He still sports the trademark shaggy sideburns with elan. And yes, he still drives fans crazy. The flashy leather jumpsuits though have been replaced by a contemporary look ? a simple striped shirt and a pair of worn jeans. His passport reads Arnold George Dorsey. Only you know him better as Engelbert Humperdinck.

On his first-ever tour of India, the singer, amazingly tireless at 69, is all set to soak up the sun. ?You see, I come from a place called England where you don?t tan, you rust,? he says wryly.

His latest album Let There Be Love is ?a bouquet of love songs? with classics from the legendary Nat King Cole to more contemporary songs from Ronan Keating and Bryan Adams. ?It?s almost harder to make other people?s songs your own than to take new songs and do them in your style,? he says.

The songs, including When You Say Nothing At All, It Had To Be You, Stand By Me, Have You Ever Loved A Woman and one of his personal favourites, Boz Scaggs? We?re All Alone, caress listeners with their tones of intimacy, elegance and understated passion, a legacy of emotions which come from a ?lifetime of loving to perform, loving romantic songs and loving women?.

?Once I tried to get on a tour bus. I got the wrong bus and was hanging on to my underwear because that was all that was left of me,? he says, recalling an incident in the ?70s when he was set upon by female fans. ?My shoes were gone, as were my socks and my pants. It was full of women who pulled everything off me. The police came to my rescue and threw a coat over me so I could put clothes on. At one time they used to throw things back and I had trunks full of women?s panties.?

His eyes twinkling at memories of ?those good old days,? he returns to his latest offering assembled by his executive producer Nick Battle and producer Simon Franglen. ?They spent hours listening to my past albums and worked out the feel of the new one. With the result that the numbers all have a slight jazz feel to them.?

Rewind to his teens when George Dorsey gave the finest impersonation of Jerry Lewis and was dubbed Gerry Dorsey by his fans. It soon became his professional stage name under which he released a single called Crazybells/Mister Music Man in 1959. Then he contracted TB which almost ended his musical career. After his illness, Dorsey wanted a fresh start and a friend Gordon Mills came up with using the name of Austrian composer Engelbert Humperdinck who wrote Hansel and Gretel. As one fan said, ?No-one knew how to pronounce it but once we got the hang of it, it stayed.?

He started out as a saxophone player, which he started studying from 11. At 17, Humperdinck was playing at a pub that sponsored a singing contest. Prodded by friends to enter, he put down his sax. ?I discovered the instrument in my voice,? he says. The rest is history. He never picked up the sax again and a legend was born.

Greats such as Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens, Tom Jones and Dean Martin have accompanied Engelbert on stage and there was a time when The Carpenters were the opening act for his sell-out concerts. The man can recount many tales about those times.

?Those were the days. Once Elvis asked a lady to sketch a costume and a look for him. She drew a white jumpsuit with standing out collars and long sideburns. Elvis loved it. I said to him, ?you stole my look?. He replied ?Hell, if it looks good on you, it?s gonna look good on me?,? says Humperdinck. The pair went on to become great pals, often performing each other?s songs. ?Elvis was a guy with not a bad bone in his body. He?s the greatest entertainer I?ve ever seen,? he says.

Life has been an unusual journey. Rubbing shoulders with the greats of music has been an experience in itself. ?I?ve met them all... Bob Hope, Princess Grace, Cary Grant, Elvis Presley and royal families from all over the world,? says the singer.

Humperdinck has penned it all in his 2004 autobiography, Engelbert: What?s In A Name?. In part, the book is about the intrinsic bond between men and women. Says Humperdinck: ?I?ve always loved women. There were times when I appreciated them too much ? I?d be a pretty dull person if I didn?t!?

On his trip to the subcontinent, he has made a discovery. He?s a glutton for spicy Indian fare like galoti kebabs and phulkas. Coupled with a passion for good food, however, is a concern about staying fit. He says, ?Showbiz is all about looking good. But it?s a difficult task to push away good food and drinks.?

It is perhaps this awareness about being in sync with the demands of show business that has made Engelbert cruise down four decades with easy elegance and remain the king of romance. ?I still love to be up there on stage, look my audience in the eye and give them my very best,? he says.

And he?s a performer. At an ACTS Trust tsunami benefit concert in Delhi, he leaves no stones unturned in giving the audience an evening to remember, so much so the hysterical crowd begs for more. ?He can reach those lower octaves and belt out lyrics with such passion you want to hold him, embrace him and thank him for making your concert night one of the best ever,? says a fan, clutching the signature red handkerchief the singer throws at the end of every performance.

He?s referred to as one of the finest crooners of the late ?60s and early ?70s. But Humperdinck likes to be called a contemporary singer who belts out numbers at two-and-a-half to three octaves. ?A crooner can perform at only one octave and one note. I?m not one.? What?s so special about his concerts? ?Perhaps his energy,? suggests a fan.

At an age when people retire to a more leisurely pace in life, Humperdinck is still one of the hardest-working performers around. His schedule includes more than 140 concerts a year around the world. ?Some artists might say it?s exhausting. But I say it?s nothing. Some of the tours I did were 81 nights in a row. I love it all.?

Though he performed at Mumbai and Bangalore, there?s a missing link ? Chennai. ?I?d have loved to perform there,? he says nostalgically. The Indian connection goes back where Humperdinck was born in Chennai on May 2, 1936, one of nine siblings. His father served in the British army. The musical genes were inherited from his mother who gave violin lessons and had an operatic voice.

Humperdinck is swamped with memories of Chennai from where the family moved to Leicester, England in 1947. ?From luxury, we went to poverty. Suddenly there was a ration on food, clothes and in short, everything,? he reminisces. ?I remember our large bungalow, smells of the monsoon and the harbour with its ships and fishing boats.?

Ask him about his plans for the future, and Engelbert says, ?Yet another performance and yet another day of butterflies in my stomach. That?s the test of a true performer. You never rest on your laurels.?

Photograph of concert by Jagan Negi