Whistle While You Work

I don't know if you've noticed, but lately, there's a whole lot of whistling going on.   Not the kind that's ripping outside your window right now.   I'm speaking of the traditional kind.  Now this isn't exactly a negative.   Whistling has always been thought of as activity you engage in when you're relaxed, and most of the time when you're happy.

And because whistling is also known as the "poor man's singing," it's had a tendency to also show up in many popular songs over the years.   One of the best, of course, is Otis Redding's "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" which used whistling just as much for imagery as it did for the tune itself.   Many years later, Bobby Mcpherrin soared to popularity in the late 80's with the reggae inspired laid back hit, "Don't Worry, Be Happy," which held a steady, I don't give a sh$t whistle throughout.

Now there's another song that I've been hearing far too often by a group named, Flo Rida, simply called "Whistle." It pounds in my head at the gym, at the pharmacy, in a few elevators, and most notably on my kids' iPad.  When I first heard this song in a public place, I had no idea there was whistling in the song.  I thought the guy on line behind me was whistling to it.  Which just goes to show you that when it comes to whistling, you really can't tell the difference between professional and amateur.

But don't think for a second that it ends with music.   It's now moved into advertising.   Especially on the radio.   1-800-GOT-JUNK's ad has two men offering to clean up your mess, and all along do it while whistling.   The new Honda Accord commercial is a conversation between husband and wife arguing about whether the husband should have spent so much money for extras like Bluetooth, Pandora, and a back up camera.  We eventually find out that all these features are standard.  All along, we hear someone whistling in the background.   Toyota quickly followed suit with it's own ad reminding drivers to bring their vehicles in for regular maintenance, also with a narrator and a whistler.

So just what's going on here?   Are these ad agencies trying to save money on musicians? Does buying the rights to a popular rock song no longer fit into the media plan?  There aren't even any background singers anymore.  Just whistlers.  I'm sure they come cheaper.

When it comes to the popular history of whistling, the country's first mass introduction was the theme of    "The Andy Griffith Show."  That video of Andy walking a country road with little Ron Howard, both carrying fishing poles just epitomized the laid back lifestyle of that sleepy Mayberry town in North Carolina.

And if you want to travel back even further, long before there was Facebook, some of you may have seen Bing Crosby whistle to White Christmas.  I don't think you saw it live, but hey, isn't that what You Tube is for?

The one conclusion that can be drawn about the whistle is that somehow it reflects a feeling of a more peaceful time gone by.   It conjures a father-son activity like fishing, a family holiday like Christmas, or a casual, carefree attitude of a life driven by a lack of worry.  Why wouldn't musicians and advertisers take advantage of using it?

Maybe you should too.  It may just get you through a hurricane.