Roger Whittaker
Encyclopedia
Roger Whittaker is an Anglo-Kenyan singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 and musician with worldwide record sales of over 55 million. His music can be described as easy listening
Easy listening
Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...

. He is best known for his baritone singing voice and trademark whistling
Whistling
Human whistling is the production of sound by means of carefully controlling a stream of air flowing through a small hole. Whistling can be achieved by creating a small opening with one's lips and then blowing or sucking air through the hole...

 ability. American audiences are most familiar with his 1970 hit "New World in the Morning
New World In The Morning
New World in the Morning is a studio album by Roger Whittaker released in 1971. It featured some of his most popular songs including "The Last Farewell", "A Special Kind of Man", the title track "New World in the Morning" and "Streets of London".-History:...

" and his 1975 hit "The Last Farewell
The Last Farewell
"The Last Farewell" is the title of a song from 1971 by the British-Kenyan folk singer Roger Whittaker. Whittaker hosted a radio programme in Great Britain in 1971, backed by a full orchestra with arrangements by Zack Lawrence. Whittaker is quoted as saying that "one of the ideas I had was to...

," the latter of which is his only single to hit the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot 100 (it made the Top 20) and also hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Childhood and beginning

Whittaker's parents, Edward and Viola, were originally from Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, where they owned and operated a grocery shop. His father had a motorcycle accident and the family moved to a farm near Thika, Kenya because of the warmer climate. His grandfather sang in various clubs and his father played the violin. Roger learned to play the guitar.

Whittaker was drafted
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 into national service and spent two years in the Kenya Regiment
Kenya Regiment
The Kenya Regiment was formed in 1937 and disbanded in May 1963.Volunteers were recalled in about 1950, with European settlers making up the main force. At the end of 1950 a call-up of eighteen-year-olds was introduced as the Mau Mau uprising was beginning...

. In 1956 he was demobilized and decided on a career in medicine. He enrolled at the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...

 in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

He left the university after 18 months and joined the civil service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....

 education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 department to try teaching.

Recording and performing career

To further his teaching career, Whittaker moved to Britain in September 1959. For the next three years, he studied zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...

, biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

, and marine biology
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...

 at the University of Wales, Bangor and received a B.Sc.
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 degree. He continued to sing in local clubs and released some of his songs on flexi-discs
Flexi disc
The flexi disc is a phonograph record made of a thin, flexible vinyl sheet with a molded-in spiral stylus groove, and is designed to be playable on a normal phonograph turntable...

 included with the campus newspaper, the Bangor University Rag. Shortly afterwards, he was signed to Fontana Records
Fontana Records
Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....

 who released his first professional single, "The Charge of The Light Brigade", in 1962.

In the summer of 1962, he appeared at a professional gig in Portrush
Portrush
Portrush is a small seaside resort town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on the County Londonderry border. The main part of the old town, including the railway station as well as most hotels, restaurants and bars, is built on a mile–long peninsula, Ramore Head, pointing north-northwest....

, Northern Ireland. He landed his first major breakthrough when he was signed to appear on an Ulster Television show called This And That. His second single was a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of "Steel Men", released in June 1962.

Whittaker met Natalie O'Brien in the spring of 1964 and they married on 15 August of that year. They have five children: Emily (b. May 28, 1968), Lauren (b. June 4, 1970), Jessica (b. February 14, 1973), Guy (b. November 15, 1974), and Alexander (b. April 7, 1978). They now have nine grandchildren.

In 1966, Whittaker switched from Fontana to EMI's Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 label. His fourth single for the imprint was "Durham Town (The Leavin')", which in 1969 became Whittaker's first UK Top 20 hit. Whittaker's US label, RCA Victor, released the uptempo "New World In The Morning" in 1970, where it became a Top 20 hit in Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

magazine's Easy Listening chart.

