Slim Whitman 84 (not a hoex)

[busgal]

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-06-19/story/local-country-star-slim-whitman-has-diedBy Bill Bortzfield

Famed country singer Slim Whitman, who lived in Middleburg, has died at the age of 89, according to Times-Union news partner First Coast News.

A family member confirmed Whitman’s passing overnight Wednesday at Orange Park Medical Center to First Coast News. He was surrounded by family.

RELATED: Wife of Slim Whitman dies at 84

Born Ottis Dewey Whitman Jr., the country and Western star was known as “America’s Favorite Folksinger.” He sold more than 120 million records and had lived in Middleburg since 1955.

Among his hits: “I Remember You” and “Rose Marie.” Whitman’s wife, Alma, died in 2009. They were married 67 years and were members of the Jacksonville Church of the Brethren.

Look for more on Whitman’s passing later on Jacksonville.com and in Thursday’s Florida Times-Union.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-06-19/story/local-country-star-slim-whitman-has-died#ixzz2WfVljZjJ

[radioacti...@gmail.com]

And, it should be pointed out, the late singer-songwriter played guitar left-handed, though (like Tiny Tim and Justin Beiber), hardly anyone ever noticed that anomaly.

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

[jsnsm...@gmail.com]

correcting age in header

[Bo Bielefeldt AKA The Fireball]

Damn, I was wondering if I was ever gonna get another hit on my AODP
list this year. I was in the top 10 after McCready went on-topic, but
my ranking has been slowly descending ever since. Funicello didn't do
much for my score, and I suspect that Whitman won't do much either.
He had been dying for years (see the hoaxes), so I'm pretty sure I
wasn't the only one who picked him.

[Sauve Maria]

On Wednesday, June 19, 2013 7:37:36 AM UTC-7, radioacti...@gmail.com wrote:
> And, it should be pointed out, the late singer-songwriter played guitar left-handed, though (like Tiny Tim and Justin Beiber), hardly anyone ever noticed that anomaly.
>
>
>
> BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

Paul McCartney?

[Bo Bielefeldt AKA The Fireball]

Most people know/notice that Paul McCartney plays left-handed. I
think the point radioactive was trying to make is that most people
didn't know/notice that either Tiny Tim or Beiber play left-handed.

[Sauve Maria]

That thought did cross my mind, but...

I remember seeing Tiny Tim on the Mike Douglas show, and I noticed he played left handed. Maybe, because he didn't re-string his instruments like McCartney. All I know about Beiber is he is the butt of a lot of jokes.

Anyway, it's a shame about Slim. Too bad we haven't heard from him lately. I hope he had a good life.

I have a nice collection of yodeling music, including Slim's "I'm Casting My Lasso Toward The Sky" (how appropriate). Think I'll give them all a listen.

[Bermuda999]

On Wednesday, June 19, 2013 2:39:21 PM UTC-4, Sauve Maria wrote:
> On Wednesday, June 19, 2013 10:57:18 AM UTC-7, Bo Bielefeldt AKA The Fireball wrote:
>
> > On Jun 19, 12:30 pm, Sauve Maria <wilma6...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Paul McCartney?
>
> > Most people know/notice that Paul McCartney plays left-handed. I
> > think the point radioactive was trying to make is that most people
> > didn't know/notice that either Tiny Tim or Beiber play left-handed.
>
> That thought did cross my mind, but...
>
> I remember seeing Tiny Tim on the Mike Douglas show, and I noticed he played left handed. Maybe, because he didn't re-string his instruments like McCartney.

According to McCartney in "Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now" by Barry Miles, it was seeing a picture of Slim Whitman playing left-handed with a re-strung guitar that inspired him to re-string his own guitar.

[R H Draney]

Terry del Fuego filted:
>
>On Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:37:36 -0700 (PDT), radioacti...@gmail.com
>wrote:

>
>>And, it should be pointed out, the late singer-songwriter played guitar
>>left-handed, though (like Tiny Tim and Justin Beiber), hardly anyone ever
>>noticed that anomaly.
>

>Is there NO END to Bieber's crimes?!?!
>
>And how the hell could I, the idiot who almost never fails to notice
>that horrific defect in real life, have missed it staring at me from
>the cover of "God Bless Tiny Tim" for well over four decades?

Wait...Tiny Tim played guitar?...

Other left-handed guitarists of note include Jimi Hendrix and Joanna Wang....r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

[Sauve Maria]

On Wednesday, June 19, 2013 12:09:47 PM UTC-7, Bermuda999 wrote:

> According to McCartney in "Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now" by Barry Miles, it was seeing a picture of Slim Whitman playing left-handed with a re-strung guitar that inspired him to re-string his own guitar.

