SLIM WHITMAN – "Rose Marie"

It sounds like it was recorded in a ghost town, with its clanking pianola and tumbleweed vocal. It’s definitely addictive and – as the best selling single of 1955 – indicative of how the British public’s tastes were switching to something earthier than David Whitfield.

That too-brief burst of slide guitar sweeping upwards into the cloudless sky is pure Joe Meek. I’ll bet he was a fan.

His tally of hits is tiny (4 Top 10s, 3 more Top 20s) considering that a Very Best Of got to number one in that weirdly countrified year, 1976. Even so he was far less well known in the States – one “hit” which stalled at 93.

TV advertising for an American comp in the late 70s saw Slim on screen telling the folks how he’d been number one in England longer than Elvis or the Beatles (well, Rose Marie stayed there for 11 weeks). It worked – he sold 1.5 million copies of the thing.

Only two comments! I thought Popular would hate this, nice to be proven wrong!

Yes, it has an other-worldly quality that marks it out from everything else so far; it’s the first one that doesn’t sound like light entertainment! Not surprising, since it was the first #1 to be recorded in Louisiana… (and have many others been since?)

You’re right about it being an old song; it was the title theme to a 1924 operetta! “The story takes place in the Canadian Rockies and concerns Rose Marie La Flemme, a French Canadian girl who loves miner Jim Kenyon. When Jim falls under suspicion for murder, her brother Èmile plans for Rose Marie to marry Edward Hawley, a city man.”

The MGM Eastman colour film was released in mid-to-late 1954 over here, starring Ann Blyth and Howard Keel. Slim’s recording was issued on London 78rpm in July 1954 (and 45rpm in October 1954). I did wonder why it became a hit so late here, and found this in a bio: “A promoter managed to have it played to the English people via a radio station in Luxembourg.”

For us anoraks, it’s interesting to note that the most commonly found pressing of the 78 has the familiar silver “American Pressings” label, but a more basic gold lettered one also turns up. At a guess, the label had changed their design by the time it entered the charts, so when they had to start manufacturing after the initial run, it was with the contemporary design.

I believe 1955 was about the point that record sales actually began to overtake those of sheet music: this record is a good example of the turning point, as it was the first (and only) 50s #1 not to make the sheet music charts at all.

Lastly, Slim was discovered by a certain Colonel Tom Parker!

DESERT ISLAND DISC WATCH (Up to 11/04/11)

Leslie Grantham, actor(1989)

Yes, a raised bat as Slim heads for the pavilion. Ours was one of the many households which helped his Very Best Of to head the album listings here in the mid seventies. The purchaser was my Edwardian dad. Suprisingly perhaps, the teenaged Swede did not protest and indeed quite liked the compilation. Rose Marie, of course, was already well known to a chart-obsessed young loon because of what it did. It remains for me a delightful little serenade, and you can just imagine the pork and beans a-cooking in the tin as Slim croons away.

It’s got an atmosphere to it, slightly haunting, which makes it linger in the memory. Amazingly its a song that features both yodelling and whistling, and yet it doesn’t grate your nerves. 6/10.