Artist:Roger WhittakerSong:The Last Farewell
Album:New World In The Morning: The Encore Collection
The smooth baritone of Roger Whittaker has been very popular everywhere but North America. The Last Farewell is his only top twenty US hit. His musical approach is a cross between traditional British folk music and easy listening mostly because of his voice. He was born Mar. 22, 1936 in Nairobi, Kenya. His British father moved the family to Kenya for the climate. Whittaker moved to England in 1959 and planned a career in medicine. But he started singing and singed with Fontana in 1962. He switched to EMI in 1966 and started having chart success in England. When he had his first top 20 with Durham Town in 1969, RCA signed him to a US contract. Whittaker became popular in the Adult Contemporary market. But The Last Farewell crossed over and reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100. A silversmith named Ron Webster sent Whittaker a poem and Whittaker put it to music. The popularity of the song led to a bigger profile for Whittaker in Europe and Asia. And he rode that wave for the rest of his career. It turned out to be a fluke hit in the US and Whittaker has never had chart success otherwise. Elvis Presley covered The Last Farewell in 1976. You can get the original version of The Last Farewell on this budget comp. Beware of rerecorded versions. Roger Whittaker continued to tour and record in Europe, especially in Germany. He recorded a lot of albums phoenetically in German. He retired in 2008 and currently lives in Ireland. Here's Roger Whittaker with Chet Atkins performing The Last Farewell on the TBS show Nashville Live 1982.
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