songs with whistling in them.

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not sure if this has been done before. a friend of mine wants to make a themed tape. so far i've only come up with "walk like an egyptian" (bangles), "centerfold" (j geils band), "the riddle" (nik kershaw) and a couple of others i've forgotten. the whistling doesn't have to be too prominent... any ideas please?

― cecilia, Monday, 19 August 2002 16:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Just from the top of my head, "Patience" by Guns N' Roses.

― paul cox, Monday, 19 August 2002 16:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmm. You could go from "Walk Like an Egyptian" to an Abdel Halim Hafez song with whistling. Except I don't know it's name.

― DeRayMi, Monday, 19 August 2002 16:43 (twenty-three years ago)

"Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding (and, by extension, "Eye Know" by De La Soul).

― Nate Patrin, Monday, 19 August 2002 17:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Leonard Cohen's done a few songs where he ends up whistling funnily enough --- "Tonight Will Be Fine" and "One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong". Both are as effortlessly cool as only Leonard can be.

― Enid Roach (Enid Roach), Monday, 19 August 2002 17:30 (twenty-three years ago)

The Whistler - Dr. Rockit

and Walk Like An Egyptian rules. Also "Winds of Changes" by The Scorpiomns? (i think)

― Nik (Nik), Monday, 19 August 2002 17:56 (twenty-three years ago)

'Whistling'Jack Smith-I was Kaiser Bill's Batman[Deram 67]

― Paul, Monday, 19 August 2002 18:01 (twenty-three years ago)

"Winds of Change" and I claim my 5 deutschemarks

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 19 August 2002 18:23 (twenty-three years ago)

"Rock Cottage" by Ten Benson (or maybe it's just the mix I have of it?)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 19 August 2002 18:24 (twenty-three years ago)

"Jealous Guy" by John Lennon

― paul b, Monday, 19 August 2002 18:24 (twenty-three years ago)

"Four Fingers" by Negativland
"Blue You" by the Magnetic Fields

― Ernest P., Monday, 19 August 2002 18:31 (twenty-three years ago)

"The Whistling Song" by Moose

― justin, Monday, 19 August 2002 18:34 (twenty-three years ago)

"Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life", "Mr Bojangles",

― Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Monday, 19 August 2002 18:50 (twenty-three years ago)

errol t, bingy bunny & general echo - this is a fabulous whistling track, tho i only had it on a tape of peel stuff. Its a version thing so tracking down the whistling one may be tricky

Roger whittaker - skye boat song

peter gabriel - downside up (gabriel whistles and liz fraser wails)

i tend to agree with peel - you can't go wrong with a whistling song

― geoff, Monday, 19 August 2002 18:51 (twenty-three years ago)

"Felt Mountain" by Goldfrapp has some big, alpine kind of whistling on it.

― phil jones (interstar), Monday, 19 August 2002 19:01 (twenty-three years ago)

The Undertones 'Get Over You' has got a great wolf-whistle at the start. Incidentally, I always (genuinely !) thought that the first line of that song wasn't "Dressed like that you must be living in a different world" but (and remember kids, the song was released in 79) "Dressed like Thatcher, must be living in a different world" ! Oh dear ...

― Darren, Monday, 19 August 2002 19:13 (twenty-three years ago)

"I keep mine hidden" - The Smiths. I think the band hated it, while Moz loved it. Right before the split anyway. I kinda like it. Especially the whistling, actually!

― Simon, Monday, 19 August 2002 20:29 (twenty-three years ago)

cant get used to losing you by the (english) beat

― dbini, Monday, 19 August 2002 20:38 (twenty-three years ago)

thank goodness for these answers! i'd thought of some of those before, but that was the other night at 4 am-ish, and by the next day, most of them had faded from my mind. thanks everyone!

― cecilia, Monday, 19 August 2002 20:54 (twenty-three years ago)

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-three years ago)

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-three years ago)

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

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

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

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

"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-three years ago)

Frankie Knuckles, "The Whistle Song"

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

New York Dolls, "Babylon"

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

"Maiden's Milk," Meat Puppets

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

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

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

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

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

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-three years ago)

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

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

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-three years ago)

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

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

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

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

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-three years ago)

'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-three years ago)

a bunch of Cannanes songs.

