Exactly like the time I thought I’d write about talking sections on songs, I figured whistling on songs would apply to just a select few. Wrong, as everybody seems to have had a crack at it, from The Beatles, to Bruno Mars, David Bowie to Selena Gomez, Guns and Roses to Kesha.
The two songs with whistling that stood out in my memory were “Jealous Guy” by John Lennon and “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding. The odd thing about whistling on songs is that it seems a strange idea, but once you hear it done well, you can’t imagine the song without it, and these two songs illustrate that point. Apparently the writers (Otis and guitarist Steve Cropper) hadn’t finished the lyrics for the last verse of “Dock of the Bay” so Otis improvised by whistling the melody and thankfully they decided to leave it in.
Roxy Music recorded “Jealous Guy” in 1981 as a worthy tribute to John Lennon after he was killed in New York in 1980. They replaced the whistling section with a very clever arrangement whereby the melody is initially being played by guitarist Phil Manzanera and then blurs into Andy MacKay’s saxophone, almost without you noticing. Simply brilliant.
“City of Stars” by Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, from the dreadful La La Land, features whistling as well as the poor vocals from its singers and won an Oscar for best song in 2016, in a bout of mass hysteria from the Academy Committee. I can gleefully report that my wife’s heart throb, Mr. Gosling can’t whistle (you will notice in the movie he turns away from the camera during the whistling bit) and someone else had to whistle for him apparently.. Shame they didn’t find someone else to sing and dance for him as well. Meaow. Jealous ? Me ? Never.
Whistling, the louder the better, splitting ears when you could, was a badge of honour amongst teenage boys at my school. And yes, I can whistle like that. Seems a bit uncouth though if used at the wrong time, which several glasses of wine have induced me to do many times at weddings, christenings and anniversaries. Perhaps explains my wife’s fondness for the urbane Mr. Gosling.
Has whistling got a gender bias ? Of all the examples I’ve found of whistling on pop songs, the majority are by men. The piercing whistle using fingers seems a masculine thing to do, but why should that be ? Female friends tell me that they were told it was “unladylike” to whistle when they were growing up. Do we associate it with whistling workmen –“whistle while you work”, do we think of the wolf whistle from lecherous workers on building sites ?
Back to music. Listen to Selena Gomez whistle on “Kill ‘Em With Kindness” for a catchy whistling hook. Maroon 5 use whistling in “Move Like Jagger”, David Bowie used whistling at the end of “Golden Years”, Bruno Mars on the jazz style “Old and Crazy”, Kesha on “Crazy Kids”, The Beatles at the end of “Two of Us” and the lovely acoustic “Patience” by Guns & Roses.
When I was growing up in the UK there was a South African entertainer on TV called Roger Whittaker, who was a great whistler, often using a very peculiar arrangement of teeth and lips. Catch these clips to see how good he was-
There have been World Championships in whistling, with Geert Chatrou a worthy champion, and a Finnish virtuoso, Hacki Tamas, who could whistle classical music, seemingly without looking like he’s even whistling.
Whistling has been/still is, used as a language in many parts of the world, such as Silbo, on the island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands, and other whistling languages in Turkey, France, Mexico, South America, Asia and still very active in areas of Africa. Apparently there are several hundred varieties. Some of its obvious virtues as a language is the distance a whistle will carry and its piercing quality, so that people remote from the village could be contacted. Still used to attract cabs in bustling, noisy major cities for that very reason.
Perhaps I’ll suggest to Robin, my song writing partner, that we use some whistling in our next song. Despite my bravado, am I a good enough whistler to stay in tune ? Very doubtful as I sure can’t sing in tune. Perhaps I’ll stick to embarrassing myself at weddings. Years of practice.