Hi to all

just browsing Mudcat when I should be doing something else (as usual) and stumbled across an old thread titled "Folklore: The Great Watershed of 1958". On 25th July 2003 someone had posted an entry including the words "Mention Frank Ifield to an American and he'll come up blank, because Frank Ifield's hits were covers of Slim Whitman songs".

As a great lover of Whitman's voice - he was the one who really got me into country music - I have to say that whilst that is complimentary to Whitman, it is simply not true.

I also happen to greatly enjoy Frank's music and I have interviewed both him and Whitman on several occasions through the years. Each admires the work of the other and they share many of the same influences but they were not major influences on each other. The fact that they both use the falsetto voice and sing some of the same songs is more attributable to shared influences than to one covering the hits of the other.

In fact the only song that I can think of that one actually "covered" is "I Remember You" which was Frank's huge international hit of 1962. Slim covered the hit - including the arrangement - in 1966. Frank did not "cover" any of Slim's hits and Slim did not "cover" any of the remaining hits of Frank Ifield.

As examples of both choosing the same songs but not attempting to "cover" one another, Frank recorded "China Doll" but learned it from the Ames Brothers - his version bore no similarity to Slim's hit. They both recorded "A Fool Such as I" - probably both learning it from Hank Snow. Frank did however write and record a song about the outback town of "Yerranderie" back in the late 50s. He had greatly enjoyed Slim's "North Wind" at the time and used a similar melody. Come to think of it, "Yerranderie" is a bona fide original song about a real place and an historical event - should it be in the digitrad?

They did though share some of the same influences. Both have been influenced by the repertoires of the great balladeers; for instance they both recorded Gene Austin's "My Blue Heaven" Frank a cvouple of years before Slim. Whilst Frank also shows musical influences as well as singing the great old songs, Slim draws on the same repertoires but shows mainly country influences. Thus, Whitman takes a gentle, lilting country arrangement of "My blue Heaven" whereas Frank takes a more bluesy approach but includes some imprssive falsetto more akin to Elton Britt.

Both were influenced by the singing cowboy genre - Frank specifically loved Roy Rogers, Slim's wife loved Gene Autry and Slim sang many of his songs to please her. Both drew on the repertoire of Bob Nolan and the Sons Of the Pioneers - each recording "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", "Cool Water", "Love Song Of The waterfall" but with totally different arrangements to one another.

Growing up in Australia in the late early 50s, Frank was especially influenced by Canadian country artistes through their Australian releases and cites Wilf Carter, Hank Snow and Orval Prophet alongside the Aussie artistes like Tex Morton (actually from NZ but became known as "The Father Of Australian Country Music", Buddy Williams, Tim Mcnamara, Smoky Dawson and Shirley Thoms. All these artistes were yodellers and it was this environment that led him to try yodelling. He also cites England's legendary yodeller Harry Torrani whose records were very popular in Australia.

Growing up in Florida, Slim shared the influence of Wilf Carter but was inspired to yodel through the music of Jimmie Rodgers (although he only ever recorded one Rodgers song, "My Little Lady"). Whilst Frank always enjoyed Rodgers, he was not a major influence and Frank never recorded a Rodgers song. He did though adopt many of Carter's yodels and cites Carter as a major influence. Frank's first commercial recording in 1953 had Carter's "There's a love Knot In My Lariat" on one side and was a yodelling showpiece. He recorded the song about 4 years before Whitman who used a totally different arrangement.

Both cite Elton Britt as a major influence although Frank only recorded one major britt song, "Maybe I'll cry Over You" - about six years before whitman did it. Frank used a similar yodel to Britt but a different arrangement, Whitman used some falsetto but did not yodel at all. Whitman did however record many more songs associated with Britt including "Too Tired To Care", "Blue Eyes crying In The Rain", "Swiss Lullaby", "Chime bells", Mockingbird Hill", etc.

Both Frank and Slim were in turn great influences on countless others - including Paul McCartney, who I understand has attributed the falsetto in songs like "She Loves you" to Whitman and plays guitar left handed since seeing Whitman. He actually covered "I Remember You" after hearing Frank's version. I also understand that Frank gave the Beatles their first break outside Liverpool after Brian Epstein asked him to have them as guests on his stage show.

I could go on and bore everyone to death but will stop. My point is that both these artistes are great original talents. Both often are the butt of ignorant jibes (neither is bothered!) and both have provided a long legacy of fine recordings.

I urge the sceptics to go back and listen to them with an open mind and open ears - some might be pleasantly surprised, many more already know!

I'd be interested in your views - debate is always healthy!!

PAUL