1975 saw EMI release "The Last Farewell
The Last Farewell
"The Last Farewell" is the title of a song from 1971 by the British-Kenyan folk singer Roger Whittaker. Whittaker hosted a radio programme in Great Britain in 1971, backed by a full orchestra with arrangements by Zack Lawrence. Whittaker is quoted as saying that "one of the ideas I had was to...

", a track from his 1971 New World in The Morning album. It became his biggest hit and a signature song, selling more than 11 million copies worldwide. In 1979, Whittaker wrote the song "Call My Name" which reached the final of the UK Eurovision selection, A Song For Europe
A Song for Europe
A Song for Europe may refer to:*A Song for Europe, former name of British pre-selection competition for the Eurovision Song Contest, now known as Eurovision: Your Country Needs You...

, performed by Eleanor Keenan and coming third. Whittaker recorded the song himself and the single charted in several European countries. Whittaker also established himself in country music with "I Love You Because
I Love You Because (song)
"I Love You Because" is a 1949 song written and originally recorded by Leon Payne. The single went to number four on the Billboard Country & Western Best Seller lists and spent two weeks at number one on the Country & Western Disk Jockey List, spending a total of thirty-two weeks on the chart...

" getting "into the lower reaches of the country chart" in late 1983.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Whittaker had success in Germany, with German language songs produced by Nick Munro. Unable to speak German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, Whittaker sang the songs phonetically
Phonetical singing
Phonetical singing is when a singer learns and performs, the lyrics of a song by the words' phonetic sounds without necessarily understanding of the content of the lyrics....

. He appeared on German and Danish TV several times, and was on the UK Top Of The Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...

show 10 times in the early to mid 1970s.

In 1986, he published his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

, So Far, So Good, co-written with his wife.

In March 2006, Whittaker announced on his website that a 2007 Germany tour would be his last, and that he will limit future performances to "occasional concerts". Now more fluent in German, he was seen singing and was interviewed in German on Danish TV in November 2008.

In recent years he has been living in Eyrecourt
Eyrecourt
Eyrecourt, historically known as Donanaghta , is a village in County Galway, Ireland. Eyrecourt is on the R356 regional road 12 km west of the Banagher bridge over the River Shannon.-History:...

, County Galway
County Galway
County Galway is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the city of Galway. Galway County Council is the local authority for the county. There are several strongly Irish-speaking areas in the west of the county...

, Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

, close to the River Shannon
River Shannon
The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland at . It divides the west of Ireland from the east and south . County Clare, being west of the Shannon but part of the province of Munster, is the major exception...

.

Tours

In 1976, Whittaker undertook his first tour of the United States.

In 2003 he again toured Germany. After recovering from heart problems at the end of 2004, he started touring in Germany in 2005, and then in UK from May to July.

Awards

In his career to date, Whittaker has earned over 250 silver, gold and platinum albums.

He was part of a successful British team that won the annual Knokke
Knokke
Knokke is one of a group of communities that are all grouped in the administrative community Knokke-Heist, in the province of West Flanders in Flanders, Belgium. Knokke itself has 15,653 inhabitants .Knokke-Heist has 33,818 inhabitants ....

 music festival in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, and won the Press Prize as the personality of the festival.

Ivor Novello awards (twice) for songwriting in 1971-72 and for "The Last Farewell" in 1975-76 (?) (unconfirmed - e-mail query pending)

He was awarded a 'Gold Badge Award', from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors
British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors
British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors was founded in 1947.It represents its members within the industry, to the government and to the European Commission....

 (BASCA) in 1988.

He earned a 'Golden Tuning Fork' (Goldene Stimmgabel
Goldene Stimmgabel
The Goldene Stimmgabel is an annual prize awarded within the German music scene.The prizes are awarded according to the number of records sold from October of the previous year to June of the year of the award, as determined by Media Control...

 in Germany) in 1986, based on record sales and TV viewer votes.

Hit singles

Year Single Chart positions
US
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

US
AC
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...

UK
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

Germany
Media Control Charts
The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...

