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Yodeling (also jodeling) is a form of singing which involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or "chest voice") and the high-pitch head register or
falsetto Falsetto ( , ; Italian language, Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ...
. The English word ''yodel'' is derived from the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
word ''jodeln'', meaning "to utter the syllable ''jo''" (pronounced "yo"). This vocal technique is used in many cultures worldwide. Recent scientific research concerning yodeling and non-Western cultures suggests that music and speech may have evolved from a common
prosodic In linguistics, prosody () is the study of elements of speech, including intonation (linguistics), intonation, stress (linguistics), stress, Rhythm (linguistics), rhythm and loudness, that occur simultaneously with individual phonetic segments: v ...
precursor. Alpine yodeling was a longtime rural tradition in Europe, and became popular in the 1830s as entertainment in theaters and
music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...
s. In Europe, yodeling is still a major feature of folk music (''
Volksmusik Alpine folk music (; German's ''Volksmusik'' means "people's music" or as a Germanic connotative translation, "folk's music") is the common umbrella designation of a number of related styles of traditional folk music in the Alpine regions of S ...
'') from Switzerland, Austria, and southern Germany and can be heard in many contemporary folk songs, which are also featured on regular TV broadcasts. In the United States, traveling
minstrels A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enterta ...
were yodeling in the 19th century, and, in 1920, the Victor recording company listed 17 yodels in their catalogue. In 1928, blending Alpine yodeling with African American work and blues music styles and traditional folk music,
Jimmie Rodgers James Charles Rodgers ( – ) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who rose to popularity in the late 1920s. Widely regarded as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Country Music", he is best known for his di ...
released his recording " Blue Yodel No. 1". Rodgers' "
blue yodel The blue yodel songs are a series of thirteen songs written and recorded by Jimmie Rodgers during the period from 1927 to his death in May 1933. The songs were based on the 12-bar blues format and featured Rodgers’ trademark yodel refrains. T ...
", a term sometimes used to differentiate the earlier Austrian yodeling from the American form of yodeling introduced by Rodgers, created an instant national craze for yodeling in the United States; according to a black musician who lived near Rodgers in Mississippi, both black and white musicians began to copy Rodgers' style of vocal delivery. When
sound film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...
s first became available in the 1930s the industry began to turn out numerous films to meet the nation's fascination with the American cowboy. The
singing cowboy A singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western (genre), Western films. It references real-world campfire side ballads in the American frontier. The original cowboys sang of life on the trail with all the challenges, ...
was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
films, popularized by many of the
B-movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...
s of the 1930s and 1940s. The transformation of Rodgers' blue yodel to the cowboy yodel involved both a change in rhythm and a move away from Southern blues-type lyrics. Some yodels contained more of the Alpine type of yodel as well. Most famous of the singing cowboy film stars were
Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...
and
Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), nicknamed the King of the Cowboys, was an American singer, actor, television host, and Rodeo, rodeo performer. Following early work under his given name, first as a c ...
, both accomplished yodelers. The popularity of yodeling lasted through the 1940s, but by the 1950s it became rare to hear yodeling in country and western music.


History of Alpine yodeling

Most experts agree that yodeling was used in the
Central Alps The Alps form a large mountain range dominating Central Europe, including parts of Italy, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia, Germany and Hungary. This article describes the delimitation of the Alps as a whole and of subdivi ...
by herders calling their flocks or to communicate between Alpine villages. The multi-pitched "yelling" later became part of the region's traditional lore and musical expression. The earliest record of a yodel is in 1545, where it is described as "the call of a cowherd from
Appenzell Appenzell () was a cantons of Switzerland, canton in the northeast of Switzerland, and entirely surrounded by the canton of St. Gallen, in existence from 1403 to 1597. Appenzell became independent of the Abbey of Saint Gall in 1403 and entered ...
". Music historian Timothy Wise writes:
From its earliest entry into European music of whatever type, the yodel tended to be associated with nature, instinct, wilderness, pre-industrial and pastoral civilization, or similar ideas. It continues to be associated with rural and folk musics or to connote those in other contexts. Because of this original folk connection, yodeling remained associated with the outdoors, with rustic rather than sophisticated personae, and with particular emotional or psychological states or semantic fields.
British stage performances by yodelers were common in the nineteenth century.
Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...
wrote in his June 4, 1830, journal entry that "Anne wants me to go hear the Tyrolese Minstrels but ... I cannot but think their yodeling ... is a variation upon the tones of a jackass." In Europe, yodeling is still a major feature of folk music (
Volksmusik Alpine folk music (; German's ''Volksmusik'' means "people's music" or as a Germanic connotative translation, "folk's music") is the common umbrella designation of a number of related styles of traditional folk music in the Alpine regions of S ...
) from Switzerland, Austria, and southern Germany, and the
Swiss Amish The Swiss Amish ( Swiss German: ) are a subgroup of the Amish that emigrated to the United States mostly in the middle of the 19th century directly from Switzerland and Alsace, after the 18th-century emigration of most Amish via the Palatinate. ...
in the United States maintain the practice of yodeling to this day.


