Roger Whittaker Biography

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Roger Whittaker
Country Music | 3 CD Set
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Roger Whittaker has made a career out of the tenderly romantic songs often deriving from folk music. His popularity the past thirty years stems from his easy-going way with songs he sings in a flowing tenor voice and while he does not compete with the more raucous side of popular music, his record sales over the years reflect a quite large audience out there listening to this native of Kenya. Born in 1936 in Nairobi, Whittaker's English parents were originally from Staffordshire but moved to Kenya before the future singer was born. Music was not an important part of his life growing up, although he owned a guitar made for him by an Italian prisoner of war in the World War II era. Moving to South Africa at age 20, he decided to study medicine in Cape Town. This was a brief part of his life as he went to Wales in 1959 to study marine biology and bio-chemistry. Music was accomplished by entertaining small groups of friends and by getting occasional engagements in folk venues singing folk songs. It was 1961 when Whittaker made a single aimed at a charity that he won a contract with Fontana Records, which released "Steel Man" under the name Rog Whittaker. He gave up science for music and soon was a favorite in the UK and Northern Ireland, taking on a regular appearance on the "This and That" television show in Ulster. In 1967, he appeared at the Knokke music festival in Belgium, winning a prize for his composition "Mexican Whistler." He became a star in Europe and even recorded in German as he learned songs phonetically. By 1969 he had conquered all of Great Britain and even had his own BBC television show. "The Last Farewell" was the song that finally broke the singer in the U.S. as it made the Top 20 (No. 19) in 1975. The recording eventually sold an amazing 11 million copies around the world. In 1986, he was back on the UK charts with "The Skye Boat Song" in a duet recording with fellow entertainer Des O'Connor. He continues his concern for Africa and has been deeply involved in a campaign to fight rhino poachers, penning the song "Rescue the Rhinos" to help fund it. His material on best-of records includes songs from a wide variety of writers, from the Beatles to Jim Croce.

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