Whistle -- now, what melody is that?

September 16, 2007 7:11 PM

I have long contended that when people randomly whistle a tune, walking down the street or whatever, 9 times out of 10 they will be whistling a certain melody. I have no basis for this contention other than gut suspicion. My wife scoffs.

Without revealing the melody, to keep things honest, I'm going to ask you: Whistle a melody, right now. What melody is it?
Don't think about it too hard. Once the responses here start to tail off, I'll reveal whether I get to do the "IN YOUR FACE!!! dance for my wife, or whether I mysteriously never speak of this with her again.

posted by stupidsexyFlanders to society & culture (103 comments total)

Theme to the Andy Griffith Show.
posted by corpse at 7:16 PM on September 16, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

'Happy Birthday,' oddly enough. I've never whistled that before; it's usually the Wonderful Wizard of Oz or a little of a classical piece that I've forgotten the name of.
posted by frobozz at 7:17 PM on September 16, 2007

Greensleeves.
posted by phoenixy at 7:17 PM on September 16, 2007

Bless Your Beautiful Hide from the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
posted by The Confessor at 7:18 PM on September 16, 2007

Theme from Leisure Suit Larry.
posted by dmd at 7:19 PM on September 16, 2007

Bonnie and Slyde by Béla Fleck.
posted by danb at 7:19 PM on September 16, 2007

Honestly, I started whistling "The Flintstones."

But if this were a trivia game, I'd guess the song you're thinking of is "It's a Small World."
posted by Bella Sebastian at 7:20 PM on September 16, 2007

My Humps
posted by thirteenkiller at 7:20 PM on September 16, 2007

If I Only Had a Brain.
posted by dhammond at 7:20 PM on September 16, 2007

The first bit of Strangers In The Night.
posted by CKmtl at 7:20 PM on September 16, 2007

John Coltrane's "Favorite Things"
posted by advicepig at 7:21 PM on September 16, 2007

I think, rather than whistling a certain tune, I whistle common themes within a certain set of constraints. Simple melodies, up and down scales, or certain intervals, or stuff like that. Something like whistling the westernized version of a really simple Indian raga. What I just whistled when I read your question was nothing in particular.

disclaimer: I am a musician. I was also a constant whistler when I was a kid. I'm fully aware that I'm likely an outlier on this particular scale.
posted by god hates math at 7:21 PM on September 16, 2007

Camptown Races
posted by iconomy at 7:21 PM on September 16, 2007

Seconding dhammond. Though, often I find myseld whistling the same unknown tune my grandpa has whistled forat least 25 years.
posted by notsnot at 7:22 PM on September 16, 2007

Roxanne, but the rare B-side cover by Frank Zappa with the wailers.
posted by jenkinsEar at 7:22 PM on September 16, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

The first whistling tune I thought of was the theme from "Bridge on the River Kwai". But this was after I started humming Sonic Youth's "Silver Rocket", since that's what's currenty stuck in my head. I can't really whistle, but I'm about 90% sure that if I could, I would similarly just whistle whatever was in my head.
posted by equalpants at 7:22 PM on September 16, 2007

Mrs. Advicepig whistles Row, Row, Row Your Boat
posted by advicepig at 7:23 PM on September 16, 2007

P.S. You're eventually going to tell us what you had in mind, no?
posted by equalpants at 7:24 PM on September 16, 2007

"Hitler has only got one ball" (aka Lament der deutschen Debutant)
posted by rob511 at 7:26 PM on September 16, 2007

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah... But I'm not a very good whistler, so my repertoire is limited. More often than not, I catch myself whistling London Bridge Is Falling Down or Pop Goes The Weasel. Don't know why.
posted by amyms at 7:32 PM on September 16, 2007

I can't whistle.
posted by Secretariat at 7:33 PM on September 16, 2007

The whistling bit from The Great Escape.
posted by Cyrano at 7:34 PM on September 16, 2007

yes equalpants, check back with the thread late tomorrow, I'll post the melody I had in mind as responses here tail off.

Interestingly, not much of a consensus yet around any single melody, which already bodes ill for my theorem.

I will tell you that Hitler Has Got Only One Ball was not it.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:34 PM on September 16, 2007

Great Escape theme!
posted by thirteenkiller at 7:35 PM on September 16, 2007

Theme from the Odd Couple.
posted by jrossi4r at 7:37 PM on September 16, 2007

I just asked Mr P to whistle. He is a prolific whistler and often drives me crazy. Anyway, he answered me with a lovely rendition of "Would you like to swing on a star?".
posted by pearlybob at 7:38 PM on September 16, 2007

Mario Underwater theme
posted by thirteenkiller at 7:39 PM on September 16, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

"My Chinchilla" by cub.

