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thePeorian.com
His Music Will
Play Forever…
Peoria’s Greatest Composer,
Richard Whiting
By Dr. Peter J. Couri
The Past
The Past
W
ith the summer music
concerts in full swing
all over the area, it is
fitting we pay tribute to one of
America’s most famous and suc-
cessful music composers, Peoria
native Richard Whiting.
Richard was born
on November 12,
1891 to Frank and
Blossom Whiting.
They are buried in
Springdale Cem-
etery. Their house
still stands at 811
Moss Avenue.
Both parents were
musical and Blos-
som had a piano in
every parlor of their
house.
So it was only
natural that music
would seep into their son Rich-
ard’s young being. By age 5, he
was called a child prodigy at the
piano. It was written that Lydia
Bradley would sit on her porch
at all hours of the day to enjoy
listening to young Richard play,
as the Whitings would leave
all their windows open for the
neighbors to hear the music.
In 1905, the Whitings sent Rich-
ard to Los Angeles to spend his
high school years at the Harvard
Military Academy, which had
one of the best music programs in
the nation.
After Richard
graduated in 1910,
he dabbled on the
vaudeville stage in
Peoria, but he was
quickly hired by
the Jerome Remick
Company of De-
troit, Mich., to write
sheet music.
For vaudeville
shows, he wrote
“Dixieland” and
“Mammy” for such
singers as Al Jolson
and Eddie Cantor. For Sophie
Tucker, he wrote her famous
“Somebody’s Wrong Song.”
Richard and his new wife
Eleanor wanted a piano for their
Detroit apartment. Richard made
a deal with Mr. Remick that he
would give him the rights to his
next song if Remick would buy
them a piano. The song was “It’s
Tulip Time in Holland and Two
Lips Are Calling Me.” It went on
to sell 3 million copies of sheet
music and could have bought
Richard a whole house full of
Steinway Grands.
When World War I began in
1918, a national patriotic song
contest was announced. Richard
wrote a song for the contest, but
threw it in the waste basket. Later
that night, a secretary fished it
out of the garbage and gave it to
Mr. Remick. He liked it so much
he entered it in the contest with-
out Richard knowing. The song’s
name was “Till We Meet Again.”
It conjures up a time of heartfelt
leave-taking, hasty romances,
and the enormous promise of an
America developing into a world
power.
“Till We Meet Again” not only
won the contest, but became the
anthem of World War I. The sheet
music sold 17 million copies
and is still one of the top selling
single-song sheet music ever.