Comments on: SLIM WHITMAN - “Rose Marie” http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/2003/10/slim-whitman-rose-marie/ Lollards in the high church of low culture Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:55:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: wichita lineman http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/2003/10/slim-whitman-rose-marie/#comment-431852 wichita lineman Fri, 30 May 2008 19:48:55 +0000 http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/2003/10/slim-whitman-rose-marie/#comment-431852 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. 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.

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