(I think you're being proven wrong...)
posted by Pinback at 7:43 PM on September 16, 2007

The I DREAM OF JEANNIE theme. Or THE LOVE BOAT theme. Or Or the GUNSMOKE theme. Or the HAWAII FIVE-O theme.

Which is odd because I wasn't alive when these shows were around, and I've never watched them, and I wasn't even allowed to watch TV until I was in my teens.

So sometimes I'll whistle something and not know what it is and have to collar the nearest person over 45 and go "What am I whistling?" and they'll look at me funny and go "Uh, that's from THE ODD COUPLE."
posted by thehmsbeagle at 7:43 PM on September 16, 2007

Sweet Georgia Brown, the Harlem Globetrotter's theme.
posted by ALongDecember at 7:43 PM on September 16, 2007

I don't even know the same of it... some march, I think, maybe by Sousa?
posted by Malor at 7:44 PM on September 16, 2007

sigh. "name of it".
posted by Malor at 7:44 PM on September 16, 2007

Godfather Theme.
posted by odinsdream at 7:44 PM on September 16, 2007

The Blues Run the Game
posted by beandip at 7:44 PM on September 16, 2007

"When I'm 64" by the Beatles.

I'll join the scoffing camp with your wife.
posted by chrisamiller at 7:45 PM on September 16, 2007

Seconding Odd Couple.
posted by grateful at 7:47 PM on September 16, 2007

Addams Family theme.

Huh, judging from these answers, I'm wondering if the song of your theory is a theme song from a TV show.

Of course, this ? is fairly culture-specific.
posted by thebrokedown at 7:58 PM on September 16, 2007

"It was a little spanish flea...", and another obvious Herb Alpert tune that I don't know the name of, but it's on the Price Is Right or something. They're fighting for domination of my head right now.

Usually a few bars of the last thing I heard just loops in my head until I hear something else. Sometimes it's an undesirable melody (e.g. commercial radio crap heard in passing) and in those cases I break out the opening riff to Led Zep's "Heartbreaker", which destroys everything, every time. That and "20th Century Boy".
posted by intermod at 8:00 PM on September 16, 2007

Axel F (the original version)
posted by misterbrandt at 8:00 PM on September 16, 2007

The Brinstar theme from Super Metroid.

What?
posted by Verdandi at 8:01 PM on September 16, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Chariots of Fire
posted by slactoid at 8:04 PM on September 16, 2007

I'm in one of my periods where I whistle aimlessly almost constantly. As I read this, I was whistling some nameless tune of my own devising. The first actual song I whistles was "Saria's Song" from Ocarina of Time, which has always been one of my most frequent songs to whistle.
posted by Hargrimm at 8:05 PM on September 16, 2007

peter's theme from peter and the wolf.

and i don't usually whistle that when i whistle. so i kind of think you might be wrong.
posted by timory at 8:05 PM on September 16, 2007

The Johnny Carson era Tonight Show theme.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:06 PM on September 16, 2007

"To Life" from Fiddler on the Roof. I had to play it for music class in ninth grade, and since then it has been the first melody that pops into my head when whistling.
posted by wsp at 8:11 PM on September 16, 2007

Unfocused jazz noodling, but I'm listening to the Bad Plus on headphones, which might be why. If somebody told me there really WAS a song people whistled 9/10 of the time and made me guess what it was, I'd say "Andy Griffith."
posted by escabeche at 8:33 PM on September 16, 2007

The "Nayuta going into action" theme from Shingu, Secret of the Stellar Wars.

I think you lose. Just what did you have in mind?
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 8:34 PM on September 16, 2007

Guns N' Roses Civil War... OH yeah!
posted by wfrgms at 8:36 PM on September 16, 2007

The Girl From Ipanema
posted by twoporedomain at 8:37 PM on September 16, 2007

How Much is That Doggie in the Window?
posted by lemuria at 8:40 PM on September 16, 2007

I can't hold a tune, but my husband says he whistles Joe Henderson, Blue Bossa.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 8:46 PM on September 16, 2007

I can't whistle but do hum, with the occasional bout of lalala thrown in. Including while walking down the street and, sometimes, on the bus (yeah, I'm that girl on the bus). It's rather tuneless, certainly not based on any actual songs. Probably a good bit like god hates maths is describing above, on a good day anyway. In my experience of working with whistlers and living with a chirping singing type guy this is pretty common and 'no song at all' would actually be my guess for most thoughtless noisemaking.
posted by shelleycat at 9:04 PM on September 16, 2007

