Roger Whittaker

Roger Henry Brough Whittaker (22 March 1936 – 13 September 2023) was a Kenyan/British singer-songwriter and musician. His music is an eclectic mixture of folk music and popular songs, the latter variously in a crooning or in a schlager style. He was best known for his baritone singing voice and trademark whistling ability as well as his guitar skills.

The Times observed that "ome pop singers define the zeitgeist and many more follow it. A much rarer number of them defy it and Roger Whittaker counted himself proudly and unapologetically among them". Despite not obtaining sustained chart success, he gained a large international following through TV appearances and live performances, with fan clubs in at least 12 countries (including Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States). One admirer was US president George H. W. Bush, at whose home he was invited to perform.

Whittaker was best known internationally for his 1971 single "The Last Farewell", which charted in 11 countries. In the United States, where the song was released four years later, it became his only entry in the Billboard Hot 100, and reached number one on the Adult Contemporary chart. Whittaker was widely known for his own compositions, including "Durham Town (The Leavin')" (1969) and "I Don't Believe in If Anymore" (1970). American audiences are most familiar with his 1970 hit album New World in the Morning and his renditions of "Ding! Dong! Merrily on High" and "The Twelve Days of Christmas". From the 1970s onward he had great success and a devoted fan base in Germany singing in German. His 1977 Greatest Hits album All My Best was marketed on television through mail order and went on to sell nearly one million copies. In total, he sold an estimated 50–60 million records during his career.

Whittaker was born in Nairobi, in what was then called the Colony and Protectorate of 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 how to whistle as a boy, and learned to play the guitar on an instrument made for him during the Second World War by an Italian prisoner of war from the North African campaign. 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.

Upon completing his primary education, Whittaker was admitted to Prince of Wales School (now Nairobi School), and whilst there sang in the choir at All Saints' Cathedral in central Nairobi. 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. He said that he was "stupid, selfish, and angry" in his youth, and that the British Army "made a man" out of him. 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. However, he left after 18 months and joined the civil service education department as a teacher, following in his mother's footsteps.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.