Selling more than 125,000 copies, the 1970 album “Songs of the Humpback Whale” is the bestselling nature recording of all time. Including tracks such as “Distant Whale” and “Three Whale Trip,” the 35-minute series of recordings produced by bioacoustician Roger Payne was a historical landmark during the beginning of the Save The Whales campaign.
In an article published five days before Payne’s death last year, the lifelong activist asked readers to imagine what it might be like to talk to whales, writing, “If we could communicate with animals, ask them questions and receive answers — no matter how simple those questions and answers might turn out to be — the world might soon be moved enough to at least start the process of halting our runaway destruction of life.”