Just now I whistled Moxy Früvous' King of Spain. At work I find myself often whistling the bit from Peter and the Wolf— strange coincidence, timory! There's another tune I whistle frequently but I can't bring it to mind right now because of the Früvous. But a lot of the time it's just some random thing I've heard recently (been in a store with muzak? has my gf been playing Katamari Damacy?) and a lot of the time it's some aimless melody I'm making up on the spot.
posted by hattifattener at 9:04 PM on September 16, 2007

Andy Griffith theme, most often. Some more that I can quickly remember:
- It's a Small World
- some song that I think is called "I'm in Heaven" (I hate it)
- Greatest American Hero theme
- Suicide is Painless (M*A*S*H theme)
- Many, many well-known classical songs. Many. Vivaldi's a fave.
- Many TV and commercial tunes.
- Another one bites the dust

Too bad my kid's asleep, he'd be all over making a list of the crap I whistle. It drives him bonkers.
posted by ick at 9:04 PM on September 16, 2007

When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again HURRAH! HURRAH!

The Kilrathi theme song from Wing Commander 2.
posted by porpoise at 9:14 PM on September 16, 2007

No love yet for "The Entertainer"?

My dad whistles constantly, and he tends to start with a song I don't know, but should: Badadada da da da da da, badadada da da da da da, badadada da da da da da, dadadada, dadada, dadada (cymbals). This can be repeated until my mom starts yelling or until my brother picks up the tune.
posted by booksandlibretti at 9:17 PM on September 16, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

The song I just heard playing in the last store/coffee-shop/car I was in. I will whistle this song tunelessly and incessantly until my girlfriend finally smacks me. And then I'll start whistling a Gloria Estefan song, because she hates that.
posted by Ziggurat at 9:56 PM on September 16, 2007

The Queen of the Night motif from the Magic Flute.

I'm thinking you owe your wife at least three "I am not worthy"s. (This is the traditional way of settling bets among my friends and involves making an obeisance in a public setting while loudly proclaiming the ritual phrase.)

My partner asks: are you a musician of any kind yourself, and are you by any chance hard of hearing? How did you come up with this theory? These are sincere questions, not snarky or rhetorical.
posted by ottereroticist at 10:07 PM on September 16, 2007

I whistle the opening theme song from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
posted by zephyr_words at 10:22 PM on September 16, 2007

Scotland the Brave.
posted by wtdoor at 10:22 PM on September 16, 2007

"Ode to Newfoundland."

I think you owe your wife some serious silence, dude.
posted by YamwotIam at 10:39 PM on September 16, 2007

Summertime (and the livin' is easy). I think it's Coltrane's. Might be one of his though.
posted by Plug Dub In at 10:40 PM on September 16, 2007

whisled aimlessly for a while, arpeggios, until eventually Mr. Sandman came out.
posted by stray at 10:45 PM on September 16, 2007

Duke Ellington's Satin Doll
posted by MrHappyGoLucky at 11:00 PM on September 16, 2007

Today, theme from the Larry David Show. Usually, though, I'm with Plug Dub In - but Summertime is Gershwin's, bud.
posted by crinklebat at 11:17 PM on September 16, 2007

I'm with those who said the Andy Griffith theme.
posted by srrh at 11:26 PM on September 16, 2007

The theme to The A-Team.
posted by malpractice at 11:27 PM on September 16, 2007

I cannot whistle, but my boyfriend just whistled Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee. He is not a religious man.
posted by rhapsodie at 11:35 PM on September 16, 2007

The Colonel Bogey March. (You know, River Kwai, one ball, &c.)

Partly because I have a kazoo on top of my monitor which was handed out at the July 4 concert so we all could play ... the Colonel Bogey March.

I only learned how to play the darned thing the next day. Unfortunately, so did half the crowd.
posted by dhartung at 11:53 PM on September 16, 2007

I whistled a non-existing tune.
posted by Skyanth at 12:24 AM on September 17, 2007

No thinking, no previewing, I got 1812 Overture right here.
posted by iguanapolitico at 1:06 AM on September 17, 2007

Blue Monk
posted by al_fresco at 1:33 AM on September 17, 2007

A Night in Tunisia.
posted by enrevanche at 1:42 AM on September 17, 2007

"I'd Rather Charleston."
posted by No-sword at 1:42 AM on September 17, 2007

Fly Me To The Moon.
posted by creeky at 2:57 AM on September 17, 2007

3rding "If I Only Had a Brain".
posted by wafaa at 3:38 AM on September 17, 2007

Thirding The Great Escape theme.
posted by knapah at 4:33 AM on September 17, 2007

Whistle While You Work. Which is odd, because I'm reading Ask to avoid doing any work right now.
posted by MrMustard at 4:48 AM on September 17, 2007

'Rule Britannia', 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly', or three or four others that I can't remember right now.
posted by BrotherCaine at 5:09 AM on September 17, 2007

Fascinating. I can't whistle, but I started humming the lift-muzak version of a Foo Fighters song (whose name I forget) that plays at the start of 'Monkey Wrench'. The internal jukebox is permanently stuck on shuffle though, ask me half an hour later and it'll be something entirely different.
posted by corvine at 5:49 AM on September 17, 2007

Pennsylvania 69000. Your theory is either hefty confirmation bias, or you've never heard anybody else whistle, ever.
posted by bonaldi at 6:26 AM on September 17, 2007

I think they all just sound the same because most people suck at it.
posted by dame at 6:28 AM on September 17, 2007

Ok, this is painful so I'm going to wrap it up.

