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Margaret Whiting (born July 22, 1924) was a traditional pop music american singer in the 1940s and 1950s.
Her 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 was already noticed, and at the age of only seven she sang for singer-lyricist Johnny Mercer, with whom her father had worked on some popular songs. In 1942, Mercer started Capitol Records with two partners, and signed her as one of their earliest recording artists.
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 (1943)
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, she continued to record for Capitol, but as she ceased to record songs that charted as hits, switched to Dot Records in 1958 and to Verve Records in 1960. She came back to Capitol in the mid-1960s, then going to 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.
During the 1950s, she was married to record executive Lou Busch, who also recorded semi-anonymously as the ragtime pianist Joe "Fingers" Carr. They had one daughter. Her late-life marriage to younger gay porn star Jack Wrangler raised many eyebrows. When they first began dating, he protested, "But I'm gay!" to which she replied, "Only around the edges, dear."
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