Thursday, January 13, 2011

MARGARET WHITING DIES AT 86

Margaret Whiting, the sweet-voiced singer who sold millions of records in the 1940s and '50s with sentimental ballads such as "Moonlight in Vermont" and "It Might as Well Be Spring," has died at age 86.

She died Monday at the Lillian Booth Actors' Home in Englewood, N.J., home administrator Jordan Strohl said. She had lived in New York City for many years before moving to the home in March.

Whiting grew up with the music business. She was the daughter of Richard Whiting, a prolific composer of such hits as "My Ideal," ''Sleepy Time Gal" and "Beyond the Blue Horizon." Her family's home in the posh Bel-Air community in Los Angeles was a gathering place for such songwriters as George and Ira Gershwin, Frank Loesser, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer.

It was Mercer, her father's lyricist and close friend, who inspired the young Whiting to take years of vocal training when he told her following an early audition, "Grow up and learn to sing."

After Whiting's father died in 1938, Mercer remained close to the family. When he became a founding partner in Capitol Records in 1942, the 18-year-old Whiting was the first singer he put under contract.

Fifty-five years later, Whiting and her fourth husband, Jack Wrangler, honored Mercer with a musical tribute called "Dream," which ran for 133 performances on Broadway.

It was Mercer who had coached the teenage Whiting through her first recording, of her father's "My Ideal," and although Maurice Chevalier and Frank Sinatra had already recorded the tune, her version sold well.

She followed it with a remarkable procession of million sellers: "That Old Black Magic," ''It Might as Well Be Spring," ''Come Rain or Come Shine" and her biggest seller and signature song, "Moonlight in Vermont."

She was asked in 2001 what separated a good singer from a great one.

"Being a great actress, being very dramatic," she replied. "Some people sing beautiful songs, but they don't put all the meaning into them, and that's the important thing. To read a lyric, to make the words come alive, that's the secret."


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