Added: 2 years ago
From: nyrainbow4
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  • What are all the retards in the audience lookin at? The song is beautiful, the studio version by rw is miles better.

  • Lovely voice. :)

  • The year I left school I can remember telling all my friends what a great song this was they thought I was crazy It just goes to show REAL talent is timeless

  • Apparently none of the boys wanted to slow dance with the girls...

  • Lol the expression on the kids faces were priceless but by the end of the song they seemed to genuinely enjoy it

  • I love this song, but the crowd looks like they couldn't give a rat's ass.

  • Truly an all-time classic! It's been more than 30 years since I first heard it, and I still get misty-eyed listening to it!!

  • a truly beautiful song!! I love this....

  • just beautiful! :):)

  • i never knew the title of this song but found out this morning! searched over a year for this song under the wrong title. wow! love love love this song!

  • The greatest team in Sweden ...AIK.. Marches on to the pitch to this song ..!

  • Love him or not...ya gotta admit...he has a great voice.

  • Love this song!

  • Thankfully, in the 3rd verse, they give up showing the shell-shocked audience and just focus on Roger Whittaker. Most of these blank faced kids are now in their 50's; I wonder if they appreciate the fact that they got to see Roger Whittaker sing his biggest hit in person.

    Man I miss good melodies.

  • @efreet02 That vintage footage of Mr Roger Whittaker performing his excellent song "The Last Farewell" on TOTP was filmed in July 1975 ... so, yes, the 14 to 18-year-old kids who were in the audience that day would now be over 50, and thus in late middle-age. It is funny how quickly the years go by. Well, no; 'funny' is not the right word - 'depressing' would be more accurate and appropriate, one feels.

  • This is how I imagine the Royal Navy to be in the 18Th century.

  • @bry1970 Yes; I believe that the lyrics of "The Last Farewell" - which were written in the early 1970s - were 'set', as it were, in the 18th century.

  • Å vi e AIK !!!

  • @calle95  Å alltid är vi med er!

  • omg I remember this when i was younger ,lovely lovely song xx

  • i miss you daddy & i always play roger for you. love you to bits xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx­xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx­xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

  • HATA AIK!

  • Although this hit #19 on The Billboard Pop Charts in The USA back in 1975, this wouldn't even chart today. Pity!

  • @kja427 I think it did chart in the UK i think it got to the top 10 in 75.

  • wow i heard this years ago and just found it

  • This is the way men are supposed to sound when they sing. 

  • Yeah zactly i was just thinking that lol thaey'll be his age now and this probably means loads to them all now lol :D

  • Thank you for posting this.. it brought back memories..

  • It's funny how Roger is singing this slow ballad and the young people in the audience are acting like zombies, wondering "What are we supposed to do? We can't dance to this!" Lol. Nice song and great singer, but totally out of context with this show and young audience.

  • The man can actually sing unlike most of the punks on the radio these days.

  • The fact that Top of the Pops appealed across the generations came to be seen as a weakness. Actually, it was it's strength.

  • i think i was around 15yrs old, loved it then, still love it

  • My dad used to sing this while driving. God rest you Dad x

  • Absolutely heartbreaking.

  • Roger is a legend. Saw him at the Sydney Opera House maybe 23 years ago...and he punctuated his performance with a newsreel on Kenya . This bloke has a soul beyond description - and if you can find someone who can whistle better (check out "Mexican Whistler", - then feel free to show me that person !

  • HA HA look at the kids in the beginning of the video; half don't know how to act and the other half are scared.

    The way to act is proud and confident this is honest quality music never to be repeated again.

  • Comment removed

  • Thanks for posting..

  • @tank3ful This song was in the charts in the summer and early autumn of 1975, for your information ...... hardly the 1960's ! That said, I believe that it was recorded some 4 years earlier, in 1971 ...... but the 'sixties' came to an end on 31st December 1969.

  • justin bieber

  • Those kids don't know how lucky they were to be there.

  • The man is a true Bard.

  • What a gorgeous voice. I've loved this song for so many years. I'll never tire of it. It is true. We were a gentler society when he preformed this.

  • i loved this when it came out... wore it out on the album.. yes.. i said ALBUM.. pro'ly spelled wrong.. but it was a RECORD.. it was vinyl... ~laffin'~.. had it on 8 track.. had it on cassette.. and i still have it on disc... this man's voice.. heaven...

  • what do you mean it has no place on the totp

  • Roger - what a hottie. :-)

  • So good.

  • dose any one els see the kids staring at the camra.I guess they didn't have the ''please do not look not the camra '' warnings. xD.

  • One of the best songs ever.....reminds me when I was a wee girl!

