Music Monday: The Roger Whittaker Christmas Album
If you've never heard this classic album of original songs, treat yourself to a listen
Merry Christmas! Christmas is a season so I thought I’d post a reflection on a Christmas album that somehow became a favorite of mine when I was an older teenager. Listening to Christmas music throughout the season helps keep the celebration going, at least for me.
Roger Whittaker, the British-African-born singer with a rich baritone, just died this past September 2023 after a decades-long career. Born in Kenya, he grew up in South Africa and angered his parents by abandoning a career in biochemistry for the entertainment industry. Tragically, his parents never forgave him, and his father was murdered and his mother injured in a 1980s brutal home robbery. He said of the crime against his parents, “It will affect me for the rest of my life, but I believe we should all live without hate if we can." He took his mother to live with him in Europe and cared for her until her death ten years later.
His fame in America peaked during the easy-listening era of the 1970s with chart entries like New World in the Morning but he also made covers of old favorites, which earned him an appreciative public in Germany, Sweden, and other European nations. Despite never becoming a star or household name, he carved out a niche for himself singing low-key sentimental songs that were unfailingly optimistic. He was a beloved concert performer, unable to resist the urge to tour. Despite announcing his retirement several times, he did a “final” tour at the age of 65 in 2001, only to come back to tour in 2005 and again up until 2012. He made a happy marriage to Natalie O’Brien, raised five children, and died in France two months ago at the age of 87, beloved by his family and fans alike.
If he had gone with the spirit of the age and sung rock songs, he might have had more success, but Whittaker remained true to his art. The Times said of him, “Some pop singers define the zeitgeist and many more follow it. A much rarer number of them defy it and Roger Whittaker counted himself proudly and unapologetically among them,” which strikes me as a good summary of the man.
Roger Whittaker was primarily a singer, not a musician, although he was a champion whistler, but he did write his own songs as well, and interestingly enough, although he recorded several Christmas albums, his 1976 is full of original compositions which are very much his style: simple, heartfelt, unapologetically appreciative of the timeless things. Done with orchestration and a chorus, the recordings were done in that crystal-clear tone of the 70s, and while the individual songs are fine, the album itself is nicely arranged, and plays well as a continuous composition. If you’ve never heard The Roger Whittaker Christmas Album, pour a cup of tea and ready yourself for a treat.
We used to play this song first thing on some Christmas mornings, since it captures the spirit of the day so well. Thrumming strings and horn notes communicate anticipation with the whisper of snowflakes before Whittaker weighs in with an eager invitation:
Look down, look down and see the world!
Look down and see the world rejoicing!
A Child, a Child is born today!
In peace and love, so raise your voices!A time to learn from every child—
A time to give, a time to smile!
Embracing all in happiness,
A time to asking for forgiveness.
This might sound to some like sentiment, but the final line of the second verse brings in a weightier theme: conversion. It is often forgotten that Christmas Day is a day for deeper conversion, beginning with shepherds called away from their work to worship and epitomized in the most famous literary conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge. It is a time where the birth of a Child calls us to be reborn as a child. And that rebirth should call us to rejoice.
So we sing halle—Halle, Halle!
Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!
And we sing halle—Halle, Halle!
Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!
The next verses are addressed to Christ asking for the renewal of the mind, a deeper compassion, a wider love: a contented heart, a rejection of materialistic greed, to become a child in order to enter the kingdom of heaven:
Lead on, lead on and take my mind—
Lead me to greater understanding
Of all the sorrows of mankind—
In You a love ever expandingTo be content with what I need,
To live without a trace of greed,
To be a child once again—
And never, never more the same!
And at the end of Christmas day, Whittaker invites us to examine our conscience and asks us if we have merely celebrated without truly changing:
And so, and so the day is done—
The Child once more peacefully sleeping,
The sun has set upon the world,
His watch of love peacefully keeping—Have we just passed the time away?
Have we just lost ourselves in play?
Have we begun to live again
Like children, never more the same?
This is an unexpectedly probing Christmas carol, one we could all benefit from recalling. It certainly moves me each time I hear it: the reason for the joy of Christmas is Christ, but not Christ of 2000 years ago: the Christ Child moving within our hearts and minds today.
This is actually a cover of a 1903 dialect song by F. L. Stanton and Ethelbert Nevin, a lullaby sung by an African American woman to the white baby she is nursing. As a secular song, it became a Tin Pan Alley hit and sung by singers as varied as Paul Robeson, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Costello. Here Whittaker reinterprets it as an ode to the Christ Child.
