Margaret Whiting(1924-2011)

Margaret Whiting was the daughter of Richard A. Whiting, himself a successful songwriter and author of "On The Good Ship Lollipop", "The Japanese Sandman" and "Ain't We Got Fun?" and the sister of actress/singer Barbara Whiting.

Born July 22,1924 in Detroit, she began singing as a small child and, by the age of seven, signed with Johnny Mercer, the popular songwriter and founder of Capitol Records, for whom her father worked. She was a popular vocalist in the 1940s and 1950s, recording dozens of hits for Capitol Records, launched by her father and two partners. She was the first artist to be engaged by the label, where she began recording in 1942. She served as President of the Johnny Mercer Foundation, and she continued her work as a performer of Mercer songs. In the early 1940s, her hits included "That Old Black Magic" (with Freddie Slack), "Moonlight in Vermont" (with Billy Butterfield) and "It Might As Well Be Spring" (with Paul Weston). Between 1946-54, she had more than 40 solo hit tunes for Capitol. After stints with Dot Records and Verve Records and, a brief return to Capitol in the late 1950s and the early 1960s, she recorded for the London label beginning in 1966.

In the late 1990s, she appeared in the Broadway musical "Dream" (1997) and in the PBS broadcast The Songs of Johnny Mercer: Too Marvelous for Words (1997). Under her own name in late 1945, she recorded the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II composition "All Through The Day", which became a bestseller in the spring of 1946, and "In Love In Vain", both of which were featured in the film Centennial Summer (1946). She also had hits with songs from the Broadway musicals "St. Louis Woman" and "Call Me Mister" in 1946. Those first recordings under her name were made in New York. In late 1946, she returned to California and began recording there, with Jerry and His Orchestra--"Guilty" and "Oh, But I Do" were the best-selling results of that session. Her hit streak continued in 1948-49.

Due to a musician's strike in the US, orchestral tracks were recorded outside of the country and vocals added in US studios. Whiting supplied vocals to tracks cut by 'Frank DeVol' (q) and His Orchestra, including "A Tree In The Meadow", a #1 hit in the summer of 1948, recorded in London. Her next #1 song occurred in 1949 with "Slipping Around", one of a series of duet recordings made with country/western singer and cowboy star Jimmy Wakely. Also during that year, Whiting recorded a duet with Mercer, "Baby, It's Cold Outside". In 1950, she had a hit with "Blind Date", a novelty record made with Bob Hope and Billy May and His Orchestra.

Whiting continued recording for Capitol into the mid-1950s, until her run of hits dried up. She left the company in 1958 for Dot Records but achieved only one hit there. She switched to Verve Records in 1960 and recorded a number of albums, including one with jazz vocalist Mel Tormé. A brief return to Capitol was followed by a hiatus, after which Whiting signed with London Records in 1966, where she recorded her last two charting pop singles. Her recordings continued to appear on the easy listening charts into the 1970s. Whiting was still recording in the early 1990s and performing in cabaret and concerts. She died on January 10, 2011 (aged 86) in Englewood, New Jersey.