The Bravery is bringing whistling back.
On its latest album, “The Sun and the Moon,” The Bravery uses whistling — yes, whistling — as a hook line on the song “Bad Sun.”
Yet The Bravery might be whistling in the wind. These days, the once popular American pastime is mostly reserved for teakettles. Even trains don’t whistle anymore — they have horns.
Today’s whistling is mostly done by baby boomers weaned on “The Andy Griffith Show” theme, “Lassie,” Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western soundtracks and Kyu Sakamoto’s “Sukiyaki.”
Guns N’ Roses’ ballad “Patience” won a Rolling Stone magazine poll recently for “best song that features whistling.” That cut was released nearly 20 years ago. The rest of the top five whistling songs listed were older.
Hip-hop hasn’t exactly embraced whistling, except with rare exceptions such as Juelz Santana’s “There It Go.” Even then, it’s debatable.
“Very few have used whistling as I have, to compose, weave it into stories, do all styles of music except hip-hop,” says champion whistler Milton Briggs of Carmichael, Calif. (Listen to his whistling at miltbriggs.com/music.html.) “And who says I wouldn’t work up something and do hip-hop?”
Whistling styles swing from crude to classical. As a form of communication we can whistle to call a cab, a wayward dog or express emotion at sporting events and concerts. In the Canary Islands, Silbo Gomero is a language that is whistled rather than spoken.
Audiences in Europe and South America whistle to show disapproval at concerts and soccer games. Everywhere you can blow the whistle on somebody, wet your whistle or whistle in the dark.
In a superstitious sense, whistling is bad luck if performed in newsrooms, aboard ships, in mines and inside theaters.
And, whistling can be considered downright annoying in modern society, like chewing ice or cutting in line.
Briggs, an international grand champion and a member of the Whistlers’ Hall of Fame, recalls his early days while working for a retail credit company.
“I was in a room full of typewriters and I didn’t like it, so I’d start to whistle off-key on purpose,” he says. “They threw erasers and paper clips at me.”
Main varieties of whistling
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Pucker: Air is expelled or inhaled through pursed lips, producing turbulence.
Finger-whistling or wolf-whistling: One or more fingers are inserted into the mouth to shape the opening, allowing a much more forceful stream of air.
Hand-whistling: Air is blown from the mouth into a resonant chamber formed by cupped hands.
Roof-whistling: Turbulence is produced by air being pushed between the tongue and the roof of the mouth
Best songs that feature whistling
1. “Patience” Guns N’ Roses
2. “(Sitting on the) Dock of the Bay” Otis Redding
3. “Centerfold” J. Geils Band
4. “The Stranger” Billy Joel
5. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” Bobby McFerrin
[ROLLING STONE]Other songs with whistling
“Bad Sun” The Bravery
“Walk Like An Egyptian” The Bangles
“Blackbird” The Beatles
“Limbo Rock” Chubby Checker
“Daydream” Lovin’ Spoonful
“Only Love Can Break a Heart” Gene Pitney
“The X-Files Theme” Mark Snow
10 films with whistling
1. “Kill Bill: Vol. 1”
2. “The Breakfast Club”
3. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”
4. “The Shawshank Redemption”
5. “Skullmonkeys”
6. “Total Recall”
7. “Trading Places”
8. “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”
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9. “True Lies”
10. “Holiday Inn”