Yodeling around the world

Apart from the Alps, yodeling can be found in the Solomon Islands, Hawaii, Madagascar, the US, Romania, Bulgaria, and Africa.Wagner, Christopher (1998). Liner notes, ''American Yodeling: 1911-1946''. Trikont. US-0246-2. Although associated with the Swiss Alps and Austrian Tyrol, ethnomusicologists believe that the origins of yodeling can be traced back tens of thousands of years to ancient African nomadic hunter-gatherer societies. In Scandinavian folk music, the oral-song tradition
Kulning Kulning, also known as the Nordic herding call, refers to high-pitched herding calls that were developed centuries ago in Norway and Sweden. Different regions have different names for these calls, such as ''kauka'', ''lålla'', ''kula'', ''kulok ...
(), also called ''huving'', is a form of signal song, a shout to make themselves known over a long distance, especially used in the mountains. Usually it is linked to
transhumance Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or Nomad, nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and low ...
tradition. The cry could be individually designed so that it was not just a cry for contact, but also a signifier used to identify the singer. The cry may have a form of text, but is just as well without words. Laling is related to yodeling in
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
and
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
. The overture ''Hjalarljod'' has a background in the phenomenon of yodeling. Laling is a mix of yelling and singing, and is closely related to '' lokk''. Huving was spent in the woods and mountains to call the animals, and get in touch with other people, such as other shepherds or people on the neighboring mountain farm and to give messages over long distances. In
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
classical music, singers frequently use ''tahrir'' ("
tremolo In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are multiple types of tremolo: a rapid repetition of a note, an alternation between two different notes, or a variation in volume. Tremolos may be either ''measured'' ...
" in English), a yodeling technique that oscillates on
neighbor tone A nonchord tone (NCT), nonharmonic tone, or embellishing tone is a note in a piece of music or song that is not part of the implied or expressed chord set out by the harmonic framework. In contrast, a chord tone is a note that is a part of the ...
s. It is similar to the Swiss yodel, and is used as an ornament or trill in phrases that have long syllables, and usually falls at the end of a phrase. Tahrir is also prevalent in Azerbaijani, Bulgarian,
Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Macedonia * Mac ...
, Turkish,
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...
,
Afghan Afghan or Afgan may refer to: Related to Afghanistan *Afghans, historically refers to the Pashtun people. It is both an ethnicity and nationality. Ethnicity wise, it refers to the Pashtuns. In modern terms, it means both the citizens of Afghanist ...
, and
Central Asian Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
musical traditions, and to a lesser extent in
Pakistani Pakistanis (, ) are the citizens and nationals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. As much as ...
and some Indian music. In Georgian traditional music, yodeling takes the form of ''krimanchuli'' technique, and is used as a top part in three- or four-part
polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...
. Yodel-like shamanistic traditions are also seen among the Turkic
Sakha people The Yakuts or Sakha (, ; , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to North Siberia, primarily the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation. They also inhabit some districts of the Krasnoyarsk Krai. They speak Yakut, which belongs to the Si ...
of Siberia, the
Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...
of the Arctic regions of
Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
and the
Saami The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI, pronounced "Sammy") is an association of American manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, and components. SAAMI is an accredited standards developer that publishes several A ...
of
Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
. Among the Irish and
Scottish people Scottish people or Scots (; ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the Scotland in the Early Middle Ages, early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who f ...
s hints of yodeling-like sounds are also evident. In Sakha Yakutian, yodeling plays a very important role in the way to address nature and to plead for the continuance of life. In
Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...
, Pygmy singers use yodels within their elaborate polyphonic singing, and the
Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people ** Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today ** Shona languages, a wider group of languages defined in the early 20th century ** Kingdom of Zimbabwe, a Shona stat ...
people of
Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
sometimes yodel while playing the
mbira Mbira ( ; ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal Tine (structural), tines, played by holding the instrument ...
. The
Mbuti The Mbuti people, or Bambuti, are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages are Central Sudanic languages and Bantu languages. Subgroups Bambuti are pygmy hunter-gatherers, and are one of the oldest ...
of the Congo incorporate distinctive whistles and yodels into their songs. Living from hunting and gathering, they sing hunting and harvest songs and use yodelling to call each other. In 1952,
ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...
Hugh Tracey Hugh Travers Tracey was an English ethnomusicologist. He and his wife collected and archived music from Southern and Central Africa. From the 1920s through the 1970s, Tracey made over 35,000 recordings of African folk music. He popularized the ...
recorded their songs and they have been released on compact discs. In Romanian traditional folk music, yodeling takes the form of "horea cu noduri", mostly used by shepherds to call their sheep or as a way of expressing sorrow. "Horea cu noduri" (knots singing style) is a particular manner of "
doina The doina () is a Romanians, Romanian musical tune style, possibly with Middle Eastern roots, customary in Romanian peasant music, as well as in lăutărească music. It was also adopted into klezmer music. Similar tunes are found throughout Eas ...
" interpretation acquired through a guttural vocal technique, the knots being strikes of the
glottis The glottis (: glottises or glottides) is the opening between the vocal folds (the rima glottidis). The glottis is crucial in producing sound from the vocal folds. Etymology From Ancient Greek ''γλωττίς'' (glōttís), derived from ''γ ...
through the neck muscles contractions. Many Hawaiian songs feature falsetto. In Hawaiian-style falsettocalled the singer, usually male, emphasizes the break between registers. Sometimes the singer exaggerates the break through repetition, as a yodel. As with other aspects of Hawaiian music, falsetto developed from a combination of sources, including pre-European Hawaiian chanting, early Christian hymn singing and the songs and yodeling of immigrant cowboys, called "paniolos" in the
Hawaiian language Hawaiian (', ) is a critically endangered Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family, originating in and native to the Hawaiian Islands. It is the native language of the Hawaiian people. Hawaiian, along with English, is an offi ...
, during the Kamehameha Reign in the 1800s when cowboys were brought from Mexico to teach Hawaiians how to care for cattle. Yodelling arrived in America in the mid-19th century and was propagated through travelling entertainment shows.Pelletier, Paul (2002). Liner notes, ''Yodeling Mad! The Best of Country Yodel, Vol. 1''. Jasmine Records. JASMCD 3552.


