Song of the Day 12/10: Esther Phillips, “Release Me”

In their ongoing effort to show that they can act like whiny babies over absolutely anything, Republicans are bitching about Joe Biden freeing WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russia in a prisoner exchange. He did it all wrong — wrong American, wrong Russian, wrong timing — so it’s obviously bad news for Biden. It’s good for Ms. Griner and her wife and family, though.

Most Boomers identify this song with Englebert Humperdinck, a British guy (born Arnold Dorsey) who scored a big hit with a lushly orchestrated version in 1967. But it had been recorded dozens of times before that, starting with composer Eddie Miller’s original in 1949. He rendered it as a lovesick country ballad in the Hank Williams vein, and in that style it sold better in ’50s when Patti Page and Kitty Wells covered it.

It reached the Billboard top 10 in 1962 when Esther Phillips, a popular soul singer of the ’50s, took it to No. 8 in her comeback from years of treatment for her heroin addiction. Only Humperdinck, whose cover made it to No. 4, charted higher, but you can hear the countrypolitan arrangement sending the tune down the path to Humperdinck’s string-saturated MOR version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5yYwiYEJ_8