  • beautiful song brings back alot of memories

  • omg I love RW!! We used to drive from Ohio to Utah on winter ski trips and this song was on a RW Greatest hits 8 Track that my parents wore out. I hadn't heard this song since 1977, and I still knew all the words and sang along!! Thanks for posting this nyrainbow4!

  • great voice, great balladeer but has no place on TOTP even if it was on the charts

  • Ordered an unopened copy of this album on the Net. Cost $16.00 and shipping was free. Then I spent $200.00 on a record player to play the record!! PRICELESS

  • bought his greatest hits album..pure class!

  • Top geezer ......Many happy memmories come floooding back

  • this song is so cool!

  • For this song is.....beautiful!

  • he has such a beautiful voice that makes the song he is singing just as beautiful

  • Imagine this in the charts now? Neither can I.The world is a poorer place if only for that.

  • fantastic great song

  • I love this song.I remember it being played over the radio on the school coach back in the 70s.this gentleman has a great voice.

  • I love this song, so much that I have the entire album. What a hidden treasure!

  • Hauntingly beautiful song and in complete agreement with Mork007 - Roger Whittaker's God-given voice was effortless.

    I haven't heard this song in a couple years, and it never fails to bring a tear to my eye as my dearly departed Father would always play this song around my (also dearly departed) Mother and this was at a time when they had been married for more than 30 years!

    Rare and timeless song during a much better (and innocent) time.

    Thank you very much for sharing, nyrainbow4.

  • Just found this and realised I know all the words. God bless my parents xxxx

  • ... for I have loved you dearly, more dearly than the spoken word can tell...

  • the audience in this video are interesting to watch, they keep looking around more than I might expect, are they not interested in the music? are they worried the camera rig may run them over? Anyways, love the song!

  • I grew up listening to RW and i still love the music.

  • Oh! me too! love all his songs :)

  • even without pretty good taste in music, you must agree this is top...

  • I listened to RW nonstop when I was about 13. Still say I had pretty good taste in music for a 13-year old. Thanks for posting!!

  • Always loved this song, very different from what was in the charts at the time. That was the magic of TOTP in the 60s and 70s. You could have The Beatles, Stones or Who on alongside The Bachelors, Matt Monro or Roger Whittaker! Great days indeed!

  • the 289,734 views that this video has had reflect the popularity of Roger Whittakers music and the 513 likes outshine the 8 dislikes of those people who clearly have no taste in music. My mum told me that my grandfather loved Roger Whittakers music and this is how I heard of his music, I like my grandfather appreciate this music and its one thing we can share despite the fact that I never got to know him. God bless you Roger Whittaker :)

  • Å VI E AIK!

  • Reminds me of my Grandfather who sang this to me as a young lad.

    Funny how some things in life can bring back such cherished memories as if it was only yesterday.

  • Its strange watching this video now.....its hard to realize that 35 years have passed since this song was so popular....where in Gods name did the years go?....and where did ol' Rog Whittaker wander off to?..well while his star faded in this part of the world he became a huge star in Germany and has had many hit songs there selling over sixty million albums in the process...strange how tastes in music differs from country to country

  • Love this song, Roger like many of us seems out of time but I'm glad he was.

  • The teenage audience looks confused; Their knees appear to be going out in time with the music.

  • It's great that no one seems to have been aware that they were going to be filmed as they try to get away from the camera.

  • For my mother Astrid , her fav. on Mothers Day

  • Fantastic

  • Wow, I have just recently had some of these lyrics come up in my mind, yet I could not think of the singer or name of the song. I just typed in some of the lyrics, and voila, I am a happy man! I love to sing, and have this one in my own repertoire. Roger Whittaker is truly a gift, as is this song. 

  • Great song by a great singer.However it's funny watching those kids trying to figure out how to dance to that song LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • No ldea who you mean must be the large glasses he has on!

    Mr RichardKraniun

  • Roger Whitaker looks alot like the BTK Killer Dennis Rader.

  • I love this song. Thank you!

  • Apologies all round! am so sorry I really thought that Roger Whittaker had passed away. Is he still touring in England? As he has not done so in a long time. In fact I

    can`t remember if he has ever done so. Does anybody know when the last time was?

  • Roger Whittaker had too be one the most underrated singers. So sad that he is no

    longer with us! Great voice lost forever such a shame. Thank You to who ever bothered to post this video.

  • @MrLesliegreen Roger no longer with us? he is alive and well and doing show tunes as far as i know... ie only partially lost him IMO!

  • i all ways think of h.m.s. ark royal ,invicable,hermes when i hear this leaving portsmouth in 1980 going to the fawklands to battle ,shame on those who said scrap them it is criminal to do such a thing happy memories p.s. iam not an ex service man or connected with r.n i just find it wrong.........................­.......

