WHISTLING
Even though I will publicly deny it, I do have some bad habits and one of them is that I whistle, constantly and in the wrong places. And I admit that it’s a particularly unattractive and tuneless whistle. My Dad was a whistler and I think whistling was particularly prevalent in his generation and the one before. In the post-war years, millions whistled while they worked: window-cleaners, builders, delivery boys and, of course, the seven dwarfs. Performers made a living by whistling; no Music Hall bill was complete without a whistler and Ronnie Ronalde, in the 1950s, was acclaimed as the best and most successful whistler in the world. He topped variety bills and every one of his records passed the old grey whistle test, as the Americans say. The first top-40 record I remember which featured whistling was Singing the Blues with Guy Mitchell. Every cowboy performer worth his salt had whistling in his repertoire but there has been some publicity re...