Technique

Human voices have at least two distinct vocal registers, called the "head" and "chest" voices. Most people can sing tones within a certain range of lower pitches in their chest voice and tones within a certain range of higher pitch in their head voice.
Falsetto Falsetto ( , ; Italian language, Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ...
is an "unsupported" register forcing vocal cords into a higher pitch without any head or chest voice air support. The range of overlap between registers, called the
passaggio Passaggio () is a term used in classical singing to describe the transition area between the vocal registers. The ''passaggi'' (plural) of the voice lie between the different vocal registers, such as the chest voice, where any singer can produ ...
, can be challenging for untrained singers. Experienced singers can control their voices in this range, easily switching between registers. Yodeling is a version of this technique in which a singer might change register several times in only a few seconds and at a high
volume Volume is a measure of regions in three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch) ...
. Repeated alternation between registers at a singer's passaggio pitch range produces a very distinctive sound. For example, in the famous "Yodel – Ay – EEE – Oooo", the "EEE" is sung in the head voice while all other syllables are in the chest voice. Bart Plantenga, author of ''Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World'', explains the technique:
The basic yodel requires sudden alterations of vocal register from a low-pitched chest voice to high falsetto tones sung on vowel sounds: AH, OH, OO for chest notes and AY or EE for the falsetto. Consonants are used as levers to launch the dramatic leap from low to high, giving it its unique ear-penetrating and distance-spanning power.
The best places for Alpine-style yodelling are those with an
echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...
. Ideal natural locations include not only mountain ranges but lakes, rocky gorges or shorelines, and high or open areas with one or more distant rock faces.


Yodeling in the United States

It is thought that yodeling was first introduced to the United States by German immigrants in Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. As the new settlers traveled south through the
Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...
and beyond into the
Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...
they came into contact with Scots and Irish immigrants, Scandinavians (practitioners of a unique yodeling called
kulning Kulning, also known as the Nordic herding call, refers to high-pitched herding calls that were developed centuries ago in Norway and Sweden. Different regions have different names for these calls, such as ''kauka'', ''lålla'', ''kula'', ''kulok ...
), and other nationalities including African enslaved people who communicated with "
field hollers The field holler or field call is mostly a historical type of vocal work song sung by field slaves in the United States (and later by African American forced laborers accused of violating vagrancy laws) to accompany their tasked work, to communi ...
", described by
Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...
in 1853 as a "long, loud, musical shout, rising and falling and breaking into falsetto". In 1839, the
Tyrolese Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...
Minstrels A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enterta ...
toured the United States and started an American craze for Alpine music. During the 1840s, dozens of German, Swiss, and Austrian singing groups crisscrossed the country entertaining audiences with a combination of singing, yodeling, and "Alpine harmony." The popularity of the European groups led to the formation of many American family singing groups as well. The most popular was the Hutchison Family Singers who toured, singing harmony and yodeling.
Minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of Afr ...
s parodied the Hutchinson's yodeling with their own, calling it "Tyrolesian business". In 1853,
Christy's Minstrels Christy's Minstrels, sometimes referred to as the Christy Minstrels, were a blackface group formed by Edwin Pearce Christy, a well-known ballad singer, in 1843, in Buffalo, New York. They were instrumental in the solidification of the minstrel ...
burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.
d (parodied) the Hutchinson Family singing 'We Come From the Hills With Tyrolean Echo'. Other traveling American minstrels were yodeling in the United States as well. Tom Christian was the first American yodeling minstrel, appearing in 1847 in Chicago. Recordings of yodelers were made in 1892 and in 1920 the Victor recording company listed 17 yodels in their catalogue, many of them by George Watson, the most successful yodeler of the time. In 1902, Watson recorded the song "Hush-a-bye Baby," which was later recorded in 1924 by
Riley Puckett George Riley Puckett (May 7, 1894 – July 13, 1946) was an American country music artist, best known as a member of Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers. His dynamic single-string guitar playing, featuring dramatic bass runs, earned for him an ...
as "Rock All Our Babies to Sleep," the first country yodeling record ever made. Earlier, in 1897, Watson had recorded "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" which Puckett recorded in 1927 as the second-ever country yodeling record. "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" was also the first song ever recorded by
Jimmie Rodgers James Charles Rodgers ( – ) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who rose to popularity in the late 1920s. Widely regarded as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Country Music", he is best known for his di ...
(at the
Bristol sessions The Bristol Sessions were a series of recording sessions held in 1927 in Bristol, Tennessee, considered by some as the "Big Bang" of modern country music. The recordings were made by Victor Talking Machine Company producer Ralph Peer. Bristol ...
in 1928); Rodgers would eventually come to be known as the father of both country music and American yodeling when he combined the yodel with southern African-American blues. The American
minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of Afr ...
consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by
white people White is a Race (human categorization), racial classification of people generally used for those of predominantly Ethnic groups in Europe, European ancestry. It is also a Human skin color, skin color specifier, although the definition can var ...
in
blackface Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...
or, especially after the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
,
black people Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical ...
in blackface. Minstrel shows toured the same circuits as opera companies, circuses, and European entertainers, with venues ranging from lavish opera houses to makeshift tavern stages. When the European Tyrolese Minstrels toured the United States for several years in the early 1840s and created an American craze for Alpine yodeling music, four unemployed white actors decided to stage an African-American style spoof of this group's concerts. Calling themselves Dan Emmett's
Virginia Minstrels The Virginia Minstrels or Virginia Serenaders was a group of 19th-century American entertainers who helped invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show. Led by Dan Emmett, the original lineup consisted of Emmett, Billy Whitlock, ...
, the performance was wildly popular and most historians mark this production as the beginning of minstrelsy in the U.S. According to jazz historian
Gary Giddins Gary Giddins (born 1948) is an American jazz critic and author. He wrote for ''The Village Voice'' from 1973; his "Weather Bird" column ended in 2003. In 1986, Gary Giddins and John Lewis created the American Jazz Orchestra which presented conc ...
:
Though antebellum (minstrel) troupes were white, the form developed in a form of racial collaboration, illustrating the axiom that defines – and continues to define – American music as it developed over the next century and a half: African American innovations metamorphose into American popular culture when white performers learn to mimic black ones.


