Margaret Whiting

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Margaret Whiting (born July 22, 1924, Detroit, Michigan) is a singer of American popular music who first made her reputation during the 1940s and 1950s.

Margaret's musical talent may have been inherited; her father Richard Whiting, was a famous composer of popular songs. She also had an aunt, Margaret Young, who was also a singer and popular recording artist in the 1920s. In her childhood her singing ability had already been noticed, and at the age of only seven she sang for singer-lyricist Johnny Mercer, with whom her father had collaborated on some popular songs. In 1942, Mercer started Capitol Records and signed Margaret to one of Capitol's first recording contracts.

Her first recordings were as featured singer with various orchestras:

• "That Old Black Magic", with Freddie Slack And His Orchestra (1942)
• "Moonlight In Vermont", with Billy Butterfield's Orchestra (1943)
• "It Might As Well Be Spring", with Paul Weston And His Orchestra (1945)

In 1945 she began to record under her own name, making such recordings as:

• "All Through The Day" (1945, becoming a bestseller in the spring of 1946)
• "In Love In Vain" (1945)

(these two from the movie "Centennial Summer")

• "Guilty" (1946)
• "Oh, But I Do" (1946)
• "A Tree In The Meadow" (a number 1 hit in the summer of 1948)
• "Slipping Around", a duet with country music star Jimmy Wakely (a number 1 hit in 1949)
• "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (1949)
• "Blind Date", a novelty record with Bob Hope (1950)
• "Faraway Places (With Strange Sounding Names)"

Until the mid-1950s, Whiting continued to record for Capitol, but as she ceased to record songs that charted as hits, switched to Dot Records in 1957 and to Verve Records in 1960. She came back to Capitol in the mid-1960s but went with London Records in 1966. On London, Whiting landed one last major hit single in 1966, "The Wheel of Hurt", which hit #1 on the Easy Listening singles chart.

She continued to sing into the 1990s.

Marriages

• Hubbell Robinson Jr, a writer, producer, and television executive (29 December 1948 - divorced 18 August 1949)[1]
• Lou Busch (divorced; one daughter, Deborah, born 1951)
• John Richard Moore, a founder of Panavision (married 1958; divorced)
• Jack Wrangler (né John Stillman, 1994–7 April 2009) (his death)

Her late-life marriage to gay porn star Jack Wrangler, who was more than 20 years her junior, raised many eyebrows. In 1976, Wrangler met Whiting when she attended one of his one-man erotic shows in New York City, New York.[2] As he later recalled, "I was with my manager when I looked over at Margaret, who was surrounded by five guys in a booth. There she was with the hair, the furs and the big gestures. I thought, 'Boy, now that's New York! That's glamour!' I had to meet her."

When the couple first got together, Wrangler protested, "But I'm gay!" to which Whiting replied, "Only around the edges, dear." In an interview later in life, Wrangler said, "I’m not bisexual and I’m not straight. I’m gay, but I could never live a gay lifestyle because I’m much too competitive. When I was with a guy I would always want to be better than him: what we were accomplishing, what we were wearing – anything. With a woman you compete like crazy, but coming from different points of view, and as far as I’m concerned, that was doable".[3]

Discography

Albums

Singles

Collaborations

References

External links

• Musical biography of Margaret Whiting
• Margaret Whiting at the Internet Movie Database