Whales & Nightingales is the eighth studio album by American singer and songwriter Judy Collins, released by Elektra Records in 1970. It peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.
The album includes 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.
In 1971, the album was certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 copies in the US.
Track listing
Side one
"A Song for David" (Joan Baez) – 3:25
"Sons Of" (Eric Blau, Jacques Brel, Gérard Jouannest, Mort Shuman; arranged and adapted by Joshua Rifkin) – 2:21 "The Patriot Game" (Dominic Behan) – 4:05 "Prothalamium" (Michael Sahl, Aaron Kramer; arranged and adapted by Rifkin) – 1:37 "Oh, Had I a Golden Thread" (Pete Seeger) – 3:55 "Gene's Song" (Traditional; arranged and adapted by Gene Murrow) – 1:23 "Farewell to Tarwathie" (Traditional; arranged and adapted by Judy Collins) – 5:13
Side two
"Time Passes Slowly" (Bob Dylan) – 3:30
"Marieke" (Jacques Brel, Gérard Jouannest; arranged and adapted by Rifkin) – 3:12 "Nightingale I" (Collins) – 2:14 "Nightingale II" (Collins, Rifkin) – 5:16 "Simple Gifts" (Traditional; arranged and adapted by Collins) – 1:28 "Amazing Grace" (John Newton; arranged and adapted by Collins) – 4:04
Personnel
Judy Collins – guitar, keyboards, vocals
Additional musicians
All duties are unspecified in liner notes.
Richard Bell
Susan Evans
David Grisman
Paul Harris
Bill Lee
Jerry Matthews
Gene Murrow
John Nagy
Paul Prestopino
David Rea
Joshua Rifkin
Warren Smith
Gene Taylor
Greg Thomas
Technical
Mark Abramson – producer
John Haeny – engineer, assistant producer
Joshua Rifkin – arranger and conductor (tracks 2, 4, 9, 11) John Nagy – string arrangement (track 8) William S. Harvey – cover concept, art direction Herb Goro – photography Greg Fulginiti – recording assistant