African American roots of the American blue yodel

By the 1880s, the minstrel show had been replaced by
Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...
and
American Burlesque American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall, and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in the United States in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nu ...
. By around 1905, more than 20 years before
Jimmie Rodgers James Charles Rodgers ( – ) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who rose to popularity in the late 1920s. Widely regarded as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Country Music", he is best known for his di ...
introduced his blue yodel, African Americans were touring the country singing and yodeling. The most noted yodelers of that time were Monroe Tabor ("The Yodeling Bellboy" - though he was not a bellboy), Beulah Henderson (who appeared in black face), and Charles Anderson (who played a singing "mammy" and a female impersonator in several of his acts). Tabor performed with the Dandy Dixie Minstrels. In New York in 1908, a 'well-known critic' reported:
Monroe Tabor sang "A Tear, a Kiss, a Smile". Mr. Tabor is a new tenor with a good voice, which suffers only from a lack of training ... . While there was not quite enough comedy and ragtime, the Yoodle song, "Sleep, Baby, Sleep", was greatly in atonement and showed Monroe Tabor to be unexcelled as a yoodler.
And from a 1917 review:
... and Monroe Tabor yodeled as only J.K. Emmett Sr., of yore could do. At the Avenue Theater in December 1917, "When My Ship Comes Sailing Home" was a fine tenor solo by Tabor, who has no superiors as a yodeler.
Known as The Jolly Hendersons, Beulah Henderson toured with her husband Billy from 1905 through 1910. Billed as "The Classy Colored Comedy Pair", Beulah was featured as "America's only Colored Lady Yodeler". In Indianapolis in 1911 manager Tim Owsley noted:
The Jolly Hendersons offered a clean, bright and snappy act of singing, talking and dancing. Each song rendered by the jolly pair won for them an encore. Mr Henderson is a real clever light comedian, while his partner, Miss Henderson, is just as clever as a singing and talking soubrette. In fact she is one of the first lady yodlers that we have had the pleasure of hearing.
Charles Anderson began touring with a
vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...
show in 1909, singing a combination of blues and yodeling. A 1913 St. Louis review reports:
The Male Mockingbird, Charles Anderson, the man with the golden voice, is some character singer, imitator, and impersonator. As an imitator, Anderson has the best on the market skinned, his violin imitation intermezzo went big, and was one of the best imitations of a musical instrument heard in this neck of the woods for many moons. "Sleep Baby Sleep", a lullaby sung in costume of an old nurse went big. The yodeling in this song was excellent. "Baby Seals Blues", as rendered by Anderson, was worth going to hear. After a quick change, Anderson reappeared as the polished gentleman and sang "When the Cuckoo Sings", instantly winning the hearts of the audience with his perfect yodeling, causing said audience to cheer like mad for more.
Country blues singer Lottie Kimbrough, billed as The Kansas City Butterball (she was a rather large woman), sang in
speakeasies A speakeasy, also called a beer flat or blind pig or blind tiger, was an illicit establishment that sold alcoholic beverages. The term may also refer to a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies. In the United State ...
and
nightclubs A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and ...
. Kimbrough recorded her music from 1924 through 1929 and is now best known for her collaborations with Winston Holmes. Holmes supplied a series of yodels, vocalized bird calls and train whistles on some of their recordings. A good recording of Kimbrough and Holmes singing "Wayward Girl Blues" (1924) is available on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. The similarity to the Jimmie Rodgers Blue Yodels is evident in this Kimbrough recording. When music critic Abbe Niles heard the Blue Yodel recordings released by Jimmie Rodgers in 1928 "he was impressed by how distinctively black Rodgers's Blue Yodel recordings sounded, yodeling and all." In his opinion Rodgers was a "white man gone black". In his 1928 record review column, writing under the heading "White man singing black songs," Niles acknowledged that Rodgers's first Blue Yodel had "started the whole epidemic of yodeling blues that now rages – though Clarence Williams wrote a good one five years ago." Niles went on to advise his readers to add
race records Race records is a term for 78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans between the 1920s and 1940s.Oliver, Paul. "Race record". Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 13 Feb. 2015. They primarily contained race music, comprising var ...
to their collections saying, "Listening to race records is nearly the only way for white people to share the Negroes' pleasures without bothering the Negroes." Authors Lynn Abbott & Doug Seroff write:
While some of the blue yodels heard on late 1920s Race recordings – those by the Mississippi Sheiks, for example – probably do owe something to Jimmie Rodgers' phenomenal success, others – like Billie Young's ''When They Get Lovin' They's Gone'' (accompanied by Jelly Roll Morton on Victor 23339,1930), Lottie Kimbrough and Winston Holmes' ''Lost Lover Blues'' (Gennett 6607, 1928), and Clint Jones' ''Mississippi Woman Blues'' and ''Blue Valley Blues'' (Okeh 8587, 1928) – seem more deeply connected to these precedent recordings by Charles Anderson, and to the venerable line of African-American yodelers they represent. There is no reason to doubt that Jimmie Rodgers, who could not resist a show, was exposed to and influenced by the black yodeler-blues singer tradition. Its practitioners were thoroughly entrenched in minstrelsy and vaudeville, and accessible to all races of people. Perhaps Jimmie even saw Charles Anderson himself perform, or heard some of Anderson's crystalline blues and yodeling 78s, before rising to immortality on his own great 'Blue Yodel' recordings. At any rate, the Freeman references strongly suggest that Charles Anderson and his generation of black professional yodelers had introduced the blue yodel in African-American entertainment before Jimmie Rodgers recorded.
Emmett Anthony Emmett Anthony was an American vaudeville comedian who appeared on stage in various revues and shows. In December 1915 he arrived in New Orleans on the ''S.S. Brunswick'' to perform at the Iroquis Theater. He was also in the film ''Son of Satan'' ...
was another African American vaudeville comedian who yodeled. Along with Charles Anderson of Birmingham, he was one of the premier African American yodelers. He drew praise for his yodeling and comedy in a 1921 revue with
Irvin Miller Irvin Colloden Miller (February 19, 1884 – February 27, 1975) was an American actor, playwright, and vaudeville show writer and producer. He was responsible for successful theater shows including ''Broadway Rastus'' (1921), ''Liza'' (1922), ...
. A 1912 review in the ''
Indianapolis Freeman The ''Indianapolis Freeman'' (1884–1926) was the first illustrated black newspaper in the United States. Founder and owner Louis Howland, who was soon replaced by Edward Elder Cooper, published its first print edition on November 20, 1884. H ...
'' described him as excellent and noted his unique and interesting style.


