Comments on: Whistle -- now, what melody is that?

Question: Whistle -- now, what melody is that?

stupidsexyFlanders — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:11:41 -0800

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.

By: corpse

corpse — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:16:03 -0800

Theme to the Andy Griffith Show.

By: frobozz

frobozz — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:17:07 -0800

'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.

By: phoenixy

phoenixy — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:17:44 -0800

Greensleeves.

By: The Confessor

The Confessor — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:18:53 -0800

Bless Your Beautiful Hide from the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

By: dmd

dmd — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:19:17 -0800

Theme from Leisure Suit Larry.

By: danb

danb — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:19:26 -0800

Bonnie and Slyde by Béla Fleck.

By: Bella Sebastian

Bella Sebastian — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:20:05 -0800

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."

By: thirteenkiller

thirteenkiller — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:20:16 -0800

My Humps

By: dhammond

dhammond — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:20:37 -0800

If I Only Had a Brain.

By: CKmtl

CKmtl — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:20:50 -0800

The first bit of Strangers In The Night.

By: advicepig

advicepig — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:21:01 -0800

John Coltrane's "Favorite Things"

By: god hates math

god hates math — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:21:12 -0800

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.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:21:20 -0800

Camptown Races

By: notsnot

notsnot — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:22:13 -0800

Seconding dhammond. Though, often I find myseld whistling the same unknown tune my grandpa has whistled forat least 25 years.

By: jenkinsEar

jenkinsEar — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:22:37 -0800

Roxanne, but the rare B-side cover by Frank Zappa with the wailers.

By: equalpants

equalpants — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:22:57 -0800

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.

By: advicepig

advicepig — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:23:20 -0800

Mrs. Advicepig whistles Row, Row, Row Your Boat

By: equalpants

equalpants — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:24:27 -0800

P.S. You're eventually going to tell us what you had in mind, no?

By: rob511

rob511 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:26:02 -0800

"Hitler has only got one ball" (aka Lament der deutschen Debutant)

By: amyms

amyms — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:32:59 -0800

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.

By: Secretariat

Secretariat — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:33:53 -0800

I can't whistle.

By: Cyrano

Cyrano — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:34:42 -0800

The whistling bit from The Great Escape.

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:34:58 -0800

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.

By: thirteenkiller

thirteenkiller — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:35:57 -0800

Great Escape theme!

By: jrossi4r

jrossi4r — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:37:34 -0800

Theme from the Odd Couple.

By: pearlybob

pearlybob — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:38:19 -0800

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?".

By: thirteenkiller

thirteenkiller — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:39:03 -0800

Mario Underwater theme

By: Pinback

Pinback — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:43:09 -0800

"My Chinchilla" by cub.

(I think you're being proven wrong...)

By: thehmsbeagle

thehmsbeagle — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:43:39 -0800

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."

By: ALongDecember

ALongDecember — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:43:57 -0800

Sweet Georgia Brown, the Harlem Globetrotter's theme.

By: Malor

Malor — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:44:11 -0800

I don't even know the same of it... some march, I think, maybe by Sousa?

By: Malor

Malor — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:44:23 -0800

sigh. "name of it".

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:44:26 -0800

Godfather Theme.

By: beandip

beandip — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:44:28 -0800

The Blues Run the Game

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:45:38 -0800

"When I'm 64" by the Beatles.

I'll join the scoffing camp with your wife.

By: grateful

grateful — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:47:43 -0800

Seconding Odd Couple.

By: thebrokedown

thebrokedown — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:58:09 -0800

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.

By: intermod

intermod — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:00:31 -0800

"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".

By: misterbrandt

misterbrandt — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:00:33 -0800

Axel F (the original version)

By: Verdandi

Verdandi — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:01:54 -0800

The Brinstar theme from Super Metroid.

What?

By: slactoid

slactoid — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:04:32 -0800

Chariots of Fire

By: Hargrimm

Hargrimm — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:05:07 -0800

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.

By: timory

timory — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:05:35 -0800

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.

By: Rock Steady

Rock Steady — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:06:20 -0800

The Johnny Carson era Tonight Show theme.

By: wsp

wsp — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:11:57 -0800

"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.

By: escabeche

escabeche — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:33:18 -0800

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."

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:34:07 -0800

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

I think you lose. Just what did you have in mind?

By: wfrgms

wfrgms — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:36:07 -0800

Guns N' Roses Civil War... OH yeah!

By: twoporedomain

twoporedomain — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:37:17 -0800

The Girl From Ipanema

By: lemuria

lemuria — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:40:44 -0800

How Much is That Doggie in the Window?

By: croutonsupafreak

croutonsupafreak — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:46:13 -0800

I can't hold a tune, but my husband says he whistles Joe Henderson, Blue Bossa.

By: shelleycat

shelleycat — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:04:17 -0800

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.

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:04:40 -0800

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.

By: ick

ick — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:04:47 -0800

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.

