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Roger Whittaker

Roger Whittaker
Roger Whittaker

Roger Whittaker (born March 22, 1936 in Nairobi, Kenya) is a British singer/songwriter and musician with worldwide record sales of more than 55 million. His music is of the folk/easy listening genre. In his early career, his trademark was his fantastic whistling ability.

Contents

  • 1 Childhood and beginning
  • 2 Recording and performing career
  • 3 Tours
  • 4 Awards
  • 5 Trivia
  • 6 Discography
    • 6.1 UK and European albums
    • 6.2 US albums
  • 7 Further reading
  • 8 See also
  • 9 External links

Childhood and beginning

Whittaker's parents, Edward and Viola, were originally from Staffordshire, England, where they owned and operated a grocery shop. His father was involved in a motorcycle accident, and the family moved to a farm in Kenya because of the better climate. That Whittaker would eventually become a musician was no surprise, since his grandfather sang in various clubs, and his father played the violin. Roger learned to play the guitar.

Whittaker was drafted into national service, and he spent two years in uniform in the Kenya Regiment [1]. In 1956, he was demobilized and decided that it was time to concentrate on a career in medicine. He enrolled at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

He left the university after 18 months and joined the civil service education department to try teaching.

Recording and performing career

To further his teaching career, Whittaker moved to Britain in September 1959. For the next 3 years, he studied zoology, biochemistry, and marine biology at the University of Wales, Bangor and received a B.Sc. He was one of the brightest students in his class. He continued to sing in local clubs, and released some of his songs on flexi-discs included with the campus newspaper, the Bangor University Rag. Shortly afterwards, he was signed to Fontana Records 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, 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, and the first to break into the UK Top 30 charts, was a Jimmy Dean cover of "Steel Men", released in June 1962.

In the spring of 1964, Roger met Natalie O'Brien, and they were married on August 15 of that year. They have 5 children, Emily (May 28, 1968), Lauren (June 4, 1970), Jessica (February 14, 1973), Guy (November 15, 1974) and Alexander (April 7, 1978).

In 1968, Whittaker had switched record labels, and in the autumn of 1969 EMI had released "Durham Town (The Leavin')", which became Whittaker's first Top 20 hit in Britain. In the spring of 1970, RCA Victor Records had released the uptempo "New World In The Morning" in the United States, where it became a Top 20 hit in the Easy Listening chart.

In 1971, Whittaker first recorded "The Last Farewell," which would become his biggest hit and a signature song, selling over 11 million copies worldwide. Whittaker also established himself in country music with "I Love You Because" entering into the country chart in late 1983.

In the 1970s and '80s, Whittaker had a lot of success in Germany, with songs produced by Nick Munro. Whittaker couldn't speak German, but sang the songs phonetically. He appeared on German and Danish TV several times [2], and was on the UK Top Of The Pops show ten times in the early to mid '70s.

In 1986, he published his autobiography, So Far, So Good, co-written with his wife.

In March of 2006, Whittaker announced on his website that a 2007 Germany tour would be his last, and he will limit future performances to "occasional concerts."

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 won over 250 silver, gold and platinum albums.

He was part of a successful British team that won the annual Knokke music festival in Belgium and won the Press Prize as the personality of the festival.

Trivia

This section called "Trivia" does not cite any references or sources.

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Discography

Albums released in non-English-speaking countries are listed elsewhere.

UK and European albums

a selection

US albums


Further reading

See also

External links


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