songs with whistling in them.

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i could be real wrong, but wasn't there some whistling in some early mountain goats stuff? john to the thread.

― Brock K. (Brock K.), Monday, 19 August 2002 21:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

None spring to mind immediately that haven't already been mentioned, but I wanted to take this opportunity to mention that I'm currently on hold, waiting for an insurance quote, and they're subjecting me to a pan-flute version of "Chariots of Fire" that sounds like it has whistling in the background. Please kill me.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 19 August 2002 22:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

LIVE - nobody knows...one of the few decent songs on their monstrosity simply called V.

― bris, Monday, 19 August 2002 22:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

rammstein - engel ( i think that's what it's called)

― minna (minna), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 00:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

"in-zicnirea apusului" by negura bunget, from the _maiastru sfetnic_ album. romanian black metal with whistling? fuckz yeah.

― brian (yournullfame), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 01:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

Frankie Knuckles, "The Whistle Song"

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 01:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

New York Dolls, "Babylon"

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 01:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Maiden's Milk," Meat Puppets

― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 02:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

Beck - Steal My Body Home off Mellow Gold. The whistling part of the song is cool.

― maryann, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 03:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

Is this just my personal dream or do Slim Whitman songs have whistling in them?

― maryann, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 03:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

Maybe that Beck song doesn't have whistling in it. It's about four years since I heard it. Gee I really helped out.

― maryann, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 03:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

'games without frontiers' by peter gabriel hasn't been mentioned?

― tylero, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 05:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

And the LA band I can't remember the name of right now have a song called "Man From China" that some of their fans claim Gabriel ripped off for Games w/o Frontiers.

― nickn, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 06:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Sissyneck" Beck
"How Soon is Now?" Smiths
"Whistlin' Tune" Elvis (dreadful)
"Blackbird" Beatles

― bham, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 08:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

Where's my umlaut function when I need to mention Isobel by Bjork?

― Damian (Damian), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 10:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

Civil War by Guns and Roses. Special mention to Morricone's theme from A Fistful of Dollars.

― Roger Fascist, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

'big chief' by professor longhair, new orleans goodtime-music god. or if the frame of reference extends to plastic whistles, go for 'the baby song' by husker du, which is arguably one of the most ridiculous things to ever make it onto a record.

― angelo (angelo), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 12:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

a bunch of Cannanes songs.

― mike, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 21:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

The great 'Some People Try To Fuck With You' (?) by Teenage Fanclub has a one note whistle (not whistling) solo (as well as plenty of odd overdubs of things found in the studio's 'percussion box'). They curse so sweetly too.

― Snotty Moore, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 23:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

die matrosen (sp?) by liliput/kleenex has amazing whistling throughout. i'm not sure how easy it is to find... i've got it on a comp called "totally wired".

― lauren, Wednesday, 21 August 2002 03:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

Cannanes songs: "Ern Malley" from Arty Barbeque has some. I think "Prototype" has some as well.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 03:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

"the whistling song" from meat puppets 2.

― jay kirsch, Wednesday, 21 August 2002 03:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

Frankie Knuckles "The Whistle Song"

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 10:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

The best whistling in a song EVER is near the end of "Step On" by The Happy Mondays - Ryder just starts whistling out of tune just as it's about to fade out. Genius!

― John Barlow, Wednesday, 21 August 2002 10:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

loose joints - tell you (today)

― JC (JC A.), Wednesday, 21 August 2002 14:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

Pere Ubu's "Nonalignment Pact" has a slew of whistling in it.

― badger, Thursday, 22 August 2002 00:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

Pixies - "La La Love You" - David Lovering's finest moment!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 22 August 2002 01:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

weird how peter gabriel's been mentioned twice already and yeah "games w/out frontiers" is as o.t.m. now as then (maybe more), but it's actually the first song on that third album where he uses whistling downright spookily on "The Intruder"

― george gosset (gegoss), Thursday, 22 August 2002 10:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

and don't the residents and xtc do it just a little too often ?

― george gosset (gegoss), Thursday, 22 August 2002 10:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

two months pass...

Paul Simon...Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard

― Lindsey, Monday, 4 November 2002 22:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

"The Stranger" by....er...Billy Joel.

