Whistle While You Work

"Whistle While You Work" is a song with music written by Frank Churchill and lyrics written by Larry Morey for the 1937 animated Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was performed in the film, at least unofficially, by voice actress Adriana Caselotti. It also is featured in the 1979 stage adaption.

In popular culture

• Shep Fields collaborated with John Serry Sr. to record the song for Bluebird Records in 1937.[1]
• The song is heard in the Oscar-winning 1938 Frank Capra film You Can't Take It with You.
• The song is heard in the 1941 film noir Crime Drama Out of the Fog.
• The song was covered by Alvin and the Chipmunks for their 1959 debut album Let's All Sing with The Chipmunks and would later be adapted into a musical segment on The Alvin Show in 1962.
• Louis Armstrong recorded a cover of the song for his album Disney Songs the Satchmo Way in 1968.[2][3] Armstrong's cover of the song was used in a commercial for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7.[4]
• The song is also heard in the 1988 film Splash, Too, the sequel to the 1984 film Splash during a scene when Allen and Madison fix up their new home that Allen's brother Freddie got for them after he sold his apartment and afterwards Madison whistles the song as well while making breakfast.
• A reference to the song was made in the first episode of DuckTales; at one point, Scrooge McDuck tells an employee "There'll be no whistling while you work!"
• A children's parody version of the song often uses lyrics such as "Hitler is a jerk, Mussolini is a weenie." (Or in a more vulgar vein, "...Mussolini bit his weenie, now it doesn't squirt (or "work" in another version)!" or "...Mussolini chopped his weenie, now it doesn't work!" ) Several variants are cited in Iona and Peter Opie's survey, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. One variant is "Whistle While You Work. Hitler is a jerk, Mussolini is a meanie and the Japs are worse."
• Sony Music included a Children's Chorus version on the 3-CD release Favorite Children's Songs in 2004.[5]
• The song was also parodied in the British sitcom Dad's Army where Private Pike remarks "Whistle while you work, Hitler is a twerp. He's half barmy, so's his army, whistle while you work" to a captured German officer, which led to the well-known line "don't tell him, Pike!", in the episode "The Deadly Attachment" (series 6, 1973).
• The Family Guy episode "Whistle While Your Wife Works" is a parody of the name of the song.
• The song is paid tribute to in Disney's Enchanted with "Happy Working Song."
• The melody of the song is whistled near the end of The Smiths 1984 song "How Soon Is Now?"
• The Looney Tunes 1958 cartoon "Weasel While You Work" is a parody of the name of the song.
• The Kidsongs Kids and the Camp Counselors sing this song while putting on a show on their 1989 video "A Day at Camp".
• Brian Wilson covered it in a medley on his album In the Key of Disney, which was released on October 25, 2011.
• Toby Turner, Chester See, and Wayne Bradey made a song called "Whistle While I Work It".
• The National Youth Jazz Orchestra included a big band version in their Setting Standards album.
• Homer Simpson sings the song in the episode Wild Barts Can't Be Broken which is the eleventh episode of the tenth season of The Simpsons.
• The song is heard at the end of "Where Somebody Waits For Me", an episode of Pretty Little Liars.

References

1. The American Dance Band Discography 1917-1942 Vol. 1. Rust, Brian. Arlington House Publishers, New Rochelle, New York, 1975, P. 516 ISBN 0-87000-248-1
2. as mentioned in the book "Louis Armstrong: The Life, Music, and Screen Career" by Scott Allen Nollen, p. 183
3. Louis Armstrong - Topic (2016-04-14), Whistle While You Work, retrieved 2016-08-17
4. The Phone Commercials HD (2016-08-03), Samsung Galaxy Note7 Commercial, retrieved 2016-08-17
5. Sony Music A3K 74640

External links

• Disney Sing-Along on YouTube (on Disney's official channel)