Search - Roger Whittaker :: New World in the Morning

Katcha S. (Jain) from FORT JONES, CA
Reviewed on 10/21/2010...

A 'sleeper' - LOTS of good songs. Easy to listen to, hum along with etc. Lovely bit of memory too.

Roger Whittaker / RCA Victor releases

William Davis | 02/24/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There seems to be some discord in the commentary regarding not only this disc but others available now as to whether or not certain versions of certain songs, particularly "The Last Farewell" are the original recordings or not.



It appears as if the original circa 1971 release of "The Last Farewell" was on EMI Records, outside of the United States. Listeners here in the US were in all probability first exposed to the circa 1975 release on RCA Victor; I have recently purchased this CD and played it for my brother, and we are both entirely positive that this CD's version is identical with that heard on 'easy listening' stations in the US in the mid-late 1970's. I cannot prove whether or not the RCA and EMI releases were actually different recordings, or if the RCA release was the original re-licensed and remastered since the EMI version is unavailable. But rest assured, if you heard this song on the radio at that time or else recall the television advertised Roger Whittaker album (released by Tee Vee Records, but actually pressed on RCA Victor discs and labeled as such) then this CD under review here will not disappoint. (More on changes in later versions of this song in a moment.)



Having said that, the other popular Roger Whittaker songs on this CD will be familiar to many -- but the song "Dirty Old Town" is a surprise to this listener. It has a lovely melody, incredible vocal by Whittaker and very rich (and seemingly typical RCA) instrumental backing. The result is haunting. That song, which I'd never heard prior to having purchased this CD would be worth the price alone; I like it better than either the title track of the album or "The Last Farewell."



I own many hundreds of songs (largely by Artie Shaw) on both LP and CD and there is indeed some fidelity loss on many CD versions. Regarding this Roger Whittaker CD, though, I find the loss between the original high fidelity analog quality and present CD quality FAR less than the average. Perhaps we need an old vacuum-tube console stereo to help duplicate the original experiences - but as disc or tape to CD re-releases go, I would rate "New World in the Morning: The Encore Collection" as very good quality.



Finally, as Roger Whittaker went along, not only did he perform "The Last Farewell" many thousands of times, but his voice changed with age as well. Thus, we have, in later recordings not only changes in the actual sound of his voice, but also changes in the notes he chose to hit and in cadence (and tempo, later versions tending to get slightly faster). If one strings together a large number of performances of just this song chronologically the changes are obvious; the version of "The Last Farewell" on THIS CD is my personal favorite. Should anyone wish a primer on Roger Whittaker, this CD is it - although in point of fact it does contain at least one much later (live) recording, so that listeners can get an idea of just how different he sounds older and live.



Oh -- one more note. Cover photos can be misleading. When Roger Whittaker recorded "New World in the Morning," "Durham Town," "The Last Farewell" and "Dirty Old Town" AS HEARD ON THIS CD his hair and beard were still all black. The cover photo shows a later Roger Whittaker, since it's a much later compilation!



-Will Davis"

Poor Quality

R. Murphy | 09/01/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I have several LPs and cassette tapes of Roger Whittaker. The recordings on this CD do NOT have the fullness or richness of Whittaker's voice. Anyone thinking these recordings sound great would be shocked at how bad this CD is if they heard earlier (perhaps non BMG) recordings. Also, the cadence of several of the recordings doesn't match the earlier recordings (and the changes are for the worse). I must wonder if the recordings on this CD were mastered from MP3 (or AAC Apple) downloads and then run through an audio enhancement program in an attempt to compensate for all the information (i.e., quality) lost when using these (and all other) compression codecs (Note: normal/commercial quality CDs use AIFF encoding and this encoding loses far less information/quality) . Also, whatever happened to the AAD, ADD, and DDD markings on CD?

If you want to hear the real Roger Whittaker (and he is great) this CD doesn't come close."