Roger Whittaker

Roger Whittaker, the British pop vocalist born in Africa, projected a kindly demeanor along with his resonant baritone and distinctive whistling skill, evoking a contemporary echo of Bing Crosby as global recognition arrived for him during the 1970s. Having already built substantial followings across Europe and Canada, the singer neared age forty before scoring his strongest American breakthrough through the 1975 single “The Last Farewell.” Occasional singles and albums continued to register on U.S. charts in subsequent decades, yet his core audience stayed centered in Europe through the 1980s and 1990s. Germany proved especially receptive; phonetically acquired German-language recordings transformed him into a durable Schlager favorite there. Although reviewers seldom lavished praise, audiences worldwide embraced Whittaker as an approachable everyman who appeared often on television and hosted multiple series of his own. After parting ways with his label, he became an early adopter of direct-to-consumer marketing by advertising his own releases via television spots. Several signature compositions, among them “Durham Town (The Leavin’)” and “I Don’t Believe in ‘If’ Anymore,” originated from his own pen, yet the sheer quantity of material he recorded gradually steered him toward interpretive work. He sustained his loyal following with regular tours well into the twenty-first century until withdrawing to the South of France in 2013.

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, on March 22, 1936, to parents who had emigrated from Staffordshire, England, Whittaker grew up in a household where his father, Edward Whittaker, ran a grocery while his mother, Viola Whittaker, managed the accounts before later teaching. He began playing guitar at seven and absorbed Swahili songs, yet he never envisioned music as a profession until years afterward. Enrolling as a medical student at the University of Cape Town in 1956, he left after his second year and returned to Nairobi to teach primary school and perform in local clubs. September 1959 found him relocating to the United Kingdom to study science at Bangor University in Wales with the goal of advancing his teaching credentials; he simultaneously sang in clubs. A handful of early recordings appeared on flexi-discs bundled with the campus magazine Bangor University Rag under the name Hank & the Mellomen, raising funds for charity and drawing the notice of Fontana Records. The label issued his first professional single, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” credited to Rog Whittaker, in 1962. Its follow-up, a cover of Jimmy Dean’s “Steel Men,” entered the lower reaches of the New Musical Express Top 30 that June, coinciding with the completion of his final examinations. Opting against doctoral studies, Whittaker secured management and committed to singing professionally, soon landing a residency on the Ulster television program This and That. The ensuing years brought modest cabaret work across Britain until spring 1967, when he earned a prize at Belgium’s Knokke Song Festival; this led to European success with his own “The Mexican Whistler” and his rendition of “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof, establishing him as a major concert draw on the continent.

Switching to EMI’s Columbia imprint in 1968, Whittaker notched his initial British Top 20 entry in autumn 1969 with the self-penned “Durham Town (The Leavin’).” RCA Victor handled U.S. releases, and in spring 1970 another original, the bright “New World in the Morning,” climbed the American Easy Listening chart while the dramatic anti-war single “I Don’t Believe in ‘If’ Anymore” reached the British Top Ten. His debut American album, New World in the Morning, appeared stateside, and the U.K. counterpart I Don’t Believe in “If” Anymore marked his first charting LP there; he simultaneously accepted hosting duties for a children’s television program and a radio series. “New World in the Morning” later generated covers by Eddy Arnold and Al Martino, among others. Further international momentum built in 1971 when “Why?,” set to lyrics submitted by listener Joan Stanton for a radio contest, charted on both sides of the Atlantic and captured the Ivor Novello Award for 1971-1972. Reissues of New World in the Morning and the new single “Mammy Blue” also performed well in Britain, while the album A Special Kind of Man introduced “The Last Farewell,” a wartime ballad whose melody Whittaker composed to words contributed by Ron Webster through the same contest.

Another British television series followed in 1972, aimed at adult viewers, as Whittaker maintained a global touring and recording schedule. Success in Scandinavia included the 1974 Finnish Eurovision entry “The Finnish Whistler,” which later served as the theme for a popular cooking program. In winter 1975 the four-year-old “The Last Farewell” gained traction in the U.S. after an Atlanta radio programmer’s wife encountered it during a Canadian vacation and persuaded her husband to air it; the track topped the Easy Listening chart, reached the pop Top 20, became a worldwide hit, peaked at number two in Britain that summer, earned a second Ivor Novello Award, and inspired covers including Elvis Presley’s 1976 version on From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee.

RCA, having previously dropped and then quickly re-signed Whittaker, issued the gold-certified compilation The Last Farewell and Other Hits in America, while the similar British collection The Very Best of Roger Whittaker entered the Top Ten. Marking his fortieth birthday in 1976, he embarked on a first U.S. tour during which “Durham Town (The Leavin’)” finally appeared on the Easy Listening chart and “The First Hello, The Last Goodbye” reached the Top 20. “Before She Breaks My Heart” continued his Easy Listening presence in February 1977, and although The Best of Roger Whittaker did not chart initially, it later attained gold status; another series, Whittaker’s World of Music, aired on British television that year.

Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, minor chart activity persisted in the U.S. and U.K., yet Germany emerged as an unexpected stronghold. Despite lacking fluency in the language, Whittaker cultivated Deutsche adaptations of his material that resonated with local record buyers; his first such album, Mein Deutsches Album, appeared in 1979, and Germany remained a primary market with numerous further releases and tours. American success proved harder to replicate beyond the mid-1970s peak. British chart entries increasingly came via compilations such as 20 All Time Greats (1979) and The Roger Whittaker Album (1981). A 1982 return visit to Kenya inspired the 1984 album and documentary In Kenya: A Musical Safari. Launching his own Tembo Records imprint—“tembo” meaning elephant in Swahili—he licensed recordings to Main Street Records in the U.S., where efforts positioned him as a country artist; “I Love You Because” grazed the country chart in late 1983, and All Time Heart Touching Favorites enjoyed a six-month run there in 1984. Late 1986 brought another British Top Ten with “The Skye Boat Song,” a duet with Des O’Conner. Sporadic charting continued with albums including Home Lovin’ Man (1989) and A Perfect Day – His Greatest Hits & More (1996), many of which combined older tracks with minimal new material. The 1999 RCA release Awakening was promoted as “The first totally original Whittaker album in over seven years. Contains all new material!”

Following a 2001 German tour, the sixty-five-year-old Whittaker declared his retirement and settled in Ireland with his wife of thirty-seven years. Like many performers, he soon resumed live work and continued touring until a definitive retirement in 2013. He died at age eighty-seven on September 13, 2023, in a South of France hospital after spending his final decade there.