Miller fronted an act called Eddie Miller and his Oklahomans, which recorded the first version of this song in either 1949 or 1950.

    The song is about a guy who wants to get out of his current relationship so he can pursue another. According to Yount, the song came about when they got to talking about divorce, and Miller wondered if there was some kind of release form one of the spouses could sign. They worked on the song before a gig and came up with the basic version in about an hour.

    The original version got little attention, but it was noticed by the Country singer Jimmy Heap, who recorded it in 1953. Ray Price and Kitty Wells also recorded the song, and it soon became a standard, with Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn, Chet Atkins, Roger Miller and Elvis Presley among the many acts to record it.
  • This was the first single recorded under the name Engelbert Humperdinck, and it became the biggest hit of his career. He had previously recorded as Gerry Dorsey. Humperdinck's 1967 version is the most successful cover of the song.
  • Long before it became trendy for Pop stars to get their own perfumes, Humperdinck attached his name to a fragrance for women called "Release Me," which was sold through the Home Shopping Channel in 1994.
  • This single sold 1,365,000 copies in the UK, and it prevented the Beatles' "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever" from getting to #1 and making it 18 consecutive #1s for the fab four. It was #1 in 9 countries and the biggest hit in the UK in 1967.
  • This song holds the record for the longest stay in the UK charts for consecutive weeks at 56 weeks. It is one of only two records (Acker Bilk's "Stranger On The Shore" is the other) to have spent more than a year on the singles chart in an unbroken run. The song didn't become popular for 3 months until Engelbert Humperdinck was a last minute replacement for Dickie Valentine, who had become ill, on the popular television variety show Sunday Night At The London Palladium, where he sung this song and watched it race up the charts.
  • According to 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, the idea for the song came to country music songwriter Eddie Miller in a bar in San Francisco. He overheard a husband and wife talking about their marital troubles. The wife said, "If you'd release me, we wouldn't have any problems and everything would be all right."
  • This was Esther Phillips' (formerly known as "Little Esther") comeback song after she was rediscovered by Kenny Rogers at a Houston club. Her 1962 version topped the R&B charts and landed at #8 on the Pop charts. Her version was re-released in 1967 after Humperdinck scored with the song, this time going to #93 in the US.
  • The songwriting credits on this one are tough to decipher. The only name to consistently appear is Eddie Miller, and while Bobby Gene Yount and Dub Williams (listed as his real name, William Pebworth) appear on early versions, they apparently sold their rights to the song to Bill McCall, who owned the label that Eddie Miller and his Oklahomans recorded for: 4 Star Records. McCall used the pen name W.S. Stevenson, so many later pressings credit the song to Miller/Stevenson.
  • It was Engelbert Humperdinck's manager Gordon Mills who discovered the tune when he found an instrumental version of "Release Me" by British saxophonist Frank Weir. Humperdinck, who had never heard the song, recalled to Billboard magazine:

    "I heard the melody and thought it could be a hit. I asked if we could find the lyrics. When we heard the words, it was a double whammy for me because they sounded terrific. Then we brought in a great arranger, Charles Blackwell."

Comments: 9

  • Coy from TexasI meant to say McCall's family sued Yount later. Four Star went out of business and Acuff-Rose bought the song. They had started paying Yount again, but McCall's son sued and won in court twice! This stopped Yount from receiving royalties on the song. It happened because Yount had signed his publishing rights over to McCall in the late 1950s. It was a mess. The fellow (McCall) who never wrote a word, made thousands off the song for decades.
  • Coy from Palestine,texasOn the comments on the songwriting by Larry and Faruna--Bill McCall and W.S. Stevenson were one and the same person. Stevenson was a pseudonym McCall used when he added his name to songs he published. He owned Four Star Publishing. He was notorious for adding "W.S. Stevenson" to songs he bought and published. He wasn't a songwriter. He cheated many people out of royalties, including Robert Yount, who Eddie Miller never denied helped him write the song--Miller couldn't read music. Yount sold out to McCall in the late 1950s and then received a songwriter royalty after Acuff-Rose bought the catalog. The Miller family sued and later bumped Yount out of his money. Bill McCall/Stevenson was just like many of the old time publishers who put their names on songs they didn't write for money. A famous one is Norman Petty who put his name on many Buddy Holly songs which were written years before Holly recorded at Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico.
  • Ian Spencer from Solihull, UkHave a listen to Take The Chains From My Heart by Hank Williams, then ask where the inspiration for the arrangement of Release Me came from. These two songs appear to be close cousins, though which came first, given the writing history here, who knows?
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn March 31st 1967, Englebert Humperdinck performed at the Finsbury Park's Astoria Theater* in London, England...
    Two days later in the U.S.A. on April 2nd, 1967 his "Release Me (and Let Me love Again)" would entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at #99; seven weeks later on May 21st, 1967 it would peak at #4 {for 4 weeks} and spent 14 weeks on the Top 100...
    As mentioned above it reach #1 in the United Kingdom, and also #1 in Ireland and the Netherlands...
    Between 1967 and 1983 he had twenty-three Top 100 records, with two making the Top 10, his other Top 10 record was "After the Lovin'", it peaked at #8 {for 1 week} on January 16th, 1977...
    * Another act on the bill that night was Jimi Hendrix, it was his first United Kingdom concert & also the first he set his guitar on fire.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn December 16th, 1962 "Release Me" by 'Little Esther' Phillips peaked at #8 (for 2 weeks) on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; it had entered the chart on October 21st and spent 14 weeks on the Top 100...
    On December 8th, 1962 it reached #1 (for 3 non-consecutive weeks) on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart...
    Five years later on March 2nd, 1967 Engelbert Humperdinck's covered version peaked at #1 (for 6 weeks) on the U.K. Singles chart (#4 on the Top 100)...
    R.I.P. Ms. Phillips (1935 - 1984).
  • Larry from La Habra, CaTHE DEFINITIVE ANSWER ON WRITING CREDITS: The words & music were written by Eddie Miller. When Eddie wanted to cut the song, he didn't have the money. McCall, Pebworth and Yount gave Eddie the money to go in to the studio. In return, Eddie gave them writing credit. Those three, later sold their rights to WS Stevenson, who shares in the writing credit to this day. Also, the 3rd verse was written especially for Humperdink's version by Eddie Miller.
    Larry, La Habra, Ca
  • Victor from San Diego, CaThis was also a major hit for Esther Phillips in 1962, reaching number one on the R&B charts and Top Ten on the Pop Charts.
  • Faruna from Shanghai, ChinaWritten by E. Miller - WS Stevenson
  • Pete from Nowra, Australiahas a voice like "liquid silk"
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