| Slim Whitman | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr. |
| Also known as | O. D. Whitman, Slim Whitman |
| Born | January 20, 1924 Tampa, Florida, U.S. |
| Genres | Country and Western music, folk music |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Instruments | Acoustic guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 1948–present |
| Labels | RCA Records Imperial Records United Artists Records CBS Records Suffolk Records |
| Associated acts | Byron Whitman |
Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr. (born January 20, 1924), known professionally as Slim Whitman, is an American country music singer and songwriter, known for his yodelling abilities. He has sold in excess of 120 million albums in unit sales and has had numerous successful recordings. He is consistently more popular throughout Europe, and in particular Britain, than in his native America, particularly with his covers of pop standards and movie songs . His 1955 hit single "Rose Marie" held the Guinness World Record for the longest time at number 1 on the UK charts until Bryan Adams broke the record in 1991 after 36 years. In the U.S., his "Indian Love Call" (1952) and "Secret Love" (1953) reached number 2 on the Billboard country chart. Whitman had a string of hits from the mid 1960s and into the 1970s and became known to a new generation of fans through TV marketing in the 1980s. Throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century, he has continued to tour extensively around the world and release new material, and he was featured on the soundtrack of the 1996 film Mars Attacks!. In 2010 a new album, called Twilight on the Trail, was released featuring brand new material produced by his son Byron and featuring the single "Back in the Saddle Again",
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Whitman was born in Tampa, Florida, as Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr. Growing up, he liked the country music of Jimmie Rodgers and songs of Gene Autry, but he did not embark on a musical career of his own until the end of World War II, after he had served in the South Pacific with the United States Navy.
Whitman, a self-taught left-handed guitarist, is right-handed, but he had lost almost all of the second finger on his left hand in an accident. He worked at a Tampa shipyard while developing a musical career, eventually performing with a band known as the Variety Rhythm Boys. Whitman's first big break came when talent manager "Colonel" Thomas Parker heard him singing on the radio and offered to represent him. Signed with RCA Records, he was billed as "the cowboy singer Slim Whitman" and released his first single in 1948. He toured and sang at a variety of venues, including on the radio show Louisiana Hayride.
At first, he was not able to make a living from music and kept a part-time job. That changed in the early 1950s after he recorded a version of the Bob Nolan hit "Love Song of the Waterfall," which made it into the country music top 10. His next single, "Indian Love Call," was even more successful, reaching number 2.
A yodeller, Whitman avoided the "down on yer luck buried in booze" songs, preferring instead to sing laid-back romantic melodies about simple life and love. Critics dubbed his style "countrypolitan," owing to its fusion of country music and a more sophisticated crooning vocal style. Although he has recorded many western tunes, love and romance songs figure prominently in his repertoire.
In 1955 in the United Kingdom, he had a No.1 hit on the pop music charts with "Rose Marie." With 11 weeks at the top of the UK charts, the song set a record that lasted for 36 years. Soon after, Whitman was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry, and in 1957, along with other musical stars, he appeared in the film musical Jamboree. Despite this exposure, he has never achieved the level of stardom in the United States that he did in Britain, where he had a number of other hits during the 1950s and 1960s. Throughout the early 1970s, he continued to record and was a guest on Wolfman Jack's television show The Midnight Special. At the time, Whitman's recording efforts were yielding only minor hits.
In 1979, Whitman produced a TV commercial to support Suffolk Marketing's release of a greatest hits compilation titled All My Best, which went on to be the best-selling TV-marketed record in music history, with almost 1.5 million units sold. Just For You (also under the Suffolk umbrella), followed in 1980, with a commercial that claimed Whitman "was number one in England longer than Elvis and The Beatles." The Best followed in 1982, with Whitman concluding his TV marketing with Best Loved Favorites in 1989 and 20 Precious Memories in 1991.
The TV albums made Whitman (briefly) a household name in America for the first time in his career, resulting in everything from a first-time appearance on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show to Whitman being spoofed in a comic skit on SCTV with him (played by Joe Flaherty) starring in the Che-like male lead in a Evita-like Broadway musical on the life of Indira Ghandi. More importantly, the tv albums gave him a brief resurgence in mainstream country music with new album releases on major labels and a few new singles making the country chart. During this time he toured Europe and Australia with moderate success.
In late January 2008, a false rumour of his death spread through the Internet, believed to have been started by an erroneous report posted on the Web site of the Nashville Tennessean newspaper.[1] Country singer George Hamilton IV even dedicated and sang a hymn in Whitman's honor at a concert appearance.