Sweetest little fellow, everybody knows;
Don't know what to call him, but he's mighty like a rose!
Lookin' at his mammy with eyes so shiny blue
Makes you think that heaven is comin' close to you.When he's there a-sleepin' in his little place
Think I see the angels looking thro' the lace
When the dark is falling, when the shadows creep
Then they come on tip-toe to kiss him in his sleep…Sweetest little fellow, everybody knows;
Don't know what to call him but he's mighty like a rose!
Lookin' at his mammy with eyes so shiny blue
Makes you think that heaven is comin' close to you.
The anachronistic references to blue eyes and lace curtains blend with homespun lyrics in a harmonious whole. One doesn’t usually think of roses as mighty, but here the misinterpretation seems apropos.
This sweet song has a vague and hence confusing title. A better name for this song would be “Christmas Carols in Harmony” since that’s the refrain. But the intermittent lyrics are also lovely: I think of them as the song of a poor artist to his love:
The fire is warm and quiet now.
The embers are aglow—
For every Christmas, love must be
The greatest gift I know!My love, it's Christmas time,
And nothing can I give you—
More then all the love that's mine to give,
For every day we live through!
This Christmas Eve will be,
Christmas carols in harmony,
Christmas carols in harmony.
Singing Christmas carols in harmony in certainly a beautiful gift, which the backup choir obligingly provides, singing snatches of “Good King Wenceslaus” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” I could wish for a version of the song without the intervening carols, but overall it’s a nice piece. I’ve always wondered if it could be continued with other carols inserted.
Our family loves this song, which speaks to much of our lives. It’s funny how a British country Christmas can resonate like an American country Christmas:
Snow is falling faster now—
A dusting on a hill.
Skaters on the river,
Gentle dancers in the chill.
The children's laughter ringing,
As they overturn their sleighs—
Waiting for a country Christmas day.
Christmas in the country!
Like another time and place,
I see it in the little things—
in every smiling face.
It’s crystal nights and far-off lights,
And children count the days—
Country Christmas, and love will lead the way.
At the midpoint of the album is this delightful children’s story set to music, which has become a family favorite. Darcy the Dragon wants to buy presents for his woodland friends but his fire keeps getting in the way. Doing a puppet show based on this song has become a tradition for two generations now, and one year my siblings actually filmed it, and posted it some fifteen years ago, to the delight of the YouTube community. Enjoy!
Whittaker had success with creating characters who sang a story, including his hit song The Last Farewell, about a British naval conscript bidding farewell to a native island girl. In this Christmas song, he takes on the character of the most neglected historical personage in the nativity story, Quirinius, governor of Syria at the time of the census, whose sleep is troubled by a perplexing dream of an insignificant child in a manger and voices hailing him as holy…
I dream a star that lights away— (O holy, O holy)
Voices sing, voices pray— (O holy, O holy)
Rise up, for He has come! Rise up, rise up, for He has come!
In the final verse, the song takes a twist: he is transported in space and perhaps time to a city he finds familiar and yet alien:
But this cannot be Rome—?
The Forum’s gone, the flesh and bone—
And what is this within my sight?
A temple holy, filled with light—
A dome across, a ringing bell—
I hear a million voices swell—
And they sing, they sing—
Oh holy, oh holy! He has come! He has come!
To me, this has always been a vision of St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve, perplexing indeed to a Roman governor.
This is the song that drew me to this album, at a time during my college years when I was questioning my Catholic faith and the appropriateness of devotion to Mary. This affectionate song provided a way for me to take steps towards having a relationship with the Mother of God.
Tell me, how did you feel when the angel came to the garden?
How did you feel? How did you feel?
When he said, if you’re afraid, I beg your pardon,
But you’re the one
to bear God’s Son—Tell me, how did you feel? (how did you feel?)
How did you feel? (how did you feel?)
Oh Momma, Momma Mary!
We wish you joy, we wish you joy!
Oh Momma, Momma Mary!
Your little boy, your little boy
Soon to be our Savior!
Unlike the later and more popular song “Mary, Did You Know?” which questions the Blessed Mother’s theological knowledge, Whittaker’s song asks how Our Lady how she felt, which is a question that—unlike the former—can lead to fruitful devotional reflection. At least, thank God, it had that affect on me.
Brahm’s Lullaby (Guten Abend, gute Nacht)
This creative cover of the most familiar lullaby is expertly whistled by Whittaker with soft background tones, continuing the subtle theme of repurposing tunes to serenade the Christ Child. It adds a wonderful ambience to this album.
