Slim Whitman
Slim Whitman (* 20th January 1923 in Tampa , Florida ; † 19th June 2013 in Orange Park , Florida, real name Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr. ) was an American country - singer , who especially in the 1950s and 1960s was successful with romantic ballads.
Career
Born as the first son and second child of Dora and Ottis Dewey Whitman sr. he was one of the most successful, influential, but also most unknown singers in the history of country music. Whitman was an excellent yodeler. He learned to yodel from old Jimmie Rodgers records. His main interest, however, was not music, but sport . As a talented baseball player, he was toying with a professional career. However, he lost the middle finger of his left hand in an industrial accident at a meat packaging factory. During this time, around 1938, he also met his future wife Geraldine (Jerry) Crist, whom he married in 1941. The handicap on his hand didn't stop him from learning to play the guitar while serving in the US Navy.
After completing his military service, he found employment in a shipyard and at the same time had his first public appearances as a singer . He was discovered in 1948 by Colonel Tom Parker , who later became Elvis Presley's manager . Parker brokered a record deal with the RCA label, where he was able to draw attention to himself in 1949 as Slim Whitman with the cowboy yodel song I'm Casting My Lasso Towards the Sky , but still recorded very unsuccessful singles.
Career
Slim Whitman became known to a larger audience through regular appearances on the Louisiana Hayride Show. But since his records continued to sell poorly, he lost his RCA contract in 1950. He switched to the independent label Imperial Records , where a little later he had his first top 10 hit with Love Song of the Waterfall . He made his final breakthrough in 1952 with Indian Love Call . The song, performed in a high pitch and enriched with yodelling interludes, placed itself in both the country and the pop hit parade.
The next records were also successful. The popularity of his ballads was due in large part to his closeness to pop music. His 1955 hit, Rose-Marie , who stayed at the top of the top 10 in England for eleven weeks and set a record, also made him known in Europe. This record was only broken decades later by Bryan Adams and his song "Everything I Do, I Do for You". In the 1960s and 1970s he was more successful in England than in his American homeland. He has been voted best foreign star several times. The biggest hits of those years were More Than Yesterday (1966), Happy Streets (1968), Guess Who (1970) and Something Beautiful (To Remember) (1971).
Discography
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 UK
|
 US
|
Country
|
|||
| 1965 | Love Song Of The Waterfall | - | - |
Country20 (2 weeks) Country |
First published: 1965
|
| 1966 | More Than Yesterday (More Country Songs & City Hits) | - | - |
Country28 (1 week) Country |
First published: 1966
|
| 1967 | 15th Anniversary Album | - | - |
Country25 (9 weeks) Country |
First published: 1967
|
| Country Memories | - | - |
Country42 (3 weeks) Country |
First published: 1967
|
|
| 1968 | In Love The Whitman Way | - | - |
Country16 (10 weeks) Country |
First published: 1968
|
| 1969 | Happy Street | - | - |
Country34 (7 weeks) Country |
First published: 1969
|
| 1971 | Guess Who | - | - |
Country31 (7 weeks) Country |
First published: 1971
|
| It's A Sin To Tell A Lie | - | - |
Country23 (11 weeks) Country |
First published: 1971
|
|
| 1973 | The Slim Whitman Story |
UK-  |
- | - |
First published: 1973
|
| 25 Anniversary Concert |
UK-  |
- | - |
First published: 1973
|
|
| 1974 | Happy Anniversary |
UK44 (2 weeks)UK |
- | - |
First published: 1974
|
| 1976 | The Very Best Of Slim Whitman |
UK1 (17 weeks)UK |
- | - |
First published: 1976
|
| Everything Leads Back To You | - | - |
Country42 (4 weeks) Country |
First published: 1976
|
|
| 1977 | Red River Valley |
UK1 (14 weeks)UK |
- | - |
First published: 1977
|
| Home On The Range |
UK2 (13 weeks)UK |
- | - |
First published: 1977
|
|
| 1979 | Ghost Riders In The Sky |
UK27 (6 weeks)UK |
- | - |
First published: 1979
|
| Slim Whitman's 20 Greatest Love Songs |
UK18th (7 weeks)UK |
- | - |
First published: 1979
|
|
| 1980 | Songs I Love To Sing | - |
US175 (3 weeks) US |
Country25 (18 weeks) Country |
First published: 1980
|
| Christmas With Slim Whitman | - |
US184 (4 weeks) US |
Country47 (9 weeks) Country |
First published: 1980
|
|
| 1997 | The Very Best Of - 50th Anniversary |
UK54 (2 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: 1997
|
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
UK
|
US
|
Country
|
|||
| 1955 | Rose Marie |
UK1 (19 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: 1955
|
| Indian love call |
UK7 (12 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: 1955
|
|
| China Doll |
UK15 (2 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: 1955
|
|
