Imperial melodies : globalizing the lives of Cliff Richard and Engelbert Humperdinck

The updated biography of Cliff Richard by Steve Turner called Cliff Richard: The Biography published in 2005, and Engelbert Humperdinck's autobiography titled What's In a Name published in 2004, are two 'pop culture' life stories that illuminate the very real transnational lives of these artists, con- firming that their origins are a world away from the small towns of England. Both biographies confirm that these singers were born in India: Richard in Lucknow in 1940 and Humperdinck in Madras in 1936, and they went to Britain as children with their families. In the course of their early music careers, both changed their names. Harry Webb was reinvented as Cliff Richard, while Arnold George Dorsey was born again under the more elaborate name of Engelbert Humperdinck, the name of the nineteenth-century German composer who wrote the opera Hansel and Gretel . In this chapter I consider the apparent paradox that exists between the two very real transnational lives of these men from India called Harry Webb and Arnold Dorsey, and their transformation into the British music legends Cliff Richard and Engelbert Humperdinck. If these are stories of hidden imperial pasts, then they are also tales of mystery and intrigue in relation to racial origins. What secrets and pretences lie at the heart of these biographies? Did these singers hide their Indian origins as part of this transformation? The annals of British popular music are not without spectacular stories of social whitening, perhaps the most famous example being that of Farrokh Bulsara, who was born in Zanzibar of Indian Parsi parentage, completed his education in India and arrived in Britain with his family at the age of 17. But the 'make-over' case of the man who was to become Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the successful rock group Queen , is quite different to that of Richard and Humperdinck. The latter were born in India but they were part of domiciled British communities who consciously identified with their European descent and their status as colonizers. However, whether they were also of 'mixed-race' descent - or 'Anglo-Indian' - is another question altogether and a core issue that informs my interest in this study. If the invention of Richard and Humperdinck is not a straightforward case of celebrity 'white-washing', then how did the politics of whiteness in colonial India shape the lives of the real Webb and Dorsey? Were the tunes performed by these two British icons in relation to racial origins merely mimicking an older imperial melody?