This song hit me like a punch in the gut when I heard it while working far from home in New York City and stirred in me a yearning for homecoming. Now that I know about the author’s own troubled and tense relationship with his own parents, it adds another layer of ache.
I can picture the moonlight on the meadow.
I know just how it look this time of year.
The valley in the snow, the friendly smiles I know.
But that's so many miles away from here—Father will be wondering how I'm doing.
Mother will be praying like she does.
But I'll get home again—oh, how long it's been,
Since Christmas is the way that Christmas was!I'll get home for Christmas—
No, I'd never miss it.
Christmas by the fireside with that family of mine!
Christmas Day will find me with the miles behind me.
I'll make it home on time.
Of course, our true home is heaven, and this life is ultimately merely a bad night in a bad inn, but it’s the longing for a remembered earthly home that often leads to recognizing in yourself that very longing for Heaven. This song helped me hone that longing. And I wish—and hope you will join me in wishing—that Roger Whittaker and his own parents are now fully reconciled in the afterlife.
During the Cold War, it was common for Christmas albums to issue pleas for peace, and Whittaker’s is no different in that regard. But he also manages a Dickensian wish that we may keep Christmas all year round.
A time for peace—a special time
In the hope we may find
Deep within every heart
The love, that very special kind—
A love to carry us along,
To carry it beyond
Christmas and the love that it gives
The soul of every Christmas song.
If I have a favorite song on this album, this is it. It is a Christmas love song, probably sung to his wife and family, with the jauntiness that feels very British.
Christmas is here again!
Stand up and cheer again!
Let's leave our heartaches and sorrows behind!
I find it important that this lovely tune starts with that exhortation to leave sadness behind and rejoice, because it is fitting and right to remember what Christ has done for us. This is much what the Sussex Carol reminds us: “So why should men on earth be so sad, since our Redeemer made us glad?” Sorrows are passing but with Christ, Joy is solid and remains. It is wise to release pain and sorrow and stir up the soul in love and gratitude to God for family, for children, for the gift of Baby Jesus. Roger Whittaker turns his mind away from unfulfilled desire to what is right in front of him in the chorus:
All that I want is to be here beside you:
All that I need is right here in my arms!
All that I want is to know that you love me
And this will be my finest Christmas time!
He then enumerates things that delight him during the season, British customs such as “grownups in paper hats, turkey and brandy snaps, chestnuts to roast in the coals of the fire.” Americans could doubtless supply their own list, but the chorus pulls it all together.
All that I want is to be here beside you:
All that I need is right here in my arms!
All that I want is to know that you love me
And this will be my finest Christmas time!
Honestly, this one deserves to be better known. Someone should cover it, or better yet, include it on public playlists on Spotify and YouTube. To me, it’s up there with All I Want for Christmas and Underneath the Tree as that rare modern addition to the canon of classic Christmas songs. It’s true, as Naomi Wolf notes, that these three songs are not religious, which is a shame, but they fulfill the function of recognizing the love of one’s life in the context of Christmas, and hey, we need songs to fill that spot. To my mind, Roger Whittaker’s is the best because it’s low key and relaxing, clearly sung to spouse and family as opposed to a first-time love, and if you swing dance or waltz, it’s also very fun to dance to with your spouse around the Christmas tree.
Whittaker wrote this for his small children, one of whom can be heard singing snatches of the album’s previous songs at the end. It closes the album on a quiet meditative note that makes it great listening before sending children to bed. Although it’s sentimental, I believe most parents can agree with the expansion of the heart that comes with welcoming children into the world. I have no doubt that this was a father who delighted in his children.
Tiny angels—Christmas angels sleeping tight
May Santa bring you all the gifts you want tonight.
And some day when you have tiny angels too,
I hope you find the joy I found in you—
You changed the world, my angels
when you came to me!
Now Christmas Day and every day’s the same to me.
The only gifts that I could want are you, my darlings.
Tiny angels—Christmas angels try to sleep—
Don't let Santa hear the sounds of little feet/
Now its time to close your eyes and drift away—
Until you wake tomorrow and its Christmas day!
May the soul of Roger Whittaker rest in peace, and prayers for the large family of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren he left behind, who are celebrating their first Christmas without him, as are we.
Blessed Christmas to you and yours, and happy listening!
Sweet. Gentle man, gentle voice, gentle guitar. Thank you!
"Hallelujah! It's Christmas!" and "Mighty Like a Rose" were my favs. And "Darcy the Dragon" in the middle was an utter hoot. I'll look forward to playing it for kids.