Who Whistles Morricone?

June 22, 2007 4:27 AM

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.
posted by Holly to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

According to the Wikipedia entry, it was Alessandro Alessandroni.

No confirmation on his official site though, but in the absence of anything else I think you'll have to go with it.
posted by Nugget at 4:47 AM on June 22, 2007

Wikipedia says the whistling was done by Alessandroni.
posted by amyms at 4:48 AM on June 22, 2007

Oops, Nugget beat me.
posted by amyms at 4:48 AM on June 22, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks, Nugget and amyms: the problem is, that there's a Spanish guy called Kurt Savoy who's built an entire career around the fact that it was him! So I'll keep on hunting...
posted by Holly at 4:53 AM on June 22, 2007

Best answer: Informative article on Alessandroni that credits him with the shrieks and wah-wah sounds, too.
posted by loosemouth at 4:59 AM on June 22, 2007

Best answer: There was an AWESOME (and I don't use that term lightly) NPR story on Morricone that talked specifically about "the whistler."

I heard it as a podcast so I'm not sure which story it was, but you should check out this one and this one and this one.
posted by Brittanie at 5:15 AM on June 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks, all!
posted by Holly at 2:44 PM on June 22, 2007