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

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-three years ago)

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-three years ago)

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-three years ago)

"the whistling song" from meat puppets 2.

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

Frankie Knuckles "The Whistle Song"

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

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-three years ago)

loose joints - tell you (today)

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

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

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

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

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

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-three years ago)

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

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

two months pass...

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

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

"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-three years ago)

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

"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-three years ago)

Smash Mouth - "All Star"

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

Laurie Anderson's "Excellent Birds" has some whistling-type sounds, don't know if they're 'true'. P. Gabriel sings on that track, too.

And the "Colonel Bogey March" from "Bridge Over the River Kwai" hasn't been mentioned -- that should begin and end any whistling tape.

― weatheringdaleson (weatheringdaleson), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 08:31 (twenty-three years ago)

... that should be "Bridge On the River Kwai" ...

― weatheringdaleson (weatheringdaleson), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 08:32 (twenty-three years ago)

James' "What For?" has whistling on it.

― Zora (Zora), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 22:44 (twenty-three years ago)

"Opus 40" by Mercury Rev

― felicity (felicity), Monday, 16 December 2002 07:54 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

Who Painted Whistlers Mother - Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 17 January 2003 15:42 (twenty-three years ago)

five months pass...

cornelius - star fruit sof ryder

― DZ, Monday, 30 June 2003 18:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I love "Star Fruits Surf Rider" SO MUCH!!!! What a gorgeous song.

And also with the whistling-in-songs: Cee-Lo's "Gettin Grown"!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 30 June 2003 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

nine months pass...

in the middle of making a mix myself...

brother bones - sweet georgia brown (harlem globetrotters theme)
also
whistle stop from the disney version robin hood

i think all the other ones have already been said. incidentally, i wouldn't count beatles - blackbird...that doesn't really sound like whistling to me

― AdkenC, Thursday, 22 April 2004 07:04 (twenty-two years ago)

"Set the House Ablaze" - The Jam.

Two whistlers! Harmonized!!

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Thursday, 22 April 2004 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Two that nobody's mentioned, that are tremendous songs:
Parliament: I Just Got Back
Cartoone: Knick Knack Man

― Hurlothrumbo (hurlothrumbo), Thursday, 22 April 2004 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

when we eventually record a proper vrsion of this song, http://www.angelfire.com/la3/friendlyfire/Head_Up_His_Oedipus.mp3 , it's going to fade out on a glorious whistling solo.

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Thursday, 22 April 2004 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.whistlingrecords.com/

― (Jon L), Thursday, 22 April 2004 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

"Generals and Majors" deserves a mention.

Does the "sound effect" whistling in Billy Ocean's "Caribbean Queen" count?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, "Don't Worry Be Happy"

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Keith Mansfield - Morning Broadway

― eleki-san (eleki-san), Friday, 23 April 2004 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again - Amy Rigby

― frankE (frankE), Friday, 23 April 2004 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Scariest whistling: "Face On Breast" - Scott Walker

"Ya know how to whistle, just put your lips together and blow"

― thing of thing, Friday, 23 April 2004 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

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-two years ago)

Air - Alpha Beta Gaga

(x-post: also contains banjo)

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

eleven years pass...

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

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

The Cure - "Harold and Joe"

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

**ctrl+f "andrew bird"**

I am disappoint.

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

thurston moore - cherry's blues

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

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 (ten years ago)

Obviously, duh...

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

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

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

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

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

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

X Files Theme

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

Andy Griffith theme.

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

one year passes...

Can we please put a moratorium on this?

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

Ok, just after you listen to this

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

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

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 (nine years ago)

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 (nine years ago)

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 (nine years ago)

one year passes...

Nigerian whistling:

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

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

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 (seven years ago)

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 (seven years ago)

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 (seven years ago)

Korean whistling:

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

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

"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 (seven years ago)

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

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

Scott Walker - Face On Breast

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

Colbie Caillat - Goldmine

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

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

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

Golden Years

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

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 (seven years ago)

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 (four years ago)

The Flesh Eaters - River Of Fever

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

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