"Ten Dollar Bill" by Cop Shoot Cop features the zealous blowing of pennywhistles (does that count?)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 4 November 2002 22:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

The great 'Some People Try To Fuck With You' (?) by Teenage Fanclub has a one note whistle (not whistling) solo

And, lest we forget, "Mellow Doubt" (god they have cool titles - remember the mighty "Neil Jung"?) has some ace/useless whistling near the end.

― Charlie (Charlie), Monday, 4 November 2002 23:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

Fugazi, "Strangelight" (I think Strangelight--something on the new album.)

― Ian Johnson (orion), Monday, 4 November 2002 23:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

'Andy Griffith Show' theme song?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 4 November 2002 23:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Back in Judy's Jungle" - Brian Eno
"White Mountain" - Genesis
"A Song for Europe" - Roxy Music (I think)

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 01:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Don't Get 2 Close 2 My Fantasy" by Ween

― nickalicious, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 14:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

.
Sentimental Journey -- Juan Carcia Esquivel
Jungle Love -- Steve Miller Band
Youth -- Love and Rockets

― christoff (christoff), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 16:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

You Were Right by Badly Drawn Boy.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 16:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

Bowie - Velvet Goldmine (at the end)

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 19:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

Harry Irene by Captain Beefheart

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 17:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

Darren - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrgh! Why did you have to correct my mishearing of "Get Over You"'s lyric?

Re question: I'll second 'Intruder' by P. Gabriel. And the band who did "Man From China" was Vivabeat: I have that record!

― Jeff W, Wednesday, 6 November 2002 17:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

"butterflies" by crimpshrine

― tony bleach, Wednesday, 6 November 2002 18:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

"You Were Right" is a great whistling song! Great idea -- I think I am going to make a whistling mix tape.

― felicity (felicity), Saturday, 16 November 2002 19:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

Air - Don't Be Light (Neptunes remix)
(it whistles a melody from N*E*R*D no less)

― Honda (Honda), Sunday, 17 November 2002 02:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

Regulate!!! Regulate!! AKA my favorite song ever.

― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 17 November 2002 04:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

Orbital - The Box (part iv)

― Leee (Leee), Sunday, 17 November 2002 07:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

three weeks pass...

"Daydream" by The Lovin' Spoonful...

― Hank, Tuesday, 10 December 2002 23:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

don't fkn believe it, i wandered thro this thread and (unless my eyesight's much worse than i feared) nobody deemed it worthwhile to mention one of the absolute classics of all popular whistling --- toot!toot!toot! --- Toots Thielemans; at least not by name
it's pretty possible he's even on some of the tunes mentioned in the thread...

― t\'\'t (t''t), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 00:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Prove It" by Television is probably my favorite song with whistling in it, I can't believe no-one has mentioned it yet.

― webcrack (music=crack), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 00:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

Smash Mouth - "All Star"

― Curtis Stephens, Wednesday, 11 December 2002 01:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

Skipping 17 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Outstanding examples, most of them, of melodic whistling, but what about whistling as punctuation, like the (CLASSIC!) "giddyup" whistle leading into the solo on Molly Hatchet's "Flirtin' With Disaster"? What songs have THAT kind of whistling in them?

Plus, just about any double live LP from the 70s will feature some punter's long, loud, piercing whistle over a quiet passage during the big power ballad (e.g., "Turn the Page" off "Live Bullet"). What are the best/worst examples of this?

― briania, Friday, 23 April 2004 17:57 (twenty years ago) link

Air - Alpha Beta Gaga

(x-post: also contains banjo)

― frankE (frankE), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 15:51 (twenty years ago) link

eleven years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBosTrEcVb4

― saer, Saturday, 7 November 2015 10:46 (eight years ago) link

The Cure - "Harold and Joe"

― LeRooLeRoo, Saturday, 7 November 2015 23:38 (eight years ago) link

**ctrl+f "andrew bird"**

I am disappoint.

― austinato (Austin), Saturday, 7 November 2015 23:54 (eight years ago) link

thurston moore - cherry's blues

― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Saturday, 7 November 2015 23:55 (eight years ago) link

But seriously, there's two sides to Andrew Bird's whistling stuffs. The pop stuff (of which 'Fitz and Dizzyspells' is absolute tops) and the more doodly, loop station-y instrumental stuff (of which 'Nyatiti' would be my pick).