| 1956 | Tumbling Tumbleweeds |
UK19 (2 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: 1956
|
| I'm a fool |
UK16 (4 weeks) UK |
- |
Country61 (6 weeks) Country |
First published: 1956
|
|
| serenade |
UK8 (15 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: 1956
|
|
| 1957 | I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen |
UK7 (13 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: 1957
|
| 1961 | The Bells That Broke My Heart | - | - |
Country30 (1 week) Country |
First published: 1961
|
| 1964 | Tell Me Pretty Words | - | - |
Country48 (1 week) Country |
First published: 1964
|
| 1965 | More Than Yesterday | - | - |
Country8 (17 weeks) Country |
First published: 1965
|
| 1966 | The Twelfth of Never | - | - |
Country17 (12 weeks) Country |
First published: 1966
|
| One dream | - | - |
Country54 (6 weeks) Country |
First published: 1966
|
|
| 1967 | What's This World A – Comin 'To | - | - |
Country56 (8 weeks) Country |
First published: 1967
|
| The Keeper Of The Key | - | - |
Country65 (5 weeks) Country |
First published: 1967
|
|
| 1968 | Rainbows Are Back In Style | - | - |
Country17 (14 weeks) Country |
First published: 1968
|
| Happy Street | - | - |
Country22 (11 weeks) Country |
First published: 1968
|
|
| Livin 'on Lovin' (And Lovin 'Livin' With You) | - | - |
Country43 (8 weeks) Country |
First published: 1968
|
|
| 1969 | My happiness | - | - |
Country43 (4 weeks) Country |
First published: 1969
|
| Irresistible | - | - |
Country61 (5 weeks) Country |
First published: 1969
|
|
| 1970 | Tomorrow Never Comes | - | - |
Country27 (12 weeks) Country |
First published: 1970
|
| Shutters and Boards | - | - |
Country26 (12 weeks) Country |
First published: 1970
|
|
| 1971 | Guess Who | - | - |
Country7 (14 weeks) Country |
First published: 1971
|
| Something Beautiful (To Remember) | - | - |
Country6 (15 weeks) Country |
First published: 1971
|
|
| It's A Sin To Tell A Lie | - | - |
Country21 (13 weeks) Country |
First published: 1971
|
|
| Loveliest Night Of The Year | - | - |
Country56 (7 weeks) Country |
First published: 1971
|
|
| 1972 | (It's No) Sin | - | - |
Country51 (7 weeks) Country |
First published: 1972
|
| 1973 | Hold me | - | - |
Country73 (4 weeks) Country |
First published: 1973
|
| Where The Lilacs Grow | - | - |
Country88 (5 weeks) Country |
First published: 1973
|
|
| 1974 | It's All In The Game | - | - |
Country82 (5 weeks) Country |
First published: 1974
|
| Happy Anniversary |
UK14 (10 weeks) UK |
- | - |
First published: 1974
|
|
| 1980 | When | - | - |
Country15 (12 weeks) Country |
First published: 1980
|
| That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine | - | - |
Country69 (5 weeks) Country |
First published: 1980
|
|
| 1981 | I Can't Help Falling In Love With You | - | - |
Country54 (7 weeks) Country |
First publication: 1981
|
| I remember you | - | - |
Country44 (10 weeks) Country |
First publication: 1981
|
|
More hits
- Love Song of the Waterfall
- Cattle call
- I'm Casting My Lasso Towards The Sky (His signature tune and song)
- Una Paloma Blanca
- Peggy O'Neil
Songs that have been used in films
- Lovesong Of The Waterfall in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Indian Love Call and I'm Casting My Lasso Towards The Sky in Mars Attacks!
- I Remember You in House of 1000 Corpses
useful information
- In the early 1980s, his best-of album achieved spectacular sales.
- Over the course of his four-decade career, he has sold more than 60 million records and has a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame .
- He last lived on a large property called "Woodpecker Paradise" near Middleburg, Florida.
- In 1996, the original recording of Indian Love Call in the movie Mars Attacks! used in which Martians terrorize the earth. A rather dubious honor, because playing this song is portrayed as the only means of fighting the invaders acoustically: In the science fiction film, the high pitch of the voice and the shrill yodelling make the heads of the aliens explode.
- Slim Whitman was the first country and western singer to perform at the London Palladium .
Web links
- Literature by and about Slim Whitman in the catalog of the German National Library
- Slim Whitman in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Slim Whitman in nndb (English)
- CMT.com
- Slimenet.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Country singer Slim Whitman, 90, dies overnight ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Chart sources: UK US
- ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Whitman, Slim |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Whitman, Ottis Dewey, Jr. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American country singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 20, 1923 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tampa , Florida , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | 19th June 2013 |
| Place of death | Orange Park , Florida, USA |