Search - Margaret Whiting & Jimmy Wakely :: Till We Meet Again

Ralph DelBove

Ralph S. Delbove | 02/06/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a fine compliation of the duets that Country Western Star Jimmy Wakely and Pop singer Margaret Whiting recorded in the 1940's and 1950's. The songs range the Honky Tonk hit "Slipping around" to numerous gospel/sacred songs plus a few solos by each artist. This is certainly a fine collection if you are a fan of either singer or the music of that era. A particular favorite of mine is "When you and I were young Maggie Blues". If you do not know what harmony singing or true duet singing is please listen to this tune."

Pop-country crossover music started here

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 04/02/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Maggie, born in Detroit but raised mostly in California, already had a string of successful pop hits to her credit when she indicated to her record label (Capitol) that she would like to record some country music. Exactly why she wanted to remains a mystery to me, though some of her pop hits (especially Moonlight in Vermont and A tree in the meadow) evoke powerful rural images, so perhaps she was a country girl at heart despite being raised in an urban environment. Rather than let Maggie record solo material, Capitol decided that she should record duets with established country singers. This was a good idea, as country music at the time was a male bastion at the time. Talented singers from the South such as the Dinning sisters and Patti Page had no choice but to pursue a pop music career if they wanted success. As an outsider, Maggie would have stood no chance. Trials were carried out and Jimmy (who already had a couple of pop hits due to the popularity of his country recordings among pop fans) emerged as the most suitable available partner. But great as Jimmy and Maggie sounded together, nobody would have been sure how their duets would be received. Even in their wildest dreams, Capitol could not have envisaged the results. The records were extremely popular with both country fans and pop fans, with Slipping around going all the way to number one in both the American pop and country charts.



Jimmy and Maggie eventually recorded 29 duets, all of them included here along with one Jimmy solo and two Maggie solos (we`ll come to those later). The American pop hits (especially Slipping around, Wedding bells, I'll never slip around again, Broken down merry-go-round, The gods were angry with me, Let's go to church next Sunday morning, A bushel and a peck, When you and I were young Maggie blues) have been available on CD before; I first acquired them when I bought Complete Capitol hits of Margaret Whiting, but some of them, particularly the big hits have resurfaced elsewhere since then. Most, if not all, of the non-hits are making their CD debut here. Just because they're non-hits doesn't make them inferior. Some of them (notably Till we meet again, Easter parade, Beyond the reef, Silver bells, Give me more more more of your kisses) are covers of songs that were made famous by others, while others are obscure songs that are well worth a listen. Of the songs I don't remember hearing elsewhere, I particularly like Let old mother nature have her way, Christmas candy and Tennessee church bells.



I probably wouldn't have chosen to represent Jimmy's solo music with Peter Cottontail (I might have chosen My heart cries for you or Beautiful brown eyes, though maybe the latter would have seemed out of place on an album of duets with Maggie), but it was popular in the fifties and it is a great children`s song. The compiler made an inspired choice in selecting two of Maggie's solo tracks. Rather than include two of her obvious hits (though I`d have settled for A tree in the meadow and one other big hit), we get Foggy river and Try me one more time, two tracks that sound very country. Those two tracks also appear on Maggie's 4-CD set My Ideal: The Definitive Collection, which doesn't include any of the duets to be found here.



The singing brakeman, Jimmy Rodgers, created his brand of music by blending hillbilly music with the blues. Bob Wills, inspired by the swing bands of the thirties as well as by country music, created western swing by blending the two styles. So crossover country music as such was nothing new when Jimmy and Maggie started recording their duets, but theirs was the first attempt to blend country music with mainstream pop music. During the period that they were successful, Jimmy and Maggie supported their duets with personal appearances together, including the Grand Ole Opry. I'm guessing that Maggie Whiting was therefore the first pop singer to perform at the Opry (but if not, I'm happy to be corrected), but she certainly wasn't the last.



Exactly what impact these duets had in the long-term is impossible to measure. Other record labels tried to follow the formula of pairing a male country singer with a female pop singer (or group of female pop singers, in the case of the Andrews sisters), but none of these achieved the level of success that Jimmy and Maggie had together. That's not really surprising, remembering that Maggie had wanted to record some country music and had embarked on the project with enthusiasm, as it seems Jimmy did too. There was also the novelty factor - Jimmy and Maggie were the first. Others that followed may have done so for the wrong reasons, seeing it as an opportunity to make a quick buck rather than being in it for the music, although they nevertheless recorded some great music. In the longer term, pop-country crossover music would have happened anyway, but the success of these recordings ensured that it started sooner than it otherwise would have. And despite the significance of these recordings in setting pop-country crossover music in motion, you won't find much about them in the country music history books. So people can make up their own minds, but these recordings stand the test of time well. The ultimate irony is that although they were the pop-country music of their time, they sound closer to traditional country than a lot of contemporary country music.



Regardless of any historical significance, and regardless of whether you count it as pop or country, this is great music. If you enjoy music of the early fifties, you'll probably enjoy this collection, which avoids the novelty songs of the era that can sometimes be irritating."