― austinato (Austin), Sunday, 8 November 2015 00:35 (eight years ago) link

Obviously, duh...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-bms6b2YKY

― Caput Johannis in Disco (Tom D.), Sunday, 8 November 2015 00:35 (eight years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihUna0TLoZA

― Michael Train, Sunday, 8 November 2015 00:56 (eight years ago) link

Julia Holter - Sea calls me home (she whistles herself)

― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Sunday, 8 November 2015 08:54 (eight years ago) link

X Files Theme

― cheeseburger, Sunday, 8 November 2015 22:42 (eight years ago) link

Andy Griffith theme.

― austinato (Austin), Sunday, 8 November 2015 22:45 (eight years ago) link

one year passes...

Can we please put a moratorium on this?

― calstars, Saturday, 10 December 2016 18:57 (seven years ago) link

Ok, just after you listen to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx4gi5_AV2U

― StanM, Saturday, 10 December 2016 19:06 (seven years ago) link

There's some millennial anthem with whistling in it that I keep hearing in places that just needs to be nuked

― calstars, Saturday, 10 December 2016 19:13 (seven years ago) link

I like Julia Holter tho so maybe I should hear that track. Gauzy heavy noisepop shoegaze minor key whistling might be OK

― calstars, Saturday, 10 December 2016 19:14 (seven years ago) link

I suspect that Steve Lillywhite is the culprit on early '80s whistling--he produced Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers" and "The Intruder" plus XTC's "Generals and Majors" and "Take This Town" in 1980. I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting another big one.

― Hideous Lump, Saturday, 10 December 2016 20:25 (seven years ago) link

one year passes...

Nigerian whistling:

Dabenja • Take Away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5xSof_vDhY

― breastcrawl, Saturday, 1 December 2018 00:04 (five years ago) link

two weeks pass...

Belle and Sebastian - The Loneliness of the Middle-Distance Runner

― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Monday, 17 December 2018 05:57 (five years ago) link

Maybe it's been done in one of the many songs mentioned here but is there a song with autotuned whistling ?

― AlXTC from Paris, Monday, 17 December 2018 09:56 (five years ago) link

Similar track to Belle + Sebastian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-bms6b2YKY

― It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christ (Tom D.), Monday, 17 December 2018 10:03 (five years ago) link

Korean whistling:

(G)I-DLE • HANN (Alone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKNXn2qCEws

― breastcrawl, Monday, 17 December 2018 20:55 (five years ago) link

"World, Hold On" by Bob Sinclar somehow absent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyYMSa7_sWU
Probably the most whistling-dependent hit record of the decade to not actually be called "Whistle".

― You're all losing so many points on your progress bars (Champiness), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 01:13 (five years ago) link

Good pick! (different decades though: “World, Hold On” is a 2006 hit, “Whistle” is from 2012)

― breastcrawl, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 06:44 (five years ago) link

Scott Walker - Face On Breast

― Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 08:03 (five years ago) link

Colbie Caillat - Goldmine

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 10:11 (five years ago) link

All these years and never a mention of "A Song For Europe?" Jamais???

― Hakuna Mutato (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 19 December 2018 21:43 (five years ago) link

Golden Years

― BrianB, Wednesday, 26 December 2018 01:52 (five years ago) link

Echobelly's "I Can't Imagine The World Without Me" has a "beckoning" whistle at the start (ie nothing to do with the melody)

― Maltrsnapper, Thursday, 27 December 2018 19:57 (five years ago) link

three years pass...

an old chestnut that’s never been posted (unless it was in one of the unspecified broken YouTube links):
Kyu Sakamoto’s “Ue o Muite Arukō” a/k/a “Sukiyaki”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35DrtPlUbc

Simply a beautiful little song, fantastically performed.

― middot • is • my • middle • name (breastcrawl), Thursday, 5 May 2022 12:38 (two years ago) link

The Flesh Eaters - River Of Fever

― city worker, Thursday, 5 May 2022 12:47 (two years ago) link

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