US Country
1969 "Durham Town (The Leavin')" 12
1970 "New World in the Morning" 12 17
"I Don't Believe in 'If' Anymore" 26 8
1971 "Why?" 40 47
"Mammy Blue
Mammy Blue
"Mammy Blue" - aka "Mamy Blue" - is the title of an international hit from 1971-72 chiefly via a version by Los Pop Tops.The song was originally written with French lyrics in 1970 by veteran French songwriter Hubert Giraud; he conceived the song in his car waiting out a Parisian traffic jam and had...

"
31
1975 "The Last Farewell
The Last Farewell
"The Last Farewell" is the title of a song from 1971 by the British-Kenyan folk singer Roger Whittaker. Whittaker hosted a radio programme in Great Britain in 1971, backed by a full orchestra with arrangements by Zack Lawrence. Whittaker is quoted as saying that "one of the ideas I had was to...

"
19 1 2 19
"I Don't Believe in 'If' Anymore" (re-entry) 10
1976 "Durham Town (The Leavin')" (re-entry) 23
"The First Hello, the Last Goodbye" 16
"River Lady (A Little Goodbye)" 2
"Das Alte Schiff (River Lady)" 10
"Indian Lady" 14
1977 "Before She Breaks My Heart" 39
"From the People, to the People" 46
1978 "If I Knew Just What to Say" 47
"Love Lasts Forever" 50
1979 "You Are My Miracle" 35
1979 "Goodbye, 1st Goodbye" 40
1982 "Albany" 3
1983 "I Love You Because
I Love You Because (song)
"I Love You Because" is a 1949 song written and originally recorded by Leon Payne. The single went to number four on the Billboard Country & Western Best Seller lists and spent two weeks at number one on the Country & Western Disk Jockey List, spending a total of thirty-two weeks on the chart...

"
91
"Wenn Es Dich Noch Gibt" 8
"Tanz Heut Nacht Mit Mir" 20
1984 "Abschied Ist Ein Scharfes Schwert" 9
"Eloisa" 27
1985 "Leben Mit Dir" 16
1986 "The Skye Boat Song"(with Des O'Connor
Des O'Connor
Des O'Connor, CBE is an English comedian and singer. A former talkshow host, he was the presenter of the long-running Channel 4 gameshow Countdown for two years...

)
10
"Fernweh" 50
"Ein Bisschen Aroma" 38
1989 "Bleib' Heut' Nacht Bei Mir" 41
1990 "Schoen War Die Zeit" 52
"Was Ist Dabei, Wenn Wir Zwei Uns Lieben" (with Cindy Berger) 48
1991 "7 Jahre, 7 Meere" 46
"Doch Tanzen Will Ich Nur Mit Dir Allein" 76
"Sag' Ihr" 50
1992 "Du Wirst Alle Jahre Schoener" 31
1993 "Tauch Hinab In Die Nacht" 72
"Bring Mir Noch Einmal Die Jahre Zurueck" 94
1996 "Wir Sind Jung (Oh Maria)" 58
1997 "Du Kannst Zaubern" 97
1999 "Alles Roger" 98

European albums

a selection
  • 1971 New World in the Morning
    New World In The Morning
    New World in the Morning is a studio album by Roger Whittaker released in 1971. It featured some of his most popular songs including "The Last Farewell", "A Special Kind of Man", the title track "New World in the Morning" and "Streets of London".-History:...

