Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with whistling

Specific song with whistling in it?

crios — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:27:48 -0800

I'm looking for a specific song with whistling in it. I heard it in a bar so I couldn't catch the lyrics but the song had a singing chorus and then a whistling chorus that it started and ended with (I think). It had had an upbeat tempo and seemed to only consist of drums, a bass line and vocals (as well as the whistling). The singing seemed to be in a monotone style except for the singing chorus. Any ideas?

Movie in which thieves sync their heist with songs?

oxit — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 09:13:06 -0800

What's that movie in which two male thieves synchronise the timing of their heist by whistling jazz songs? I've seen it probably in the eighties, the jazz songs most probably where swing standards and the whistling might have been singing or even humming. Still I think the respectives parts of the movie where accompanied with the real music, played by a band.

Unfortunately search engines and movie database's similarity features didn't help. Thanks for letting me tap your memorisation.

Blow This!

mattoxic — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:51:11 -0800

I love an early morning walk with my two dogs, it’s quite, cool and apart from me, the dogs and a very few others- I am alone for a brief hour- it has become a very important ritual for me. I take the dogs to a large “off leash” reserve where we can have a good long walk, I get some time to be alone and think before the busy day and teh dogs get a good walk. Timing is important- any later and the park is quite full- plus I need to be home to get the kids off to school and me off to work- any earlier and it’s dark.

In the last weeks there has been an interloper who is ruining my mornings, and in kinder moments I refer to her as the Whistling Lady.

She has a loud whistle that she repeatedly and loudly blows as she marches along, as in hup two three four TWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET - hup two three four TWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET hup two... ad fucking nauseam.

I’m no shrinking violet in these matters, and when someone is doing something that I find annoying I will either leave the scene or confront the annoyance- so in an attempt to rescue the situation, I heartily bailed up the Whistling Lady and cheerily bade her good morning- I then very politely asked her if she could moderate the whistling.

Well no, she can’t. She needs her dogs to be aware of where she is at all times, and it’s a public park and she can do what she wants- and who am I to be telling people what to do- then she was off, hup two three four.

Now it seems that I have exacerbated the situation. She now whistles almost constantly and very loudly (almost like warning or emergency) when she sees me or my dogs- she’s made my morning walk untenable. I was polite when I raised the issue with her, but she’s taken that as some declaration of war.

There are numerous reasons why I don’t want to change where or what time I walk, wear mp3 player etc- and fuck it, I shouldn’t have to. This is anti social behaviour dressed up as a girl guides leader.

What to do? I obviously have no problems in sharing the park, I don’t even mind the odd whistle now and again- but a long blast of a whistle every five seconds for an hour is ridiculous.

How can I get her to stop?

Songs with whistling in them?

Effigy2000 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:11:29 -0800

Please recommend to me some songs that have whistling in them? My partner and I were listening to Monty Python's 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' song the other day and found ourselves enjoying whistling along to the whistling bit. She then remarked that there weren't enough songs with whistling in them. I had a bit of a think about it and y'know what? I can't think of a single other song that does.

I'm sure there are plenty of songs with whistling in them, so now I'm on a mission; to make and surprise her with a CD that has nothing but songs that have some whistling in it. So can you please recommend any songs that have whistling in them? I'm not looking for some old sea shanty or a wolf-whistle though; I'm talking about mainstream, well known music that has a whistling bit in it, ala 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.'

Thanks in advance!

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.

Who Whistles Morricone?

Holly — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 04:27:19 -0800

Whistlefilter: Who was the whistler on Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"? Was it Alessandro Alessandroni, or Kurt (Curro) Savoy? I've looked around the web for confirmation, but I'm not turning up anything definitive.

I'm just giving a little whistle, is all.

crinklebat — Wed, 30 May 2007 23:11:20 -0800

How do you feel about whistling? Specifically, how do you feel about people who whistle songs in public places? I love to whistle. I spend time honing my whistled versions of favorite songs, and when walking (especially at night), I enjoy really belting out my whistled tunes. If I heard someone else whistling in public and really putting themselves into it, I'd be delighted and possibly even approach them and talk to them about whistling. I love it!

However, I never hear anyone else whistling in public. Is this because the rest of the human race has reached a consensus that it's annoying? If you're someone who doesn't whistle while walking someplace in the dark, why not? How would you feel if you were walking near someone who was whistling really loud - say, for example, she was whistling "Summertime". What would you think? If she wasn't like whistling in your ear or anything, and if it wasn't indoors. Would you be like, "Damn, do I love that song"? Or more along the lines of, "Damn, do I hate that girl"?

I hate that I might be annoying people with what I feel to be a pretty awesome, fun habit. It never occurred to me that it might bug people (seriously, it really hasn't ever crossed my mind), but today I was whistling on my way to the bus a little after 9pm and a girl gave me some sort of Look. I couldn't tell what she was trying to convey, but it definitely has given me pause.

I'm going to buy a theremin in the next few months (and big headphones...both once I have a job) so I will have a musical outlet even if your comments convince me to stop whistling my little heart out. So be truthful! I get annoyed when people do things I think are inconsiderate in public spaces and I would prefer not to unknowingly be one of those people.

Compulsive tuneless whistling

mediareport — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:45:35 -0800

Have you ever been able to get someone who constantly, tunelessly whistles to themselves to stop? I recently met someone whose constant, tuneless whistling drove a roommate to leave. By tuneless I don't mean "out of tune" whistling of a song or melody; I mean casual, constant non-melodic whistling, whistling that doesn't go anywhere, doesn't sound like a recognizable anything, but continues almost non-stop anyway. Do folks know they're doing it? Are there programs that try to help them stop? Searching just yields info about annoying machine whistle noises and compulsive Tourette's-like neurological syndromes, but that doesn't quite seem to fit the folks who just go through life filling silence with relatively formless whistling sounds. Has anyone studied this kind of thing?

What's got into that cat?

10ch — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 08:32:07 -0800

Why does my cat go a little crazy when I whistle? Ollie is a good natured, but not terribly playful, manx. I recently got some (good) headphones for my ipod and discovered she has a near instant curiousity when I whistle. She will play bite my arm, get up in my face, sit on my arms (if I'm typing on my laptop) -- it's very cute and very abnormal behavior for her.

I wonder, does this bother her and she's trying to get me to stop? Or do cats respond to whistling in a similar way to dogs and I just never noticed it before?

???

Krrrlson — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 12:42:50 -0800

Is there an accepted way to type the noise one makes when whistling? Fweet-fweet? I'm out of ideas.

Just show me how to whistle...

Acey — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 16:34:47 -0800

Can anyone explain how to whistle, two-finger hailing-a-cab style?