Thursday, November 29, 2018
Slim Whitman - (1984) Angeline LP
At his worst, Whitman, 60 (in 1984), sounds like a cross between Tiny Tim and a coyote whose paw is caught in a trap. At his best, he sounds like a cross between Tiny Tim and a coyote who is happy his paw isn't caught in a trap. On the other hand, he has made 70 or so albums, which is rather more than your average former mailman, shipyard worker and baseball player have done. On this LP, produced by Nashville veteran Bob Montgomery, he seems to have toned down the yodelly stuff that let him in for so much ribbing on the SCTV comedy series, though there's more than enough of it on Cry Baby Heart and Blue Bayou (Roy Orbison and Linda Ronstadt have nothing to worry about). He also does such old hits as Dreamin', A Place in the Sun and Scarlet Ribbons. (He has said, astonishingly enough, that he has heard only one previous recording of Scarlet Ribbons, by the Browns in 1959. Does the name Harry Belafonte mean anything to you, Slim?) Whitman's son Byron wrote another of the tunes, Blue Memories; it includes the lines "Teardrops keep fallin' like rain/ Pictures only add to the pain," which provide an idea of how imaginative it is. When he's not high-pitching it, Whitman is a marginally competent singer. All of which leaves more or less unanswered the burning question of how he has managed to sell more than 50 million records?!
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Holy shit, this is SO fucking good! 80's synthy country.
Thanks to Andy Kaufman for introducing me to Slim:
Slim Whitman - (1963) Yodeling LP
Mr. Whitman, the country crooner with the weather-beaten face, velvet voice and sentimental lyrics, was often the object of humor, almost always good-natured. In the early 1980s a disc jockey offered Slim Whitman makeup kits “complete with receding hairline, furry black eyebrows and a cream to make your upper lip quiver.” In 1997 Rush Limbaugh whimsically suggested that when Mr. Whitman’s songs were played backward, the Devil’s voice could be heard. (It couldn’t.)
He recorded more than 500 songs, made more than 100 albums and sold more than 70 million records. In the 1970s his recording of “Rose Marie” was No. 1 on the British pop charts for 11 weeks, a feat the Beatles never accomplished. Michael Jackson named Mr. Whitman one of his 10 favorite vocalists. George Harrison credited him as an early influence. Paul McCartney said Mr. Whitman gave him the idea of playing the guitar left-handed.
Elvis Presley, in his first professional appearance in Memphis in 1954, opened for Mr. Whitman. Mistakenly billed as Ellis, he was paid $50; Mr. Whitman got $500. Mr. Whitman later let Presley borrow his trademark white rhinestone jacket.
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