By: porpoise

porpoise — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:14:28 -0800

When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again HURRAH! HURRAH!

The Kilrathi theme song from Wing Commander 2.

By: booksandlibretti

booksandlibretti — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:17:53 -0800

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.

By: Ziggurat

Ziggurat — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:56:27 -0800

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.

By: ottereroticist

ottereroticist — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:07:53 -0800

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.

By: zephyr_words

zephyr_words — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:22:00 -0800

I whistle the opening theme song from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

By: wtdoor

wtdoor — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:22:05 -0800

Scotland the Brave.

By: YamwotIam

YamwotIam — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:39:31 -0800

"Ode to Newfoundland."

I think you owe your wife some serious silence, dude.

By: Plug Dub In

Plug Dub In — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:40:10 -0800

Summertime (and the livin' is easy). I think it's Coltrane's. Might be one of his though.

By: stray

stray — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:45:39 -0800

whisled aimlessly for a while, arpeggios, until eventually Mr. Sandman came out.

By: MrHappyGoLucky

MrHappyGoLucky — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:00:29 -0800

Duke Ellington's Satin Doll

By: crinklebat

crinklebat — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:17:26 -0800

Today, theme from the Larry David Show. Usually, though, I'm with Plug Dub In - but Summertime is Gershwin's, bud.

By: srrh

srrh — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:26:00 -0800

I'm with those who said the Andy Griffith theme.

By: malpractice

malpractice — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:27:43 -0800

The theme to The A-Team.

By: rhapsodie

rhapsodie — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:35:37 -0800

I cannot whistle, but my boyfriend just whistled Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee. He is not a religious man.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:53:11 -0800

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.

By: Skyanth

Skyanth — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:24:57 -0800

I whistled a non-existing tune.

By: iguanapolitico

iguanapolitico — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:06:34 -0800

No thinking, no previewing, I got 1812 Overture right here.

By: al_fresco

al_fresco — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:33:03 -0800

Blue Monk

By: enrevanche

enrevanche — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:42:16 -0800

A Night in Tunisia.

By: No-sword

No-sword — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:42:51 -0800

"I'd Rather Charleston."

By: creeky

creeky — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 02:57:53 -0800

Fly Me To The Moon.

By: wafaa

wafaa — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 03:38:42 -0800

3rding "If I Only Had a Brain".

By: knapah

knapah — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:33:13 -0800

Thirding The Great Escape theme.

By: MrMustard

MrMustard — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:48:51 -0800

Whistle While You Work. Which is odd, because I'm reading Ask to avoid doing any work right now.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 05:09:05 -0800

'Rule Britannia', 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly', or three or four others that I can't remember right now.

By: corvine

corvine — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 05:49:58 -0800

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.

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 06:26:06 -0800

Pennsylvania 69000. Your theory is either hefty confirmation bias, or you've never heard anybody else whistle, ever.

By: dame

dame — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 06:28:46 -0800

I think they all just sound the same because most people suck at it.

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 07:08:50 -0800

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.

By: TwoWordReview

TwoWordReview — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 07:16:12 -0800

That whistling track from 'Kill Bill vol. 1'.

By: anthill

anthill — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:37:19 -0800

DJ Riko's Whistler's Delight

By: anthill

anthill — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:42:10 -0800

That one will satisfy all your whistling needs for over 7 minutes... (oh, and "don't worry be happy")

By: BozoBurgerBonanza

BozoBurgerBonanza — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:55:13 -0800

Deck The Halls....go figure

By: ottereroticist

ottereroticist — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:14:27 -0800

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.

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:37:12 -0800

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.

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:38:17 -0800

Under those exact circumstances, of course, it would always be "If I Only Had a Brain."

By: Happydaz

Happydaz — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:45:31 -0800

Flanders, i instantly thought "If I only had a brain" as well. But unfortunately, I am not 9 out of 10 people.

By: Fat Charlie the Archangel

Fat Charlie the Archangel — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:49:02 -0800

Seconding Harlem Globetrotters.

By: theora55

theora55 — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:58:25 -0800

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.

By: Stewriffic

Stewriffic — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:16:58 -0800

New York, New York.

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:26:05 -0800

Windmills of Your Mind.

Your theory is bunk.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:25:40 -0800

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.

By: rmless

rmless — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:55:43 -0800

When I whistle, it's usually "You are my sunshine" but when I hum, it's always "Mary had a little lamb"

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:50:07 -0800

Wait, this question isn't related to this?

By: rsclark

rsclark — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:47:36 -0800

I'm always whistling "If I Only Had a Brain".

By: papafrita

papafrita — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:19:51 -0800

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.

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:46:52 -0800

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."

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:12:32 -0800

Ah, I remembered the other tune I whistle a lot: the theme from Wallace and Gromit "Grand Day Out".

By: Mercaptan

Mercaptan — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:51:34 -0800

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.