Roger Whittaker was a Kenyan-born British singer-songwriter and musician. His music is an eclectic mix of folk music and popular songs, the latter variously in a crooning or in a schlager style. He is best known for his baritone singing voice and trademark whistling ability as well as his guitar skills. “The show works better with an audience,” he says, inviting folks to learn how to whistle as he was taught as a boy in Kenya. Whittaker grew up surrounded by pounding African rhythms and learned “African-style” whistling.
His long career from the early 1960s to his last tour in 2013 was peppered with big hits such as “Wind beneath my wings”, “Durham Town”, “I don’t believe in If Anymore”, “New world in the morning” and “The Last Farewell”. His 1968 and 1970 albums were entitled Whistle Stop and Whistling Roger Whittaker respectively. In one of his last interviews. he repeated that he had stopped touring but said that he had been writing songs and, “I still whistle very well”.
In 1974 he performed at the Finnish Eurovision qualifications. The song “The Finnish Whistler” he performed became famous in Finland as it was used as a title music for the popular Finnish Yle television cooking programme Patakakkonen. It has recently been used by Confused.com in a series of adverts.