In February 2009, his wife of sixty-seven years, Alma Geraldine (Jerry) Crist, died of kidney failure complications. She had been on dialysis. Whitman has a daughter, Sharon, and a son, Byron K. Whitman, who is also a performer and has toured and recorded with Whitman on numerous occasions. [1]
Alma Geraldine (Jerry) Whitman (Aug. 9, 1924 - Feb. 16, 2009.) http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=33994929
Since 1957 Whitman has lived at Woodpecker Paradise, in Middleburg, Florida, a suburb of Jacksonville.[2][3]
For his contribution to the recording industry, Slim Whitman has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1709 Vine Street. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's Walkway of Stars in 1968.[4]
The late pop singer Michael Jackson cited Whitman as one of his ten favorite vocalists.[5] Beatle George Harrison cited Whitman as an early influence: "The first person I ever saw playing a guitar was Slim Whitman, either a photo of him in a magazine or live on television. Guitars were definitely coming in."[6] Paul McCartney credited a poster of Whitman with giving him the idea of playing his guitar left-handed with his guitar strung the opposite way to a right-handed player's.[7][8]
The 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind features Whitman's rendition of "Love Song of the Waterfall" playing in the tollbooths as the cars speed through, chasing three alien spaceships. The 1996 film Mars Attacks! features Whitman's rendition of "Indian Love Call" as a weapon against alien invaders. In 2003, Rob Zombie used Whitman's song "I Remember You" in his movie directorial debut in House of 1000 Corpses. In the 2007 film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Dewey mentions Whitman in response to his wife when she asks him to name one musician who ever made any money. Daniel Johnston mentions "singing like Slim Whitman" in his song "Wild West Virginia" from his 1981 album "Songs of Pain."
| Year | Album | Chart Positions | Label | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US | UK | |||
| 1954 | America's Favorite Folk Artist | Imperial | |||
| Favorites | |||||
| 1957 | Slim Whitman Sings | ||||
| 1959 | My Best to You | ||||
| Country Favorites | |||||
| 1960 | I'll Walk with God | ||||
| Songs of the Old Waterwheel | |||||
| 1961 | I'll Never Stop Loving You | ||||
| Just Call Me Lonesome | |||||
| Cool Water | |||||
| Annie Laurie | |||||
| 1962 | Forever | ||||
| Sings | |||||
| Heart Songs / Love Song | |||||
| I'm a Lonely Wanderer | |||||
| 1963 | Yodeling | ||||
| Irish Songs | |||||
| 1964 | All Time Favorites | ||||
| Country Songs, City Hits | |||||
| 1965 | Love Song of the Waterfall | 20 | |||
| Reminiscing | |||||
| 1966 | More Than Yesterday (More Country Songs & City Hits) |
28 | |||
| God's Hand in Mine | |||||
| Travelin' Man | |||||
| A Time for Love | |||||
| 1967 | 15th Anniversary Album | 25 | |||
| Country Memories | 42 | ||||
| 1968 | In Love the Whitman Way | 16 | |||
| Happy Street | 34 | ||||
| 1969 | Slim | ||||
| Christmas Album | |||||
| 1970 | Tomorrow Never Comes | United Artists | |||
| 1971 | Guess Who | 31 | |||
| It's a Sin to Tell a Lie | 23 | ||||
| 1972 | The Best of Slim Whitman | ||||
| 1973 | I'll See You When | ||||
| 25th Anniversary Concert | |||||
| 1974 | Happy Anniversary | ||||
| 1976 | Everything Leads Back to You | 42 | |||
| 1977 | Red River Valley | 1 | |||
| Home On the RangeUK Number 2 | |||||
| 1980 | Songs I Love to SingA | 25 | 175 | Cleveland Int'l. | |
| Christmas with Slim Whitman | 47 | 184 | |||
| 1981 | Mr. Songman | ||||
| I'll Be Home for Christmas | |||||
| 1984 | Angeline | ||||
| 2010 | Twilight on the trail | ||||
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US | UK | CAN Country | |||
| 1952 | "Love Song of the Waterfall" | 10 | America's Favorite Folk Artist | |||
| "Bandera Waltz" | ||||||
| "In a Hundred Years or More" | single only | |||||
| "Indian Love Call" | 2 | 9 | 7 | Favorites | ||
| "Amateur in Love" | ||||||
| "Keep It a Secret" | 3 | |||||
| "My Heart Is Broken in Three" | 10 | America's Favorite Folk Artist | ||||
| 1953 | "All That I'm Asking Is Sympathy" | Slim Whitman Sings | ||||