Performers


Early recordings

The first musical recordings were made on wax cylinders, simply known as "records" in their era of greatest popularity (1896–1915). These hollow cylindrical objects had an audio recording engraved on the outside surface, which could be reproduced when played on a mechanical cylinder phonograph. Entertainer J.K. Emmet (1841–91) was probably the most well-known yodeler of his time. He did make recordings but died before the recording industry was firmly established. Many future yodelers recorded songs he had either written or made popular, including "Sleep, Baby, Sleep". In the 1910s, the competing disc record system triumphed in the marketplace to become the dominant commercial audio medium. Most music historians say that the first country music record to include yodeling was "Rock All Our Babies to Sleep" sung by
Riley Puckett George Riley Puckett (May 7, 1894 – July 13, 1946) was an American country music artist, best known as a member of Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers. His dynamic single-string guitar playing, featuring dramatic bass runs, earned for him an ...
, a blind singer from Georgia. In
1924 in country music Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' D ...
, his recording was one of the top hits of that year. Another early yodeler was Emmett Miller, a
minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of Afr ...
performer, also from Georgia. In the 1920s, Miller recorded the song "
Lovesick Blues "Lovesick Blues" is a Tin Pan Alley song, composed by Cliff Friend, with lyrics by Irving Mills. It first appeared in the 1922 musical "Oh, Ernest", and was recorded that year by Elsie Clark and Jack Shea. Emmett Miller recorded it in 1925 and ...
", which was later a major hit for country singer
Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...
.
Bob Wills James Robert "Bob" Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although Spade C ...
, the King of
Western Swing Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...
, and many others were also influenced by Miller. Miller's version of "Lovesick Blues" is available on YouTube with a jacket illustration of Miller in
blackface Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...
. In the early 1920s, African-American Winston Holmes started a record label, Merritt Records, and was a performer himself. His vocals included bird calls, train whistles and yodels. He managed and made some songs with blues singer Lottie Kimbrough in the twenties. In 1923 and 1924, black performer Charles Anderson recorded eight sides for the
Okeh OKeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name originally was spelled "OkeH" from the init ...
label which gave a summary account of his vaudeville repertoire during the previous decade. Five of the recorded songs are yodels: "Sleep, Baby, Sleep", "Comic Yodle Song", "Coo Coo" (J K Emmett's "Cuckoo Song", adapted for Anderson's famous 60 second sustained soprano note), "Laughing Yodel" and "Roll on Silver Moon", a sentimental
ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...
, similar to Jimmie Rodgers' various Southern ballad recordings.


Jimmie Rodgers

The Singing Brakeman, Jimmie Rodgers, is credited with creating the American version of Alpine yodeling, the blue yodel. While working on the railroad Rogers learned blues techniques from African American
gandy dancer Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers in the United States and Canada, more formally referred to as ''section hands'', who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines. The British ...
s (railroad workers), and eventually created his characteristic sound – a blend of traditional work, blues,
hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps, and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; a bum neither travels nor works. Et ...
, and cowboy songs - his trademark "
Blue Yodel The blue yodel songs are a series of thirteen songs written and recorded by Jimmie Rodgers during the period from 1927 to his death in May 1933. The songs were based on the 12-bar blues format and featured Rodgers’ trademark yodel refrains. T ...
." His first blue yodel, known as "Blue Yodel No. 1" ( T For Texas), was recorded in the Trinity Baptist Church at Camden, New Jersey. When the song was released in February 1928 it became "a national phenomenon and generated an excitement and record-buying frenzy that no-one could have predicted". According to a black musician who lived near Rodgers in Mississippi, everyone, both black and white alike, began to copy Rodgers: "Every one who could pick a guitar started yodeling like Rodgers." Standing on the Corner (Blue Yodel No. 9), released in 1930, was recorded with
Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
playing trumpet and Armstrong's wife
Lil Hardin Armstrong Lillian Hardin Armstrong (née Hardin; February 3, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer, and bandleader. She was the second wife of Louis Armstrong, with whom she collaborated on many recordings in t ...
playing the piano. Rodgers died in 1933. Many performers that followed him claimed that he had been a big influence in their singing style and career.


