The Last Farewell

"The Last Farewell" is a song from 1971 by African folk singer Roger Whittaker. Whittaker hosted a radio program in The United Kingdom in 1971, backed by an orchestra with arrangements by Zack Lawrence. Whittaker says "one of the ideas I had was to invite listeners to send their poems or lyrics to me and I would make songs out of them. We got a million replies, and I did one each week for 26 weeks."[1]

"The Last Farewell"
Single by Roger Whittaker
from the album New World in the Morning
Released1971 (reissued 1975)
Recorded1971
GenrePop
Length3:38
LabelRCA Records
Songwriter(s)Roger Whittaker
Ron A. Webster
Producer(s)Denis Preston
Roger Whittaker singles chronology
"Mamy Blue"
(1971)		 "The Last Farewell"
(1971)

Ron A. Webster, a silversmith from Birmingham, England, sent Whittaker his poem entitled "The Last Farewell", and this became one of the selections to appear on the radio program. It was recorded, and featured on Whittaker's 1971 album New World in the Morning (A Special Kind of Man in the US and Canada). Although the song nearly reached the music charts at the time, it is one of the fifty all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) physical copies worldwide.

Popularity

According to Whittaker, the wife of a program director for a radio station in Atlanta, Georgia, was travelling in Canada, in 1975, and heard Whittaker's four-year-old recording on the radio. After she returned to the United States, she asked her husband to play it on the station. After he played the song a few times, listeners called the station to discover more about the song and singer, and soon thereafter "The Last Farewell" was on the charts. The single reached the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 19 in June 1975, the only single of Whittaker's career to appear on the Hot 100. It also went to number 1 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart.[2]

The response in America led the single to achieve success in other parts of the world, including in The United Kingdom, peaking at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart.[3] It was kept from number 1 in the UK by Rod Stewart's "Sailing". As an odd unrelated note, this is the only occasion the top 2 songs in the British singles chart had a nautical theme. "The Last Farewell" also went to number 1 in 11 other countries, selling an estimated 11 million copies worldwide,[4] making it Whittaker's best-known song.

Whittaker says much of the appeal of "The Last Farewell" comes from the classical-sounding nature of the opening French horn solo. This arrangement was done by Lawrence for the song's initial airing on Whittaker's radio program.

From the late 1970s until about 1981, WGN-TV used the introductory fanfare in its station identification.[5]

Cover versions

The song is covered by many artists. In 1976, Elvis Presley included "The Last Farewell" on his album, From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee. This version was released as a posthumous single in the UK in 1984, peaking at number 48 in December.[6]

Also reaching the UK pop charts with a version of "The Last Farewell" was the Marine Band of HMS Ark Royal, just before the aircraft carrier was de-commissioned by the Royal Navy in December 1978. It peaked at number 41 in January 1979.[7]

Four Jacks and a Jill recorded a version from the perspective of a woman seeing a soldier off on a troop train.

The Golden Ali'is did a song, using the same tune as The Last Farewell, in Samoan Language called Ama (Ua Na'o Oe Lava) in 1990 [8]

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See also
  • List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1975 (U.S.)

References
  1. Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications)
  2. Whitburn, Joel (1996). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition (Billboard Publications)
  3. UK chart info (Whittaker) OfficialCharts.com. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  4. "The Official Roger Whittaker Website". www.rogerwhittaker.com.
  5. Caro, Mark. "Roger WhittakerI`d Fall in Love Tonight (Universal)..." chicagotribune.com.
  6. UK chart info (Presley) OfficialCharts.com. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
  7. Album Cover of "The Last Farewell", BBC Records and Tapes, 1979
  8. Amazon.com. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
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