Well then, it comes down to thinking "hardly anyone noticed" Slim Whitman, and that idea is so alien as to never crossed my mind.

Years from now, people will cherish the quality yodeling cowboys that came from an era whose ending is marked by the passing of Mr. Whitman. If Slim is too commercial for you, I would also suggest Hank Snow as a quality yodeler. Might as well get with a trend before it starts.

[Michael OConnor]

IIRC his only national TV appearance (other than the commercials) in
the early 80's was when Andy Kaufmann hosted the Midnight Special and
had Slim on as a musical guest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH64weKPF60

I was unable to find the ad for his first Greatest Hits album, the one
that was played repeatedly on TV in 1980; that album was called "All
My Best", I guess this was the ad for his follow up album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w15nr7A3vN8

And don't forget about how the music of Slim Whitman saved the world
in Mars Attacks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MhgnMX73Pw

I remember when people used to buy his album off TV and give it to
friends as a gag gift. There was a time in the late 80's I was in a
record store (back when they had them) and I was going thru the bin of
one dollar cassettes and came across a Slim Whitman greatest hits
cassette, which I purchased. It came in very handy when the neighbors
played their music too loud; I would turn on Slim and crank it all the
way up and after a minute or two the neighbors would turn their music
down.

He must have made a boatload of money off those TV albums; I've always
wondered who greenlighted that whole idea of saturating every TV
market in America with ads for a greatest hits album by an obscure
yodeler.

When I was in radio about 15 years ago, a bunch of us were sitting
around one day and we got to talking about Slim Whitman, and the
statement in his TV ads that he was "bigger than the Beatles over in
England." I started looking into this, and found that his hit "Rose
Marie" held the record for many years for most consecutive weeks at
the top of the British pop charts, and the record was not broken until
that horrible Bryan Adams song from the Costner Robin Hood movie from
the early 90's.

[Sauve Maria]

On Wednesday, June 19, 2013 2:26:26 PM UTC-7, Michael OConnor wrote:

>
> He must have made a boatload of money off those TV albums; I've always
>
> wondered who greenlighted that whole idea of saturating every TV
>
> market in America with ads for a greatest hits album by an obscure
>
> yodeler.
>

I'd like to beg to differ with you. Western yodelers have been popular, before I was born. Maybe not popular, but appreciated by many people. Slim was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's Walkway of Stars in 1968 (as you know from Wiki) way before the TV commercials. People as diverse as Roy Rodgers, Gene Autry, Ernest Tubbs and Wilf Carter. A whole genre of music that is discounted because of it being too commercial.

Don't get me started about Hobo Music and Boxcar Willie.

[R H Draney]

Sauve Maria filted:

>
>On Wednesday, June 19, 2013 12:09:47 PM UTC-7, Bermuda999 wrote:
>

>> According to McCartney in "Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now" by Barry =
>Miles, it was seeing a picture of Slim Whitman playing left-handed with a r=

>e-strung guitar that inspired him to re-string his own guitar.
>

> Well then, it comes down to thinking "hardly anyone noticed" Slim Whitman,=

> and that idea is so alien as to never crossed my mind.
>

> Years from now, people will cherish the quality yodeling cowboys that came=
> from an era whose ending is marked by the passing of Mr. Whitman. If Slim =
>is too commercial for you, I would also suggest Hank Snow as a quality yode=

>ler. Might as well get with a trend before it starts.

If you're going to take up listening to yodelers, start with Carolina
Cotton....r

[R H Draney]

Michael OConnor filted:

>
>When I was in radio about 15 years ago, a bunch of us were sitting
>around one day and we got to talking about Slim Whitman, and the
>statement in his TV ads that he was "bigger than the Beatles over in
>England." I started looking into this, and found that his hit "Rose
>Marie" held the record for many years for most consecutive weeks at
>the top of the British pop charts, and the record was not broken until
>that horrible Bryan Adams song from the Costner Robin Hood movie from
>the early 90's.

He's no Boxcar Willie, though, and no Zamfir...heck, I'm not sure he's even on
the same level as Peter Lemongello....r

[Ted The Cat]

Why do some country musicians yodel? Odd combination, country and Swiss yodeling.

In the 1920s a disabled train brakeman named Jimmie Rodgers played both white folk music and Black blues and enjoyed them both. He was eclectic. He combined them and riffed off of them. One day he happened upon a group of Swiss yodelers touring the country and performing in a local church. He liked it. He sang whatever music he liked, whether it was white or Black, or finally, Swiss. He incorporated yodeling into his songs even though it did not seem to make any sense on the surface of it. Some of his most famous songs were "Blue Yodels."

