Country singer recorded more than 65 albums and his 1955 version of Rose Marie was No 1 for 11 weeks in Britain
Country music star Slim Whitman has died at age 90 of heart failure at Orange Park medical centre in Florida.
The singer, whose tenor falsetto and ebony moustache and sideburns became global trademarks, recorded more than 65 albums and sold millions of records. His 1955 version of Rose Marie, the title song from the venerable operetta that spawned Indian Love Call, was No 1 for 11 weeks in Britain, where he was particularly popular.
The singer once encouraged a teen Elvis Presley when Whitman was the headliner on the bill and the rock legend was making his professional debut.
Born in Tampa, Florida, Whitman started his career in the late 1940s, but later had a career revival in the 1980s as a cult icon. "All of a sudden, here comes a guy in a black and white suit, with a moustache and a receding hairline, playing a guitar and singing Rose Marie," Whitman told AP in 1991. "They hadn't seen that."
He yodelled throughout his career and had a three-octave singing range. He said yodelling required a lot of rehearsal. "It's like a prize fighter. He knows he has a fight coming up, so he gets in the gym and trains. So when I have a show coming up, I practise yodelling."
In 1952, Whitman had his first hit, Love Song of the Waterfall, which 25 years later became part of the soundtrack of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Another Whitman hit from that year, Indian Love Call, was used in the 1996 film Mars Attacks! – his yodel caused the Martians' heads to explode.
Whitman's other hits included "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You," "Red River Valley," "Danny Boy" and "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen."
He was survived by his daughter, Sharon Beagle, and his son, Byron Whitman.