If I were ever discuss this with my wife again, which I will not:

- You know that theory of mine? I'm mostly right. "If I Only Had a Brain" was in fact one of the most frequently whistled tunes on AskMe.

- Oh? By a ten to one margin?

- Not really. No.

- So would you say this is another example of your noticing a predilection in yourself and then extrapolating it to all of mankind because of your incredible narcissism and your need to make complicated things simple for your simple walnut-sized brain?

- That could potentially be true.

- If you only had a brain.

- Right.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:08 AM on September 17, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

That whistling track from 'Kill Bill vol. 1'.
posted by TwoWordReview at 7:16 AM on September 17, 2007

DJ Riko's Whistler's Delight
posted by anthill at 8:37 AM on September 17, 2007

That one will satisfy all your whistling needs for over 7 minutes... (oh, and "don't worry be happy")
posted by anthill at 8:42 AM on September 17, 2007

Deck The Halls....go figure
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 8:55 AM on September 17, 2007

To be fair, if you had framed the post like this, you might have gotten less divergent responses.

Whistle a melody, right now. What melody is it?







I have long contended that when people randomly whistle a tune, walking down the street or whatever, 9 times out of 10 they will be whistling a certain melody. I have no basis for this contention other than gut suspicion. My wife scoffs.

Once the responses here start to tail off, I'll reveal whether I get to do the "IN YOUR FACE!!! dance for my wife, or whether I mysteriously never speak of this with her again.
posted by ottereroticist at 9:14 AM on September 17, 2007

To be fair, if you had framed the post like this, you might have gotten less divergent responses.

I think I got a fair amount of "here's the melody in my head right now," or, "here's what I think I would whistle."

Ideally you need somebody following people down the boulevard who are twirling their walking stick and tossing silver dollars to the urchins, and then writing down what it is they're whistling.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 9:37 AM on September 17, 2007

Under those exact circumstances, of course, it would always be "If I Only Had a Brain."
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 9:38 AM on September 17, 2007

Flanders, i instantly thought "If I only had a brain" as well. But unfortunately, I am not 9 out of 10 people.
posted by Happydaz at 9:45 AM on September 17, 2007

Seconding Harlem Globetrotters.
posted by Fat Charlie the Archangel at 9:49 AM on September 17, 2007

Just now, it's a Bulgarian tune we danced to last night. It's often swing music, as I prefer a strong melody for whistling.
posted by theora55 at 9:58 AM on September 17, 2007

New York, New York.
posted by Stewriffic at 10:16 AM on September 17, 2007

Windmills of Your Mind.


Your theory is bunk.
posted by CunningLinguist at 10:26 AM on September 17, 2007

I hate to drive the final nail in the coffin, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone whistling "If I Only Had a Brain." Ever.
posted by languagehat at 11:25 AM on September 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

When I whistle, it's usually "You are my sunshine" but when I hum, it's always "Mary had a little lamb"
posted by rmless at 11:55 AM on September 17, 2007

Wait, this question isn't related to this?
posted by CunningLinguist at 1:50 PM on September 17, 2007

I'm always whistling "If I Only Had a Brain".
posted by rsclark at 4:47 PM on September 17, 2007

The Entertainer too, and well I guess it's because I'm always whistling it to our little parrot in the vain hope that he'll learn it someday.
posted by papafrita at 5:19 PM on September 17, 2007

cunninglinguist, it is related in that my seeing that on Drudge reminded me of (and seemed to confirm) my theory, which in fact I have held, like a crazy man with a smelly blanket, for many years. The article prompted the discussion with my wife. So count that as a vote from the Juice supporting "Brain."
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 5:46 PM on September 17, 2007

Ah, I remembered the other tune I whistle a lot: the theme from Wallace and Gromit "Grand Day Out".
posted by hattifattener at 8:12 PM on September 17, 2007

Kingdom Coming, which might not go over that well here in the South. Well, only if they watched the entirety of the Ken Burn's Civil War documentary.
posted by Mercaptan at 10:51 PM on October 9, 2007