Cowboy yodelers

Although today's idea of the life and times of cowboys may not be completely accurate, the American cowboy is not a myth. At one time the American West was an open range with thousands of cattle that needed to be watched over, branded, and herded and rounded up and driven to slaughter houses.
John Lomax John Avery Lomax (September 23, 1867 – January 26, 1948) was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist, and a folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk music. He was the father of Alan Lomax, John Lomax Jr. and Bess ...
recalls:
I couldn't have been more than 4 years old when I first heard a cowboy yodel and sing to his cattle. I was sleeping in my father's cabin in Texas. As the cowboys drove the cattle along, they sang, called and yodeled to them. ... They made up songs about trail life.
Music historian Timothy Wise writes that it was the mass media of the time; radio, phonograph, and film, that spread the romantic myth of the cowboy and "popular music was integral to the mass mediation of the idea and of the representation of the cowboy, and yodeling was one of its primary signifiers." The transformation of Rodgers' blue yodel to the cowboy yodel involved a change in both rhythm and a move away from Southern blues-type lyrics. Some yodels contained more of the Alpine type of yodel as well.
Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), nicknamed the King of the Cowboys, was an American singer, actor, television host, and Rodeo, rodeo performer. Following early work under his given name, first as a c ...
, singing with the
Sons of the Pioneers The Sons of the Pioneers are one of the United States' earliest Western singing groups. Known for their vocal performances, their musicianship, and their songwriting, they produced innovative recordings that have inspired many Western music per ...
in 1934, sings to a "sweet Tyrolean maid" in "A Swiss Yodel". Jimmie Rodgers was the first to write and sing a cowboy yodel, "The Land of My Boyhood Dreams", in 1929. At that time he had moved to Texas and a publicity photograph of Rodgers wearing a cowboy outfit appears on one of the recordings he made with the
Carter Family The Carter Family was an American folk music group that recorded and performed between 1927 and 1956. Regarded as one of the most important music acts of the early 20th century, they had a profound influence on the development of bluegrass, c ...
. Other country singers, who at that time were called "hillbilly" singers, quickly took on the cowboy image at least in part to escape the negative connotations of the
hillbilly ''Hillbilly'' is a term historically used for White people who dwell in rural area, rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in the Appalachian region and Ozarks. As people migrated out of the region during the Great Depression, ...
label. A Georgia radio station of that era lists "cowboy Roy Lykes", the "Yodeling Fence Rider" from Texas, in its 1934 roster. Lykes is described as "a real cowboy" who "wears regulation cowboy shoes to get him in the mood". Many of the old cowboy songs use a beat meant to signify the trot of a lonely cowboy riding his horse on the range. Without question the most famous singing cowboys are
Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...
and Roy Rogers the King of the Cowboys. In the 1930s Rogers founded and sang in the group the Sons of the Pioneers "who through well-crafted romantic songs of the American west—often featuring three-part harmonized yodeling—created a new genre in early country music that was quite distinct from that of the so-called hillbillies." Canadian Wilf Carter (Montana Slim), known as the "Father of Canadian Country Music," is a good example of an early cowboy singer. He began singing in the 1920s after seeing a traveling Swiss performer named "The Yodeling Fool" in a nearby town. Carter sang in the "
singing cowboy A singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western (genre), Western films. It references real-world campfire side ballads in the American frontier. The original cowboys sang of life on the trail with all the challenges, ...
" style and developed a yodel with a Swiss-sound sometimes called an "echo yodel" or a "three-in-one."
Elton Britt Elton Britt (born James Elton Baker; June 27, 1913 – June 22, 1972) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician, who was best known for his western ballads and yodelling songs. Biography Britt was born on a farm near Ma ...
is also considered to be one of the early cowboy yodelers. In 1934, he recorded what was to become his signature song, "Chime Bells." Like so many others of that era, Britt listened to records of Jimmie Rodgers, which inspired him to learn how to yodel. Eventually, he became renowned for his ability to sustain his yodel for an unusually long time, a skill he reportedly learned while swimming underwater for several minutes at a time.
Jack Guthrie Leon Jerry "Jack" Guthrie (November 13, 1915 – January 15, 1948) was an American songwriter and performer whose rewritten version of the Woody Guthrie song "Oklahoma Hills" was a hit in 1945.Whitburn, ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country ...
, the cousin of
Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
, performed in the thirties and early forties. Known as "Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy", he developed a style of singing and yodeling influenced by his idol, Jimmie Rodgers, and his experiences as a bucking-horse rider and
rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaqu ...
performer. Known as the "Texas Drifter,"
Goebel Reeves Goebel Leon Reeves (October 9, 1899 – January 26, 1959) was an American folk singer, born in Sherman, Texas, and raised in Austin. Reeves' most famous song is "Hobo's Lullaby", covered by various singers, as in '' Woody at 100: The Woody Guth ...
claimed to have taught Jimmie Rodgers to yodel, which is doubtful. Reeves came from a middle-class background, but chose the life of a
hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps, and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; a bum neither travels nor works. Et ...
. His most famous song, "
Hobo's Lullaby ''Hobo's Lullaby'' is a folk song written by American folk artist Goebel Reeves. It is commonly associated with folk singer Woody Guthrie, for whom it was one of his favorite songs and covered it. Background ''Hobo's Lullaby'' was written by G ...
," has been covered by numerous singers, notably
Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
and his son Arlo. Zeke Clements, known as "The Dixie Yodeler" acted in "singing cowboy" Westerns and also provided the voice of Bashful, the yodeling dwarf, in
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
's 1937 film ''
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...
.'' Yodeler Hannes Schroll was the voice for the
Goofy holler Goofy is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. He is a tall, Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic dog who typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled fe ...
, a stock
sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...
that is used frequently in
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
cartoons and films. It is the cry Goofy makes when falling or being launched into the air, which could be transcribed as "yaaaaaaa-hoo-hoo-hooey!" " Yodelin' Slim Clark" hailed from
Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
, and performed for 70 years. Yodeler Don Walser was from Texas. Though he was widely known in Texas, his singing career did not really take off until he was 60 years old in 1994. In 2000 he received a lifetime "Heritage" award from the
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
, and he and his band played at the
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...
.
Jimmie Davis James Houston Davis (September 11, 1899 – November 5, 2000) was an American singer, songwriter, and Democratic Party politician. After achieving fame for releasing both sacred and popular songs, Davis served as governor of Louisiana from ...
, who served two terms as the Governor of Louisiana, was also a successful country singer who yodeled.
Don Edwards William Donlon Edwards (January 6, 1915 – October 1, 2015) was an American politician of the Democratic Party and a member of the United States House of Representatives from California for 32 years in the late 20th century. Early life Edwar ...
(born in 1939) is a cowboy singer, guitarist and is an accomplished yodeler. He has recorded several albums, two of which, ''Saddle Songs'' and ''Songs of the Cowboy'', are included in the Folklore Archives of the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
. He was featured on the soundtrack of the 2005 documentary film ''
Grizzly Man ''Grizzly Man'' is a 2005 American documentary film written and directed by Werner Herzog. It chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast and conservationist Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard at Katmai National Park, A ...
'' singing "
Coyotes The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely relat ...
". The
Great American Country Great American Family is an American cable television network owned by Great American Media. The channel broadcasts family-oriented general entertainment programming such as television series and Television film, made-for-TV movies—some of whi ...
network named "Coyotes" as one of their Top 20 Cowboy and Cowgirl Songs; and the members of the
Western Writers of America Western Writers of America (WWA), founded 1953, promotes literature, both fictional and nonfictional, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional Western fiction Western fiction is a genre of literature set in th ...
chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. Other western music yodeling singers include Douglas B. Green (Ranger Doug) and Wylie Gustafson. Green sings with his band Riders in the Sky. He is also a music historian and has written a book, ''Singing in the Saddle,'' described as "the first comprehensive look at the singing cowboy phenomenon that swept the United States in the 1930s." Gustafson learned to yodel from his dad, who learned from Austrians on the ski team in Bozeman, Montana. In 2007, he released an instructional book and CD.


