RIP Slim Whitman

[Johnny_L.A]

Slim Whitman has died at the age of 90.

Singer, yodeler Slim Whitman dies at 90

I used to see commercials for his records on late-night TV. ‘Slim Whitman has sold more records than the Beatles!’, or something like that. I was never a big fan of country music, but it was fun laughing at his commercials.

Now what do we do if Mars Attacks?

[Leaffan]

RIP Slim.

Didn’t SCTV do a “Slim Whitman Sings the Songs of Led Zeppelin” spoof or something?

[Johnny_L.A]

@Leaffan

Didn’t SCTV do a “Slim Whitman Sings the Songs of Led Zeppelin” spoof or something?

I don’t remember. I have the first season on DVD, but the SO has no interest in watching it with me. (So we end up watching ID, or British costume dramas.)

[Freddy_the_Pig]

The best was Slim yodeling the high note in “Una Paloma Blanca”. If he did nothing else in his life, he could RIP on that accomplishment alone.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@Johnny_L.A

‘Slim Whitman has sold more records than the Beatles!’, or something like that.

IIRC, there was always a tiny footnote or muttered voice-under that added something like “…in England” or “…in Canada.”

[Leaffan]

@Johnny_L.A

I don’t remember. I have the first season on DVD, but the SO has no interest in watching it with me. (So we end up watching ID, or British costume dramas.)

From the STH Wikipedia page:

The sketch comedy series SCTV had an elaborate spoof of the song with its spoof album Stairways to Heaven. In the mock album, advertised in the style of K-tel, various snippets of cover versions are featured, supposedly from artists ranging from Slim Whitman to the faux-50s group “The Five Neat Guys,” as well as the original version (albeit advertised to be a sound-alike sung by Rich Little). This sketch, due to rights issues, was not released on the DVDs for the show.

That’s probably what I remember laughing my ass off at.

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

@Johnny_L.A

. . .I used to see commercials for his records on late-night TV. ‘Slim Whitman has sold more records than the Beatles!’, or something like that. . . .

He held #1 longer than the Beatles or Elvis [with a single record]. On the British charts. “Indian Love Call” held it for 18 weeks back in the 1950s.

[Chefguy]

He’s joined Boxcar Willy in late-night hebben.

[Tim_R.Mortiss]

From Slim to none…

[Tom_Tildrum]

Wait a minute – the guy was in Dr. Strangelove back in the 60s and he was still alive today? Was he just one of those guys who always looked old?

[Tim_R.Mortiss]

@Tom_Tildrum

Wait a minute – the guy was in Dr. Strangelove back in the 60s and he was still alive today? Was he just one of those guys who always looked old?

Yeah, he was also in Blazing Saddles. The dude got around!

[gaffa]

@Leaffan

That’s probably what I remember laughing my ass off at.

It must be seen.

The Buffy St. Marie and Rickie Lee Jones covers are wonderful

[Johnny_L.A]

@Tom_Tildrum

Wait a minute – the guy was in Dr. Strangelove back in the 60s and he was still alive today? Was he just one of those guys who always looked old?

Sometimes I can’t tell when someone is joking.

Slim Pickens was in Dr. Strangelove.

[Sam_A.Robrin]

@Johnny_L.A

Sometimes I can’t tell when someone is joking.

Slim Pickens was in Dr. Strangelove.

And that was Lauren Bacall whom Humphrey Bogart called “Slim” in To Have and Have Not.

[Leaffan]

@gaffa

It must be seen.

The Buffy St. Marie and Rickie Lee Jones covers are wonderful

Oh my God. Thank you for that laugh!

[jayjay]

@Johnny_L.A

Sometimes I can’t tell when someone is joking.

Slim Pickens was in Dr. Strangelove.

To be fair, he always seemed to be about 103 when I was a kid in the 80s and those ads for his albums were on TV.

[gaffa]

@Leaffan

Oh my God. Thank you for that laugh!

You’re welcome. I think that was Andrea Martin as Buffy and Catherine O’Hara as Rickie.

[astorian]

I remember clearly that SCTV did a spoof of the musical*** Evita***, called ***Indira. ***

It had Andrea Martin singing the role of Indira Gandhi, and Joe Flaherty as Slim Whitman, who was cast in the role of Che Guevara. He yodeled the lines “You were supposed to have bEEEEEEn, immortal. That’s all they wanted- not much to aaAAAAAAAsk fOOOOOrrrr.”

[Bridget_Burke]

Yes, he was more famous elsewhere. From The Guardian:

The singer Slim Whitman, who has died aged 90, was a noteworthy figure in country music, since, although he was hugely popular outside the US, for most of his career he was almost forgotten in his own country. In the 1970s, two decades after his American heyday, he still commanded enough of a following in the UK to be voted the No 1 international star in a music poll – four times.

Much of the reason for his success outside the US was his high, clear, strong singing and almost operatic yodelling, characteristics that several generations in Britain, Australia and South Africa have assimilated into their notions and fantasies of the old west of America. One of Whitman’s chief models was Wilf Carter, a Nova Scotian yodeller and singer of cowboy songs who was popular throughout north America in the 30s and 40s under the sobriquet Montana Slim.

What set Whitman apart from both his models and contemporaries was his bold choice of material. In the age of honkytonk music and Hank Williams, his two biggest hits, Indian Love Call (1952) and Rose Marie (1954), were drawn from operetta. Bob Sullivan, a radio engineer who worked with him, described him as being like “an Irish tenor singing Sigmund Romberg. Hank Williams couldn’t stand him. He used to say, ‘He ain’t no hillbilly’.”

Apparently he was also the first to sell albums on TV. He also made Martians’ heads explode…

[Tom_Tildrum]

@Johnny_L.A

Sometimes I can’t tell when someone is joking.

Slim Pickens was in Dr. Strangelove.

Oh. Never mind. :o