  • i am 43 years old, grew up with this man,charlie pride, dolly? bing crosby. barbra streisand waylon jennings ets ,etc i think my parents had a fantastic taste in music. what do you lot think????

  • what a cheese ball but yeah i like it ..have since i was a kid,my mother used to listen to it in the car ..

  • thank you very much its great.amellov65.

  • I love early Whittaker. Those where the days when mostly performed his own wonderful songs like this. I also loved some of his French versions (often with words by Pierre Coeur). For example, I preferred Mon Pays Blue to Durham Town though both sets of lyrics were excelent. When he was in Montreal he would sometime blend versions.

    Still all my best Whittaker is on Vinyl.

  • 3:30 YouTube video: Roger Whittaker singing his 1971 hit The Last Farewell on Top of the Pops, 7-24-1975.

    b. 3-22-1936 – Roger Whittaker, British singer

  • although many people have covered this i always like rogers version

  • 7 Knobs?

    About right I guess

  • Me too, it´s a great song..

  • Great,I love it!!

  • it's great, a great man.

  • Such an amazing voice. 

  • One word..BEAUTIFUL!!!  phyllis...

  • superb

  • I've listened to Roger since the 70's... The man has such a velvet voice, and you can really relate to his songs, not like some 15 year old gang banger in south central LA that listens to Tupac and Notorious BIG all day...

  • i love this song!

  • Rog looks like a Unix programmer in this .. apart from the blue whistle LOL nice old track tho ..

  • They played this song on the country radio stations in the early 80's in the USA. I didn't know it came out in 75.

  • At :19, in the lower left hand side of the screen, turning right towards the camera--IS THAT RON WEASLEY!!??

  • this makes me laugh cause ozzy osbourne had to use this guys shower curtain to wipe his ass cause he had no toilet paper in his own bathroom

  • I was given a tape recorder for xmas 1974.

    One of the tapes was a compilation of Mr Whittaker's hits. Not the sort of thing you'd buy for a six year-old but my father was a whistler...funny that.

    I've been a fan ever since.

  • @m666ort The man is a superb musician!

  • nice voice

  • nice voice

  • I wonder what all those nobbies in this video think of them selves today

  • So masculine and emotionally warm.

  • Sounds live, no lip synching - great voice.

  • I just love this song......I am almost...on the deck of that ship.....sailing away from the friendly harbour.....

  • i like this song....and most the particular singer very nice voice..once you will play this song.your problem was gone a moment...thanks for uploading this video.god bless.

  • J'aime cette voie, félicitation Roger whittaker vous êtes mon idole.

  • i got drunk with roger here in galway last night, top bloke i might add.

  • The voice that no1 has yet he can do most anything mmusicalm Been a fan 4 20+yrs.

    books

  • Was in the Gambia in 2000 for a week's holiday, first time in Africa and loved it but what made it better was how the hotel played Roger Whittaker and other mellow 70's stuff as background in the open-fronted restaurant at night. Beautiful African evenings in very early spring...lovely times and this song takes me back to that week....Call me an old fuddy-duddy if you like!!!!

  • Heard this on the radio too many years ago and became a major fan of Roger Whittaker. Saw him in live in MI with his daughter. What a beautiful duet!

  • "And all that from a once humble, school-teacher."

  • a classic song , this always used to remind me of richard harris in camelot ! from a memorable era ..

  • I am so in love with his voice. There is no one with a voice like this!

  • Terrific song by a GR8 singer ~ is played frequently on local radio K A A M 7 7 0 AM in D/FW Texas which plays mainly the old standards. Agree with many others that Roger Whittaker has long been under-rated.

  • @AnnihilationISTRUE HE deserves to be in The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame!!!

  • My nan used to sing this to me when i was around 4/5 year old. She died a couple of years later. I'm now 39 and can actually see her face singing this to me after all these years.....It brings quite a few tears to my eyes. It's funny how music can bring back memories cos until i saw this my memories of her were very faint.

  • Maybe one of the most under rated singers of the time.

  • wonderful!

  • Fantastic song by a fantastic artist. His voice is so smooth and effortless, much like Karen Carpenter. The kids in the video are of a time when things were much simpler and honest. Too bad we lost this.... the world would be a better place.

  • @Mork007

    Whittaker is still a myth....I listened to his music when I was in the back of my father´s car on the way to

    Italy...I just talked with my girl-friend about his musc - she wasn´t even born then. I only disagree that

    these kids were more honest - as some of these kids are forming our actual political class now

  • my mom used to play this song all the time

  • I especially love the hair styles on the young women in the crowd. The 70's was where it was at .... great song though.

  • roger is sooo cute.....i ws in love with his voice as a child now i love his looks as well...