| "Song of the Old Waterwheel" | America's Favorite Folk Artist | |||||
| "Danny Boy" | singles only | |||||
| "North Wind" | 8 | |||||
| "Lord Help Me Be as Thou" | ||||||
| 1954 | "Secret Love" | 2 | Favorites | |||
| "Rose Marie" | 4 | 1 | ||||
| "Beautiful Dreamer" | ||||||
| "Singing Hills" | 4 | single only | ||||
| 1955 | "The Cattle Call" | 11 | Favorites | |||
| "Roll On Silvery Moon" | Slim Whitman Sings | |||||
| "I'll Never Stop Loving You" | singles only | |||||
| "Song of the Wild" | ||||||
| 1956 | "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" | 19 | Slim Whitman Sings | |||
| "I'm a Fool" | 16 | |||||
| "Whiffenpoof Song" | singles only | |||||
| "Smoke Signals" | ||||||
| 1957 | "Careless Love" | |||||
| "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" | 93 | 7 | Slim Whitman Sings | |||
| "Unchain My Heart" | Country Favorites | |||||
| 1958 | "Careless Hands" | My Best to You | ||||
| "Candy Kisses" | ||||||
| "Put Your Trust in Me" | ||||||
| "At the End of Nowhere" | ||||||
| 1959 | "I Never See Maggie Alone" | |||||
| "Tree in the Meadow" | ||||||
| "Fool Such as I" | ||||||
| "Roll River Roll" | Cool Water | |||||
| 1960 | "I'll Walk with God" | I'll Walk with God | ||||
| "Wind" | Cool Water | |||||
| "Ramona" | Just Call Me Lonesome | |||||
| 1961 | "Just Call Me Lonesome" | |||||
| "The Bells That Broke My Heart" | 30 | |||||
| "Once in a Lifetime" | Cool Water | |||||
| "Old Spinning Wheel" | Annie Laurie | |||||
| "It Sure Looks Lonesome Outside" | ||||||
| 1962 | "Annie Laurie" | |||||
| "Backward Turn Backward" | I'm a Lonely Wanderer | |||||
| "Blues Stay Away from Me" | Heart Songs / Love Song | |||||
| "Wayward Wind" | Sings | |||||
| 1963 | "Love Letters in the Sand" | |||||
| "So Long Mary" | All Time Favorites | |||||
| "Broken Down Merry-Go-Round" | ||||||
| "My Wild Irish Rose" | Irish Songs | |||||
| "Maria Lena" | single only | |||||
| 1964 | "Tell Me Pretty Words" | 48 | All Time Favorites | |||
| "I'll Hold You in My Heart" | Country Songs, City Hits | |||||
| "Virginia" | Love Song of the Waterfall | |||||
| 1965 | "Reminiscing"A | Reminiscing | ||||
| "More Than Yesterday" | 8 | More Than Yesterday (More Country Songs & City Hits) |
||||
| 1966 | "The Twelfth of Never" | 17 | ||||
| "I Remember You" | 49 | 134 | Travelin' Man | |||
| "One Dream" | 54 | A Time for Love | ||||
| 1967 | "What's This World A-Comin' To" | 56 | ||||
| "I'm a Fool" | 61 | 15th Anniversary Album | ||||
| "The Keeper of the Key" | 65 | Country Memories | ||||
| 1968 | "Rainbows Are Back in Style" | 17 | 6 | In Love the Whitman Way | ||
| "Happy Street" | 22 | 10 | Happy Street | |||
| "Livin' On Lovin' (And Lovin' Livin' with You)" | 43 | |||||
| 1969 | "My Happiness" | 43 | ||||
| "Irresistible" | 61 | Slim | ||||
| 1970 | "Tomorrow Never Comes" | 27 | Tomorrow Never Comes | |||
| "Shutters and Boards" | 26 | |||||
| 1971 | "Guess Who" | 7 | 121 | 5 | Guess Who | |
| "Something Beautiful (To Remember)" | 6 | 23 | It's a Sin to Tell a Lie | |||
| "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie" | 21 | |||||
| 1972 | "Loveliest Night of the Year" | 56 | ||||
| "Little Drops of Silver" | single only | |||||
| "(It's No) Sin" | 51 | The Best of Slim Whitman | ||||
| 1973 | "Hold Me" | 73 | I'll See You When | |||
| "Where the Lilacs Grow" | 88 | |||||
| 1974 | "It's All in the Game" | 82 | Happy Anniversary | |||
| "Happy Anniversary" | 14 | |||||
| 1975 | "Foolish Question" | I'll See You When | ||||
| "Everything Leads Back to You" | Everything Leads Back to You | |||||
| "Mexicali Rose" | ||||||
| 1977 | "Red River Valley" | Red River Valley | ||||
| 1980 | "When" | 15 | 17 | Songs I Love to Sing | ||
| "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine" | 69 | |||||
| 1981 | "I Remember You" (re-recording) | 44 | 57 | |||
| "Can't Help Falling in Love with You" | 54 | Mr. Songman | ||||
| "If I Had My Life to Live Over" | ||||||
| 1982 | "My Melody of Love" | |||||
| 1984 | "Cry Baby Heart" | Angeline | ||||
| Year | Song | Peak positions | A-Side |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK> | |||
| 1955 | "China Doll" | 15 | "Rose Marie" |
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