  • 1979 Mein deutsches Album (in German)
  • 1981 Zum Weinen ist immer noch Zeit
  • 1982 Typisch Roger Whittaker
  • 1983 Voyager
  • 1984 Ein Glück, daß es Dich gibt
  • 1987 Heut bin ich arm - Heut bin ich reich
  • 1991 Frohe Weinacht - Die schonsten Weihnachtslieder
  • 1991 Mein Herz schlägt nur für Dich
  • 1992 Stimme des Herzens
  • 1993 Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht
  • 1994 Leben mit Dir
  • 1994 Sehnsucht nach Liebe
  • 1994 Geschenk des Himmels
  • 1995 Ein schöner Tag mit Dir
  • 1996 Alles Roger!
  • 1996 Einfach leben
  • 1997 Zurück zur Liebe
  • 1999 Alles Roger 2
  • 1999 Awakening
  • 2000 Wunderbar geborgen
  • 2002 Mehr denn je
  • 2003 Alles Roger 3
  • 2003 Der weihnachtliche Liedermarkt
  • 2004 Live in Berlin
  • 2004 Mein schönster Traum
  • 2005 Moments in My Life
  • 2007 The Danish collection

US albums

Album Label Date
Changes
Christmas Songs Capitol
Best Ballads #1
Genius of Love RCA
Roger Whittaker Christmas Album
New World in the Morning Columbia Collectables
Special Kind of Man Pair
The Last Farewell & Other Hits RCA Records
Magical World of Roger Whittaker
Reflections of Love RCA Records
In Concert - Recorded with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra DVD
The Best of Roger Whittaker RCA
Folk Songs of Our Time RCA
The Roger Whittaker Christmas Album RCA
Imagine RCA
Evergreens
When I Need You
Mirrors of My Mind RCA
With Love
Voyager RCA
Live in Concert RCA Records
The Wind Beneath My Wings RCA Records
Take a Little: Give a Little RCA
Tidings of Comfort & Joy Liberty
All Time Heart Touching Favorites
The Best of Roger Whittaker RCA
Fire & Rain Pair
Living & Loving Liberty
The World of Roger Whittaker Pair
I'd Fall in Love Tonight Liberty
Love Will Be Our Home Word/Epic
World's Most Beautiful Christmas Songs Liberty
All Time Heart Touching Favorites, Vol. 1 Liberty
All Time Heart Touching Favorites, Vol. 2 Liberty
Best Loved Ballads, Vol. 2 Liberty
Best Loved Ballads, Vol. 1 Liberty
Golden Tones Pair
You Deserve the Best Capitol/EMI Records
Country Collection Liberty
Classics Collection, Vol. 1 Liberty
The Wind Beneath My Wings & Other Hits RCA Records
I Wish You a Merry Christmas
All-Time Favorites EMI-Capitol Special Markets
Greatest Hits Live K-Tel
Classics Collection, Vol. 2 Liberty
All About Love Liberty
Collection
Christmas With Roger Whittaker RCA Victor
Celebration RCA Victor
The Best of Roger Whittaker EMI-Capitol Special Markets
Live Drive - (import)
Greatest Hits RCA Records
Feelings RCA Victor
Danny Boy RCA Victor
What a Wonderful World RCA Victor
Annie's Song RCA Victor
Live! RCA Victor
The Best of Roger Whittaker Curb Records
I Will Always Love You RCA Victor
The Christmas Song RCA Victor
All Time Favorites Prime Cuts
Sincerely Yours
On Broadway RCA Victor
The World of Roger Whittaker Universal International
A Perfect Day RCA Victor
Einfach Leben BMG/Ariola
Star Gold Polygram France
Happy Holidays BMG Special Products
New World in the Morning: The Encore Collection BMG Special Products
Irish Standards BMG Special Products
The Best of Roger Whittaker Pegasus/Cleopatra
All of My Life: The Very Best of Roger Whittaker Camden
The Greatest Hits of Roger Whittaker Prism
In Concert Charly
Awakening RCA Victor
The Best of Roger Whittaker Time/Life Music
The Last Farewell...Live Legacy Entertainment
The Very Best of Roger Whittaker, Vol. 2 Polygram International
The Holly and the Ivy BMG Special Products
Best of: Original Hits Paradiso
Songs for You: The Collection Universal International
New World in the Morning Collectables
All of My Life: Very Best of BMG International
Moments in My Life BMG/Ariola
An Evening With Prism Platinum
Now and Then: Greatest Hits 1964-2004 BMG International

External links

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