Whistling

Whistling is the production of sound by means of a constant breath of air from the mouth. The air is moderated by the tongue, lips, teeth, or fingers to create turbulence, and the mouth acts as a resonant chamber to enhance the resulting sound, thus acting as a type of Helmholtz resonator. Whistling can also be produced using an instrument (see whistle), some as simple as a blade of grass.

Musical whistling

Whistling can be musical: many performers on the Music Hall and Vaudeville circuits were professional whistlers, and several notable songs feature whistling in some capacity:

Related Topics:
Music - Music Hall - Vaudeville - Song

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• Elmo Tanner, who appeared with the Ted Weems Orchestra, had a major hit whistling on the song "Heartaches"
• Roger Whittaker was first known as a musical whistler.
• Pat Boone does his own whistling on his hit "Love Letters in the Sand".
• Brother Bones recorded the whistling version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" used as the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters
• Muzzy Marcelino whistled the hit theme to the 1950s airplane drama, The High and the Mighty
• Whistling Jack Smith had a hit with "I was Kaiser Bill's Batman"
• The "Colonel Bogey March" was whistled in the film Bridge on the River Kwai to avoid the song's vulgar lyrics
• "Whistle While You Work" appeared in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• "The Fishin' Hole" (theme to The Andy Griffith Show) by Andy Griffith. It has become a cultural icon associated with the image of Andy Griffith and Ron Howard. Andy and Opie Taylor walk on the dirt road with their cane poles on their way to the "fishin' hole" and whistle the tune. The music was written by Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer, and the lyrics were by Everett Sloane.
• Bobby McFerrin used whistling for nearly all of the music in his hit "Don't Worry, Be Happy."
• Axl Rose whistled the intro to the Guns N' Roses song "Patience", which appears on the Guns N' Roses album G N' R Lies.
• Kill Bill features Daryl Hannah's character whistling the same unnerving tune as from the 1968 film Twisted Nerve.
• Paul Simon whistles a tune in the song Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard on his self-titled 1972 album.