Backbone > Ear Whacks

Puckering Up: LIP SCHTICK FOR A LOST ART
By Sharon Nichols . Photo by Tom DiMauro

Show tunes have always given me a rash. Until now, that is. Steve “the Whistler” Herbst has forever changed my tune. The mere sight of his debut CD, Broadway and Beyond, rocks my galaxy to the very core. He’s there on the front cover in black tux and snazzy red bow tie like a purse-lipped Joe Pesci; on the back cover, he’s blithely reclined on the trunk of his car, the license plate “WHISTLR” an obvious draw to the eye. But my true transformation from blasé to bliss took place in the first ten seconds of this recording with “We Kiss in a Shadow” from the “King and I.” Was this a musical saw I was listening to? Dazzling.

I frolicked through the living room as the International Grand Champion Whistler seduced me with “I Feel Pretty” from his “West Side Story” medley. Stunning. Doing the dishes that evening to “The Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha,” “I Could Have Danced All Night” from “My Fair Lady,” and “Memory” from “Cats” was joy upon joy. I called several friends to play them snippets from the 15 Broadway hits over the phone. The verdict was unanimous: This CD is pure, unadulterated rapture. I had finally mastered my inner cartwheel, discovered the true meaning of life, and found the solution to the reversal of entropy—whistled show tunes!

Like many listeners Steve “The Whistler” Herbst has encountered, I wasn’t aware that I should be taking the art more seriously. I mean, he was whistling “Maria,” for godsake. Herbst, however, is deadly serious about what he does, and after chatting with him, I understood why.

He took this youngster back on the timeline to an era when instrumental whistling was a true art form, back to a blessed, golden age when names like Elmo Tanner, Gene Kelly, Harpo Marx, Fred Lowery, Bing Crosby, and prima donna Alice Shaw brought whistling to the forefront. Movies such as The High and the Mighty and The Bridge on the River Kwai also kept whistling a favorite pastime, as did the ever popular “Andy Griffith Show.” To our parents and grandparents, using lips and lungs as an instrument was a familiar and highly respected art. Today it’s considered an oddity or, worse yet, a joke. If birds, whales, and dolphins can do it seriously through the ages, why not us?

“My biggest challenge is getting people to accept that whistling is something they want to listen to,” said Herbst. He told me of an encounter with a neighbor in Garrison who, when seeing his grand prize trophy from the International Whistlers Convention, asked to hear the winning whistle, as if Herbst would immediately produce the loudest, shrillest, or longest single note blast, like a dog whistle or taxi call. “Unfortunately, that was her notion of whistling. There’s a lack of awareness and appreciation for whistling as a musical art form, as most people have never been exposed to good whistling and have no idea what it’s like. But in the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s there were commercially successful whistlers who were well known, traveled with the big bands, and were household names. They were very much appreciated.”

Herbst explained that in recent decades, portable electronic devices such as walkmans, boom boxes, and even cell phones with games have caused internal (or self) entertainment to fall by the wayside. As a child, Herbst saw it happening when transistor radios began accompanying neighbors on their daily walks. “People stopped entertaining themselves. So, there aren’t too many individuals out there who’ve heard good whistling, or have had an example set for them. Whistling is a lost art, a loner’s art.” His motto: “Whistling is an idea whose time has returned.”

Born in Ossining, New York, into a musical family, Herbst has been whistling for half a century and is self-taught, with a three-octave range (as a singing baritone, he can deliver only two octaves and five notes). Whistling was a private joy for him growing up as he developed his own range, timbre, and tune; publicly, he began singing at age seven to audiences of 1,000 or more and was a member of his junior high and president of his senior high school chorus. His professional whistling career began unexpectedly while performing as a singing soloist with the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club.

“The director used to whistle to simulate flutes,” recalls Herbst. “One night he came up dry, which is a scary thing for a whistler. After the concert I told him I could do it for him. And he said, ‘Fine, it’s all yours.’ For the rest of my undergraduate career, I was whistling with the Glee Club.” Before he knew it, he was simulating flutes and recorders for members of the Japanese royal family, and whistling classical, jazz, blues, pop, and Broadway tunes on the BBC, UPN, Fox, CNN, “The Today Show,” “Eyewitness News,” and CBS’s “Early Show.” Other more regal performances have taken place at The Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, and Carnegie Hall. It was his rendition of “Danny Boy,” along with Franz Lizst’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2,” that snagged him the international award in Louisburg, North Carolina, in 2001, beating out 23 other whistlers who traveled from as far as India. He’s enjoyed performing for children and has considered teaching this lost art to help preserve it. He’d like to whistle in commercials and on soundtracks, but his ultimate goal is to guest star with symphony and pop orchestras, standing in for a singer, violinist, or flautist.

“Some say I am to whistling what James Galway is to the flute,” Herbst asserts. “My whistling gets compared to all sorts of instruments—flutes, recorders, trumpets, violins, musical saws, oboes, and even a Theremin.”

With such an ethereal sound, one might imagine that there are also some holistic advantages behind the lost art of whistling. “It has some definite mind and body benefits,” he explains. “People chant to get into a zone, and whistling can do a similar thing. It can transcend normal sounds and hit a certain chord in the body. People tend to find whistling very soothing and relaxing. I hear from people all the time that listening to my whistling—especially my CD—has calmed down babies, children, and pets. I even know a psychotherapist who plays my CD between sessions to clean the angst out of the room, to chill out after listening to somebody’s woes for an hour.”

More than just a relaxation tool for the listener, the art improves lung power and capacity for the whistler. “In my practice, I whistle going uphill while breathing in and out. It’s similar to how a baseball batter puts extra weights on the bat in practice, then swings at the plate without them. The bat is not as heavy, so he can swing it faster or more easily. Whistling going uphill increases lung capacity by putting a certain amount of stress on them to make them work better. When I’m in a performance without the stress, I have more impressive lung power.”

Herbst not only practices his instrument while walking uphill; he whistles in the car, in the shower, and walking to and from his day job in recruitment advertising and employee communications in Manhattan. Pedestrians are drawn to his music, sometimes following the pied piper for blocks.

Having recently performed at his Ossining High School 40th reunion, Herbst is now contemplating the genre of his second recording. Should it be classical, love songs, kid’s songs, or Christmas songs? I recommended the latter, musing selfishly once again on the cheer I could discover in yet another genre that gives me hives. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said. “But I’m contemplating what would have the widest appeal.” He enjoys being a recording artist and a competitive whistler, but ultimately he says there’s nothing like performing for a live audience. “Seeing the reaction on people’s faces, watch it go from skepticism to awe…they just can’t believe what they’re seeing and hearing.”

Aside from getting listeners to take him seriously, there are a few other challenges Herbst must hurdle. One is mastering “Flight of the Bumble Bee.” Other hurdles are colds, coughs, or chapped lips. “If my lips are out of shape, I’m out of business,” he says. His wife, Melinda, might agree: she says this kisser has great lips.

Intrigued yet? If so, visit stevethewhistler.com for the sheer entertainment of hearing a live performance or two, or to watch “The Whistler” in action in a streaming video from Kennedy Center. To order Broadway and Beyond, send a check or money order for $17 per CD plus $3 shipping/handling (add $1 shipping for each additional CD) payable to: Steve "The Whistler" Herbst, P.O. Box 7044, F.D.R. Station, New York, NY 10022.