  • I remember the first time I heard him sing. It was this song and his voice totally blew me away and he was very easy on MY eyes!

  • he is one of the greatest, still the love of my life.

  • outstanding! and what a crowd!!

  • The 3 people who voted against this video have absolutely no taste in music!

  • @pegcage they probably listen to all this gangsta crap!

  • @pegcage

    I quite agree, Peg. "The Last Farewell" is a classic song ...... and the excellent Roger Whittaker's voice suited it perfectly.

    When this song was in the charts - in the late summer and autumn of 1975 - I was only 10 years of age, but I can remember thinking it was a fine piece of music. In fact, I even preferred it to "Sailing" - the Rod Stewart track which got to # 1 in the UK charts in September of that year, and thus prevented "The L. F." from reaching the very top.

  • @pegcage Maybe the 3 would like to identify themselves & let everyone know their "good" taste in music? Bros perhaps? or maybe Bombalurina? Ol' blue eyes Sinatra,Shirley Bassey or Roger Whittaker most certainly won't appear in their music collection {:-(

  • @pegcage

    Well said, 'Pegcage'; I totally agree with you.

    "The Last Farewell" was one of the classic, 'MOR' singles of the 1970's ...... and certainly deserved to be a # 1 hit in the UK. By a coincidence, the record that prevented Roger Whittaker's maudlin masterpiece from reaching the very top of the British charts was "Sailing" by Rod Stewart - another song with a 'nautical' flavour, as it were.

  • @pegcage You are so right!

  • Roger Whittaker is a legend! Look out for his 'Mexican Whistler' composition on here.......amazing!

  • This is my favorite ballad from the 1970's. You're right these people are and were clueless.

  • I think he's from Kenya. At one stage, some time back, he toured somewhere like the UK and the pc brigade of the time tried to disrupt his tour, in their false belief that he'd committed the crime of being born in South Africa. Back then the laugh was on them, when pc wasn't the omnipresent logic-stifling force that it is now.

  • Such a powerful singer performing such an emotional song infront of a bunch of mongs! Roger deserved better!

  • All those years ago, I miss those years.

  • I Love this so and Roger sung it so very well. The passion in which he sings it is beyond mer mortal !

  • Just lovely, what a voice.

  • Bless Roger Whittaker. I grew up on this music, he is such a gentle Englishman. Saddens me to watch the forgettable garbage you see on Top Of The Pops these days.

  • @harpersneil I believe he was South African.

  • @ORCA4312 He was born in Kenya, by British parents. The South African connection comes from his time at the Cape Town University.

  • @AGrandt Interesting. Thank you for the information.

  • La voz de ROGER WHITAKER es unica no habra otra igual.....GABRIEL CARREÑO PINTO.

  • Talent and class !  ! !

  • gäääääääääääääääähn

  • had this at my Dads funeral

  • Comment removed

  • I have loved this song since childhood and still sing it all the time in the car when I'm driving.

  • Roger is a white Kenyan. I'm a white Tanzanian. This song is so, so sad. Just like he felt sailing away from Kenya, I broke my heart to leave my bush-home, and sail away from Tanzania. I've never forgotten the wonderful watu, the amazing animals, the Swahili language. I'm not a musician, I didn't sing about my experience. I tried to recapture it in writing. And Roger's song inspired me.

  • So what is all this talk of imbeciles, just because they don't like our kind of sounds? There have always been imbeciles around you know, even the Greeks had them and they encompass all age groups. Anyway, I like this very much and am younger than these are now.

  • This song appealed to the middleaged , so dont be hard on the kids lookin bored.

    i was 15 when this come out, and its good but when ur hungover it sounded better.

  • What chance would such a talent stand these days on "X FACTOR" ?

    Exactly, the world has in a lot of ways become a lot poorer.

  • What a class song..beautifully sang and amazing orchestration!! Whatever happened to songs with stories. Later covered by The King, this version is the better one...and it's not often i say that Elvis is outsang - soz Elvis!!!

  • A voice as pure as liquid silk, it also reminds me of the Benny Hill Show

  • my father used to sing this, god bless dad.

  • @ravman55 This was one of my father's favourite songs too. We played it at his cremation back in T&T a few years ago. If I could only sing like him...I still cry sometimes when I listen to this song, an Im a big man! ---Old School can teach new tricks!--- It's all about learning from the past and learning as you grow,,,and always share the knowledge that you know. God Bless, Souljah!

  • the imbeciles aint arf as bad as the young imbiciles of today !!! :-)

  • AHHH... Impossible... his voice is just like an x ray... directly gets into my heart... a spiritual storm... a soft tornado of pure beauty... Amazingly simple yet amazingly sophisticated...

    God bless you Roger Whittaker

  • Who are the two dimwits who don't like this?