Whales & Nightingales is a 1970 album by Judy Collins. It peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts. The album included material by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Jacques Brel and Joan Baez, as well as Collins' top-forty version of "Amazing Grace", and the traditional "Farewell To Tarwathie", on which Collins sang to the accompaniment of humpback whales. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in 1971, for sales of over 500,000 copies in the US. (More from Wikipedia)
From Wikipedia: "[Judy] Collins decided to record it in the late 1960's amid an atmosphere of counterculture introspection; she was part of an encounter group that ended a contentious meeting by singing 'Amazing Grace' as it was the only song to which all the members knew the words. Her producer was present and suggested she include a version of it on her 1970 album Whales & Nightingales. Collins, who had a history of alcohol abuse, claimed that the song was able to 'pull her through' to recovery. It was recorded in St. Paul's, the chapel at Columbia University, chosen for the acoustics. She chose an a cappella arrangement that was close to Edwin Othello Excell's, accompanied by a chorus of amateur singers who were friends of hers."
(November 2014)