Many singers began as Jimmie Rodgers copiers, among them Gene Autrey and Slim Whitman. (Gene Autrey's first recording was actually a *blues* record).

Jimmie Rodgers was inducted into the country, blues AND rock and roll Halls of Fame as a seminal founder of all three genres.

[R H Draney]

Ted The Cat filted:
>
>Why do some country musicians yodel? Odd combination, country and Swiss y=
>odeling.

Isn't there a yodel mixed in among the other sounds that make up the canonical
Tarzan yell?...r

[Brad Ferguson]

In article
<5e36e31b-184f-4da7...@2g2000yqr.googlegroups.com>,

Michael OConnor <mpoco...@aol.com> wrote:

> He must have made a boatload of money off those TV albums; I've always
> wondered who greenlighted that whole idea of saturating every TV
> market in America with ads for a greatest hits album by an obscure
> yodeler.

They sold at least 500,000 copies of Slim's greatest-hits collection.
People bought lots of them for gag Christmas gifts. Slim laughed all
the way to Liberace's bank.

Glad you remembered Mars Attacks. Odd thing is, I was watching it just
this morning; I hadn't seen the film in years and years.

[That Derek]

Various follow-up comments re: Slim Whitman and TV record ads:

Michael O"Connor posted:

>>IIRC his only national TV appearance (other than the commercials) in
the early 80's was when Andy Kaufmann hosted the Midnight Special and
had Slim on as a musical guest:

Not true. I remember seeing Slim perform on an early 1980s episode of NBC's "Late Night with David Letterman." He sang "The Last Farewell," a song which is usually associated with South African singer Roger Whittaker -- another late night TV record ad luminary.

I remember when boneheads would call up NYC radio talk shows to comment on the ubiquity of the TV record ads for Slim Whitman and make idiotic comments to the effect of "Who the hell is this Slim Whitman guy? The commercials say he's more popular than the Beatles in England ..."

To accentuate another post-er to this forum,the TV ads said he was Number One on the British charts for more weeks than Elvis Presley and the Beatles, not that he sold more records than those iconic acts. What the ads did not say was that Slim Whitman accomplished this distinction back in 1953, and, hence, not contemporaneously with Elvis or the Beatles.

As for Zamfir, I remember observing at the time why he was the "Master of the Pan Flute." Who the hell else was playing one? But this was before the proliferation of South American flute bands all over the NYC subway platforms.

My father actually sent away for the classical music package from the TV ads hosted by Hitchcock villain/interim "Mr. French" John Williams and which ran for several years after said actor had died. The one where he opens the ad by telling us all that the song "Stranger in Paradise" was based on the "Polivetsian Dance No. 2" by Borodin. I still have these records.

The only TV record ads I see nowadays are half-hour infomercials for various uber-expensive Time-Life collections hosted by performers like Neil Sedaka, Noel Paul Stookey, and Jon "Bowzer" Bauman.

I miss the old short-form ads. "No, my brother ... you've got to download your own!"

[Scott Brady]

On Wednesday, June 19, 2013 10:42:12 PM UTC-5, That Derek wrote:

> Not true. I remember seeing Slim perform on an early 1980s episode of NBC's "Late Night with David Letterman." He sang "The Last Farewell," a song which is usually associated with South African singer Roger Whittaker -- another late night TV record ad luminary.

Otto Blihovde also landed on "Late Night" on the strength of a record ad, billed as "the Kenny Rogers of Norway."

> My father actually sent away for the classical music package from the TV ads hosted by Hitchcock villain/interim "Mr. French" John Williams and which ran for several years after said actor had died. The one where he opens the ad by telling us all that the song "Stranger in Paradise" was based on the "Polivetsian Dance No. 2" by Borodin. I still have these records.

I believe it was the longest-running TV commercial in history. It was a priceless introduction to the classics.

[R H Draney]

Scott Brady filted:

>
>On Wednesday, June 19, 2013 10:42:12 PM UTC-5, That Derek wrote:

>=20
>
>> My father actually sent away for the classical music package from the TV =
>ads hosted by Hitchcock villain/interim "Mr. French" John Williams and whic=
>h ran for several years after said actor had died. The one where he opens t=
>he ad by telling us all that the song "Stranger in Paradise" was based on t=

>he "Polivetsian Dance No. 2" by Borodin. I still have these records.
>

>I believe it was the longest-running TV commercial in history. It was a pri=
>celess introduction to the classics.

