Now this guy always looked like the devil looking out of the TV at me. His black “devil” beard on my black and white TV meant I never really listened to what the man was singing until many years later.
Roger was born in Africa in 1939 and moved to the UK in 1959. By the mid and late 1960s he had already chalked up several hits including Durham Town which leaked into the UK charts in January 1970 as a spillover from the 1960s charts.
He has toured Europe so many times and singing in many languages. His first major hit in 1970 was New World In The Morning. The one that went.
“Everybody talks about a new world in the morning.
A new world in the morning so they say.
I, myself don’t talk about a new world in the morning.
A new world in the morning, that’s today.
And I can feel a new tomorrow comin’ on.
And I don’t know why I have to make a song.
Everybody talks a bout a new world in the morning.
New world in the morning takes so long.
I can see him singing that now as he held the guitar.
The follow up I have no recollection of at all It was called I Don’t Believe In “If” Anymore, although it charted much higher than the first.
1971 he had two singles out that did not make the top forty, but in 1975 he had his best hit in my opinion. The Last Farewell which came from an idea from a member of the public, who sent the song in for Roger to sing on a radio show. Roger fell in love with the song and made it into a single.
It went on to sell ELEVEN million worldwide and added to Novello awards for Roger. But as far as the charts were concerned he had said his Last Farewell to that too.
For more info visit Roger Whittaker
Let the 70s music ease the stress from your bones.Take off your disco shoes and sit yourself down on my giant bean bag, that's it just sit back and relax. Let me pry those memories from the deepest corners of your mind by taking you for a stroll through the archives.
