Roger Whittaker

Whittaker was born in Nairobi, then in British Kenya, to English parents, Vi (née Snowden) and Edward Whittaker, who were from Staffordshire, where they owned and operated a grocery shop. His father was injured in a motorcycle accident and the family moved to a farm near Thika, Kenya, because of its warmer climate. His grandfather sang in various clubs and his father played the violin. Whittaker learned to play the guitar on an instrument made for him during World War II by an Italian prisoner of war from the North African campaign.[10] He was quoted as saying that all he wanted as a child were country and western gramophone records by artists such as The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, to which he used to sing along.[8]

Upon completing his primary education, Whittaker was admitted to Prince of Wales School (now Nairobi School), and whilst there sang in the choir at Nairobi Cathedral.[11] Upon completing his high-school education, he was called up for national service and spent two years in the Kenya Regiment fighting the Mau Mau in the Aberdare Forest.[12] He said that he was "stupid, selfish, and angry" in his youth, and that the army "made a man" out of him.[13] After demobilization in 1956, he enrolled at the University of Cape Town in South Africa to pursue a career in Medicine, performing at the Equator Club in Nairobi during breaks.[11] However, he left after 18 months and joined the civil service education department as a teacher, following in his mother's footsteps.[14]

Whittaker moved to Britain in September 1959. to continue his teaching career[15] For the next three years, he studied zoology, biochemistry and marine biology at University College of North Wales and earned a Bachelor of Science degree while singing in local clubs,[15] and released songs on flexi discs included with the campus newspaper, the Bangor University Rag.[16] Reflecting upon this time in his life, he said later that "I guess I was an entertainer who was a biochemist for a while, rather than the other way around".[8]

Whittaker was shortly signed to Fontana Records,[15] which released his first professional single, "The Charge of the Light Brigade", in 1962. (On the labels of the Fontana singles, he is billed as "Rog Whittaker".[1]) In the summer of 1962, Whittaker performed in Portrush, Northern Ireland. He achieved a breakthrough when he was signed to appear on an Ulster Television show called This and That.[15] His second single was a cover version of "Steel Men", released in June 1962.[15]

In 1966, Whittaker switched from Fontana to EMI's Columbia label, and was billed as Roger Whittaker from this point forward. His fourth single for the imprint was his self-composed Durham Town (The Leavin'), which in 1969 became Whittaker's first UK Top 20 hit in the UK Singles Chart.[15] 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 magazine's Easy Listening chart. That same year, his downbeat theme song "No Blade of Grass", written for the film adaptation of the same name that was sung during both the opening and ending titles, became his first film credit.

In the early 1970s, Whittaker took interest in the Nordic countries when he recorded the single "Where the Angels Tread" (Änglamarken) to the music of Evert Taube in 1972. In 1974 he performed at the Finnish Eurovision qualifications.[17] The song "The Finnish Whistler" he performed became famous in Finland as it was used as a title music for the popular Finnish Yle television cooking programme Patakakkonen.[18]

In 1975, EMI released "The Last Farewell", a track from Whittaker's 1971 New World in the Morning album.[15] It became his biggest hit and a signature song, selling more than 11 million copies worldwide.[15] In 1979, he wrote the song "Call My Name" which, performed by Eleanor Keenan, reached the final of the UK Eurovision selection, A Song For Europe, and came third. Whittaker recorded the song himself and the single charted in several European countries. Released in December 1983, his version of Leon Payne's "I Love You Because" spent four weeks in the US Hot Country charts, peaking at number 91.[19]

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Whittaker had success in Germany, with German-language songs produced by Nick Munro. Unable to speak German, Whittaker sang the songs phonetically. His biggest hits in Germany included "Du Warst Mein Schönster Traum" (a rerecording of "The Last Farewell") and "Abschied ist ein Scharfes Schwert" ("parting is a sharp sword"). He appeared regularly on the TV series ZDF-Hitparade, received numerous awards, and was West Germany's bestselling artist of 1977, when he completed a 41-concert tour of the country.[20] Whittaker's German-language songs were not initially well received by some critics, who derided the songs as "meaningless folk music". Notwithstanding this, Whittaker released 25 albums in Germany and gained a considerable fan base in that country; he felt his most loyal fans were there, saying at one point: "The past few decades have been wonderful … My relationship with the German fans is great."[21]

In March 2006, Whittaker announced on his website that a 2007 Germany tour would be his last, and that he would limit future performances to "occasional concerts". Now more fluent in German, he was seen singing and was interviewed in German on Danish television in November 2008. In a 2014 interview, Whittaker reiterated that he had retired from touring in 2013, but said that he had written 18 new songs for an album and said "I still whistle very well".[13]

Whittaker married Natalie O'Brien on 15 August 1964.[22] They had two sons and three daughters: Emily, Lauren, Jessica (who became a presenter on VH1), Guy (bassist with the singer Fink), and Alexander –[23], 12 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. In 1986, he published his autobiography, So Far, So Good, co-written with his wife,[13] who became his manager in 1989.[13]

Whittaker's father never forgave his son for abandoning a medical career, and their differences were never resolved. His parents attended none of their son's concerts, and refused to participate in the episode of This Is Your Life when he was the subject.[24] Still living in Nairobi, on 1 April 1989, they were the victims of a robbery in which a small gang of men killed Whitaker's father and left his mother, who freed herself some hours later, tied up in the bathroom.[25][26] The perpetrators were never caught,[27] and Whittaker's mother returned to England where she died in 1996. Whittaker said of the incident: "It will affect me for the rest of my life, but I believe we should all live without hate if we can".[13]

Whittaker was involved in efforts to save the black rhino, donating recording royalties and money from concert program sales to create sanctuaries for the species in Kenya.[28]

After living in Ireland for some years, he retired with his wife to France in 2012.[29] He died at a hospital near Toulouse on 13 September 2023, aged 87.[2][3]

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 the UK from May to July.[30]

During his career, Whittaker earned over 250 silver, gold, and platinum awards.[9] With his song "The Mexican Whistler", he was part of a successful British team that won the 1967 Knokke Music Festival in Belgium,[31][32] when he received the Press Prize as the personality of the festival. He was awarded a 'Gold Badge Award', from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) in 1988[33] and earned a Goldene Stimmgabel ("Golden Tuning Fork") in Germany in 1986, based on record sales and TV viewer votes.[34]

Whittaker was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1982 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at RAF Northolt.[35]

An unidentified cassette tape by Whittaker features in the Stephen King novella Secret Window, Secret Garden (1990), which references a line from "The Last Farewell".[38]

• Official website
• Roger Whittaker at IMDb
• Roger Whittaker discography at Discogs