Cowgirl yodelers

The DeZurik Sisters were two of the first women to become stars on both the ''
National Barn Dance ''National Barn Dance'', broadcast by WLS (AM), WLS-AM in Chicago, Illinois starting in 1924, was one of the first American country music radio programs and a direct precursor of the ''Grand Ole Opry''. ''National Barn Dance'' also set the stag ...
'' and the ''
Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...
'', largely a result of their original yodeling style. Carolina Cotton and Patsy Montana were also early cowgirl yodeling singers.
Carolina Cotton Carolina Cotton (October 20, 1925 – June 10, 1997) was an American singer and actress known as the "Yodeling Blonde Bombshell", the "Girl of the Golden West", and the "Queen of the Range." Early life Cotton was born Helen Hagstrom October 20, ...
(born Helen Hagstrom, 1925–1997) began to perform while still a youngster. Known as the Yodeling Blonde Bombshell, she went on to appear on radio shows, numerous Western movies, and early television. In the 1940s she sang with the
Sons of the Pioneers The Sons of the Pioneers are one of the United States' earliest Western singing groups. Known for their vocal performances, their musicianship, and their songwriting, they produced innovative recordings that have inspired many Western music per ...
; the only "daughter" of the group. In the 1950s when Westerns and
Western Swing Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...
began to fall out of style, she returned to school and earned a master's degree in education and began a teaching career.
Patsy Montana Rubye Rose Blevins (October 30, 1908 – May 3, 1996), known professionally as Patsy Montana, was an American country and western singer and songwriter. Montana was the first female country performer to have a million-selling single with her sig ...
(born Ruby Rose Blevins, 1908 - 1996) was the first female country performer to have a million-selling single with her signature song " I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart", recorded in 1935. Members of the
Western Writers of America Western Writers of America (WWA), founded 1953, promotes literature, both fictional and nonfictional, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional Western fiction Western fiction is a genre of literature set in th ...
chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. In 2012, her record was added to the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
's
National Recording Registry The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation ...
list of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" American sound recordings. "Cowboy's Sweetheart" was again popularized in 1946 by Rosalie Allen, a "singing cowgirl" from Pennsylvania, who went on to host her own "western" radio show in New York City. Cowboy singer
Betty Cody Betty Cody (born Rita Francis Coté; August 17, 1921 – July 1, 2014) was a Canadian-born country music singer. Her notable singles include the 1952 RCA releases "Tom Tom Yodel" and " I Found Out More Than You Ever Knew", and "Please Throw Away ...
from Maine said she learned how to yodel by listening to Patsy Montana records. She had a hit record "Tom Tom Yodel" in 1952.
Margo Smith Margo Smith (born Betty Lou Miller; April 9, 1939 – January 23, 2024) was an American Country music, country and Christian music, Christian music singer–songwriter. She had several years of country success during the 1970s, which included two ...
, known as the Tennessee Yodler, covered it in the 1970s, and
Suzy Bogguss Susan Kay Bogguss (born December 30, 1956) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She began her career in the 1980s as a solo singer. In the 1990s, six of her songs were Top 10 hits, three albums were certified gold, and one album ...
released her version in 1988 where it peaked at #77 on the
Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...
. Singer/yodeler
LeAnn Rimes Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She originally rose to success as a country music artist at the age of 13 and has since crossed over into pop, contemporary Christian, and o ...
again brought the song back in the 1990s. Singing "Cowboy's Sweetheart" in 1997, Jessie James Decker won a Louisiana talent contest when she was only nine-years-old and singing the tune in 2006, 11 year-old Taylor Ware was the runner-up on the NBC show ''
America's Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is an American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distributed by) and ...
''. She taught herself to yodel and honed her skills by taking lessons from Margo Smith. In 1996, Rimes also recorded "
The Cattle Call "The Cattle Call" is a song written and recorded in 1934 by American songwriter and musician Tex Owens. The melody was adapted from Bruno Rudzinksi's 1928 recording "Pawel Walc". It later became a signature song for Eddy Arnold. Members of the We ...
", a "singing cowboy" song written by cowboy yodeler
Tex Owens Tex Owens (June 15, 1892 – September 9, 1962) was an American country music singer and songwriter, best remembered today for writing the Eddy Arnold hit Cattle Call. The youngest of thirteen children, he was born Doie Hensley Owens in Killeen, T ...
, with legendary singer
Eddy Arnold Richard Edward Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) was an American country music singer. He was a Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the ''Billboard'' country music charts, second onl ...
. "The Cattle Call" was Arnold's signature song, but it has been recorded by many artists including
Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and activist. She is considered one of the leading music artists behind the country rock genre in the 1970s and the Americana (music), Americana genre ...
and even
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
.


