New Musical Express
I mentioned when I wrote about The Seekers that the UK charts in 1970, because they weren’t for the most part segregated by genre, contained a lot of easy-listening and light entertainment, generally featuring artists known from TV. The relationship was symbiotic, of course, as recording artists hosted TV shows and used them to plug their own work as well as their guests. This could have been Lulu, who famously hosted the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones, or several others.
One of them was Kenyan-born Roger Whittaker, he of the smooth baritone voice, the whistling, the goatee beard, some decent singable songs, and a fine selection of 12-string Gibson and Guild acoustic guitars.
But then consternation! Reliable Roger, who had a major international following, comes along with a protest song which, under the smiles, the quirky structure, the orchestration and melodic hook, resonated with the times, and particularly the situation in Vietnam. It could register thought the NME. Indeed it could. It went top 10 in the UK, Canada and Australia, then hit the charts again in Canada and the USA in 1975.
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