I also remember a parody from some sketch comedy show of the era: "did you know
that many popular songs were actually written by dead foreigners?"...

Speaking of priceless, I still have my "The Beatles: Alpha/Omega, volume one"
box of LPs...there was originally an order sheet inside for volume two, which as
far as I know was never actually released...the A/O set inspired Capitol to get
off their fat asses and put out the "Red" and "Blue" vinyl albums ("The Beatles
1962-66" and "The Beatles 1967-70" which I saw on CD at Sam's Club just the
other day)....r

[Michael OConnor]

I first remember it airing in the early 70's and it still ran well
into the 90's; in the later years I remember it running mainly on TBS
and CNN:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIMFhPyNKDs

This might have been the original ad, where you could buy four albums
for 12.98, cassette or 8-track were 15.98. I would guess that by the
late 80's early 90's that they were available on CD.

The only albums I ever bought based on a TV ad were the K-Tel current
hits compilation albums from the 70's.

[That Derek Again]

>>Otto Blihovde also landed on "Late Night" on the strength of a record ad, billed as "the Kenny Rogers of Norway."

I was actually in the live audience for that show! That concertina-playing "Kenny Rogers of Norway" guy was part of an "International Night" of Letterman's "Late Night" show, and it also featured some South American comic who Dave billed as the "Steve Martin of [whatever South American country he came from]."

Friends and I used to score tickets to "Letterman" quite frequently circa 1983-84 without benefit of sending away for them just by showing up at the 30 Rock building about an hour before the actual taping. It seems that in Letterman's early days, NBC would fulfill written ticket requests by sending four tickets per request on only a couple of days' notice. My friends and I would go up and down the assembled queue asking "Anybody have extra tickets?" Usually, it was quite easy to find someone who couldn't get three friends to attend on such a short notice.

But this was in the days when Letterman was a true "cult" show with unconventional off-center eccentric guests like cartoonist Harvey Pekar, author Quentin Crisp, documentarian Howard Smith, 1950s football star Art Donovan, wrestler "Captain" Haggerty, and a once-monthly visit from Dave's good friend from his stand-up days -- Jay Leno.

Unfortunately, Letterman started to become popular and the "weirdness" factor and nutty guests were phased out and the show started attracting more and more A-list celebrities with the result becoming TWO tickets per request sent a full two weeks before a show's taping/airing. Needless to say, it became increasingly more difficult to score tickets just by showing up.

The one time I did send away for tickets was the international show with that Norwegian folksinger.

[Diner]

On Wednesday, June 19, 2013 11:42:12 PM UTC-4, That Derek wrote:
> Various follow-up comments re: Slim Whitman and TV record ads:

> As for Zamfir, I remember observing at the time why he was the "Master of the Pan Flute." Who the hell else was playing one? But this was before the proliferation of South American flute bands all over the NYC subway platforms.

I remember comedian Rondell Sheridan making that same observation in his standup act at the time. Best line: "If you bought a pan flute, and then shot Zamfir, YOU'D be Master of the Pan Flute."

-Tim

[Scott Brady]

On Thursday, June 20, 2013 8:18:36 AM UTC-5, That Derek Again wrote:

> I was actually in the live audience for that show! That concertina-playing "Kenny Rogers of Norway" guy was part of an "International Night" of Letterman's "Late Night" show, and it also featured some South American comic who Dave billed as the "Steve Martin of [whatever South American country he came from]."

Peru, I think.

[R H Draney]

That Derek Again filted:
>
>>>Otto Blihovde also landed on "Late Night" on the strength of a record ad,=
> billed as "the Kenny Rogers of Norway."=20
>
>I was actually in the live audience for that show! That concertina-playing =
>"Kenny Rogers of Norway" guy was part of an "International Night" of Letter=
>man's "Late Night" show, and it also featured some South American comic who=
> Dave billed as the "Steve Martin of [whatever South American country he ca=
>me from]."

And Kamarr, "the discount magician", billed as "The David Copperfield of
Greece"...unlike the other performers that night, Kamarr came back many
times....

>But this was in the days when Letterman was a true "cult" show with unconve=
>ntional off-center eccentric guests like cartoonist Harvey Pekar, author Qu=
>entin Crisp, documentarian Howard Smith, 1950s football star Art Donovan, w=
>restler "Captain" Haggerty, and a once-monthly visit from Dave's good frien=

>d from his stand-up days -- Jay Leno.

You left out Brother Theodore....r