Search - Margaret Whiting :: Moonlight in Vermont

Best singer of the late forties

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 10/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Maggie Whiting was born for a career in music, as her father was a successful songwriter and had many friends in the business. So, all she needed to be a successful singer was a reasonably good voice. In fact, she had a wonderful voice, ideally suited to the romantic songs that provided her with her greatest hits.



With access to the finest songs available at the time Maggie recorded the original versions of several songs that have become popular classics including Moonlight in Vermont, Far away places and Baby, it's cold outside. I've heard several versions of these songs, but Maggie's originals are hard to beat.



My particular favorite song of Maggie's, A tree in the meadow, was actually her biggest hit, but there are not many covers of this song around. Could this be because meadows themselves are a rarity these days?



Maggie was also a major influence on popular music via her duets with country star Jimmy Wakely. Probably conceived as an idea to give Jimmy some pop success, these duets were not only very successful on the pop charts, but also on the country charts. And so it was that country/pop crossover was firmly established.



This compilation includes many of Maggie's hits of the forties (her best years), among them being Moonlight in Vermont, A tree in the meadow, Slipping around (with Jimmy Wakely), Baby it's cold outside (with Johnny Mercer), Guilty, Oh but I do, You do, Pass that peace pipe, Now is the hour, Forever and ever and Far away places. Of these, only Moonlight in Vermont failed to make the American top ten. Its comparative failure as a single (it peaked at fifteen) shows that over-reliance on charts is a mistake.



Maggie was at her peak commercially in the late forties, but still had a few hits in the early fifties, when she started to include more upbeat songs in her repertoire. None of her fifties hits are included here The birth of rock'n'roll killed her pop career, but she continued to record excellent music, most notably Margaret Whiting Sings the Jerome Kern Song Book.



An even stronger compilation of Maggie's hits is the double CD, The Complete Capitol Hits of Margaret Whiting, but this is an excellent compilation. If you only want a single CD of Maggie's music, this is a good one to choose."

Margaret Whiting

J. Perry | Modesto, Ca. 95350 | 11/05/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is a bargan at any price. How did we lose good music?"

Original versions of famous standards...

Sasha | at sea...sailing somewhere | 11/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These days,everywhere you look you will find Margaret Whiting getting backhand compliments "she was good singer but she never improvised" - I dare you to find another place where this has not being mentioned - its always the same story,grudging admition she was top star of 1940s and popular singer BUT never improvised.Well people,whats wrong with that - she was pop singer who worked within idiom of popular songs that had jazz texture and jazz orchestration and were mostly written for her. In fact,as much as I love Billie Holiday and such,the fact is that jazz singers often turned and twisted songs into something else,so to hear Whiting singing these classy ballads the way they were originaly written and how composers heard them in their heads comes as breath of fresh air - "oh,so this is how the song actually was meant to be" - when I heard Whiting singing "That old black magic" its a pure joy since she doesn't have any pretentions towards changing the melody or giving it her own stamp,which in itself is the biggest compliment to composers - just sing it baby - leave it to others to mess up the words or to "improve",I really love her style,clear-headed & wide-eyed honesty.

Songs compiled here are all first-class and the fact that different orchestras and backing still sound like one consistent album is just a testimony of how good Whiting was.

And "It might as well be Spring" is beautiful beyond belief."