David Whitfield

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David Whitfield (born February 2, 1925 in Kingston upon Hull , England ; † January 16, 1980 in Sydney , Australia ) was a popular singer who was particularly successful in the 1950s in Great Britain , but also in the USA . In 1953 he had his first number one success with Answer Me , composed by the German Gerhard Winkler . 1954 followed his second number one hit with Cara Mia ; the first million seller by a British singer in his home country and also a great success in the USA.

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Bridge of Sighs
  UK 9 10/08/1953 (1 week)
Answer Me
  UK 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 10/22/1953 (14 weeks)
Rags to Riches (with Stanley Black and his Orchestra)
  UK 3 December 17, 1953 (11 weeks)
The Book
  UK 5 02/25/1954 (15 weeks)
Cara Mia (with chorus and Mantovani and his Orchestra)
  UK 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 06/24/1954 (25 weeks)
Santo Natale (Merry Christmas)
  UK 2 11/18/1954 (10 weeks)
Beyond the stars
  UK 8th 02/17/1955 (9 weeks)
mummy
  UK 12 06/02/1955 (11 weeks)
Ev'rywhere (with The Roland Shaw Orchestra)
  UK 3 07/14/1955 (20 weeks)
When You Lose the One You Love (with Chorus and Mantovani and his Orchestra)
  UK 7th December 01, 1955 (11 weeks)
My September Love
  UK 3 03/08/1956 (24 weeks)
My son john
  UK 22nd 08/30/1956 (4 weeks)
My Unfinished Symphony
  UK 29 09/06/1956 (1 week)
The Adoration Waltz (with The Roland Shaw Orchestra)
  UK 9 January 31, 1957 (11 weeks)
I'll find you
  UK 27 04/11/1957 (4 weeks)
Cry My Heart (with Chorus and Mantovani and his Orchestra)
  UK 22nd 02/20/1958 (3 weeks)
On the Street Where You Live (with Cyril Stapleton and his Orchestra)
  UK 16 05/22/1958 (14 weeks)
The right to love
  UK 30th 08/14/1958 (1 week)
I believe
  UK 49 11/30/1960 (1 week)
Santo Natale
  UK 93 12/11/2004 (1 week)

Life

As a soldier in the Royal Navy during World War II , David Whitfield entertained his comrades with his singing. After the war he worked in construction. He took part in talent competitions and became known to a wider audience when he appeared in 1950 on the Opportunity Knocks show on Radio Luxembourg's English service . Appearances in London's West End followed, and soon a recording deal with Decca Records .

Whitfield's singing style ( tenor voice ) was closer to operetta or even opera singing than to the crooner style of pop singers common at the time . He was accompanied on his recordings by many different popular orchestras of the 1950s. He had his first hit in the UK charts in October 1953 with Bridge of Sighs , his last in 1960 with I Believe in November 1960. David Whitfield had a number of worldwide hits in the 1950s - and he had a large following that led to the great Part consisted of women.

He received his own television shows, appeared eight times in New York on the Ed Sullivan Show and made three Royal Command appearances in front of members of the Royal Family at the Palladium Theater in London . However, his career curve quickly fell after rock 'n' roll hit. He still appeared in stage musicals and sang the song I'll Find You in 1957 as the theme melody of the film Sea Wife (English title: flotsam of passion ) with Joan Collins and Richard Burton .

After the hits did not materialize, he continued to tour around the world . He died at 54 years after a three-month tour, his tenth in Australia, where he worked in clubs and on the Chinese passenger ship Minghua occurred at a stroke . He left behind his wife Sheila, two sons and a daughter. Whitfield never turned his success into fortune: he allegedly left only £ 3,000 .

Greatest successes

Whitfield was the most successful British singer in the US before the rock-pop era began. He was

  • the first British singer to receive a gold record ;
  • the first Briton to have a hit in the top 10 of the US singles charts;
  • and the first British man to sell more than a million copies of a single record in the US .

Two of his singles made it to number one in the UK: Answer Me (on November 6th and again on December 11th, 1953 ) and Cara Mia (on July 2nd, 1954 ).

Answer Me

Answer Me was the cover version of a German hit written by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch called Mütterlein ; German singer Leila Negra made this title popular in Scandinavia , from where it came to the USA. There Carl Sigman wrote the English text, Answer Me . Frankie Laine , Nat 'King' Cole and Whitfield made the song a hit in 1953: Cole in the US, and Laine and the cover of Whitfield in the UK. Laine was number one in the UK a week after Whitfield, and on December 11th both versions were in first place at the same time . After Answer Me became a world hit, Fred Rauch wrote a new German text that was more based on the English one; interpreted by Wolfgang Sauer , Glaube mir became a hit in German-speaking countries as well. Even Maria Mucke made in 1954, this German version popular.

Cara Mia

Cara Mia recorded Whitfield with Mantovani and his orchestra and choir. It became both a number one hit and one of the best-selling records prior to the arrival of rock 'n' roll. The single was number one in the UK charts for ten weeks. The song was penned by Mantovani and Whitfield's producer Bunny Lewis, who used the pseudonyms Lee Lange and Tulio Tropani .

literature

swell

  1. Charts UK

Web links