"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"

One famous yodeling tune known the world-over is the song "
The Lion Sleeps Tonight "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a song originally written and first recorded in 1939 by Solomon Linda under the title "Mbube", through South African Gallo Record Company. In 1961, a version adapted into English by the doo-wop group the Tokens bec ...
", also known as "Wimoweh". It was first recorded by
Solomon Linda Solomon Popoli Linda OIG (19098 September 1962), also known as Solomon Ntsele ("Linda" was his clan name),Gilmore, Inigo"Penniless sisters fight record industry over father's hit song" ''The Telegraph'' (UK), 11 June 2000. was a South African ...
and the Evening Birds in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
in 1939. Originally published as, "In the Jungle". Linda, a singer of Zulu origin, wrote the song, originally titled "Mbube" (), while working for the
Gallo Record Company Gallo Record Company is the largest (and oldest independent) record label in South Africa. It is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is owned by Arena Holdings. The current Gallo Record Company is a hybrid of two South African record lab ...
as a cleaner and record packer. According to South African journalist Rian Malan:
"Mbube" wasn't the most remarkable tune, but there was something terribly compelling about the underlying chant, a dense meshing of low male voices above which Solomon yodeled and howled for two exhilarating minutes, occasionally making it up as he went along. The third take was the great one, but it achieved immortality only in its dying seconds, when Solly took a deep breath, opened his mouth and improvised the melody that the world now associates with these words: ::"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight".
By 1948, the song had sold about 100,000 copies in Africa and among black South African immigrants in the United Kingdom and had lent its name to a style of African
a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...
music that evolved into ''
isicathamiya Isicathamiya (, where the ''c'' represents a tenuis dental click) is a singing style that originated from the Zulu people, a South African ethnic group. In European understanding, a cappella is also used to describe this form of singing. The wo ...
'' (also called ''mbube''), popularized by
Ladysmith Black Mambazo Ladysmith Black Mambazo are a South African male choral group singing in the local vocal styles of ''isicathamiya'' and ''mbube (genre), mbube''. They became known internationally after singing with American Paul Simon on his 1986 album ''Grace ...
. It was covered internationally by many 1950s pop and folk revival artists, including
The Weavers The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman. Founded in 1948, the group sang traditional folk songs from ...
,
Jimmy Dorsey James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards " I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary Peopl ...
,
Yma Sumac Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo (born Zoila Emperatriz Chávarri Castillo; September 13, 1922 – November 1, 2008), known as Yma Sumac (or Imma Sumack), was a Peruvian singer. She won a Guinness World Records, Guinness World Re ...
,
Miriam Makeba Zenzile Miriam Makeba ( , ; 4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including African popular music, Afropop, ja ...
, and
The Kingston Trio The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...
. In 1961, it became a number one hit in the U.S. as adapted by the
doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, ...
group
The Tokens The Tokens were an American doo-wop band (rock and pop), band and production of phonograph records, record production company group from Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York City. The group had four top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' H ...
and in 1982 as a number one hit in the UK for
Tight Fit Tight Fit are an English pop group who had several hits in the early 1980s, including a UK No.1 for three weeks with their cover version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in 1982. History In 1981, record producer Ken Gold came up with the idea to ...
. It went on to earn at least 15 million US dollars in royalties from covers and film licensing. Then, in the mid-1990s, it became a pop "supernova" when it was used in the film ''
The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical coming-of-age drama film directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, produced by Don Hahn, and written by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton. Produced by Walt Disney ...
'', its spin-off TV series and live musical. From 2006 until the ''Mbube'' copyright expired, the earnings of the derivative ''Wimoweh'' song were paid into a trust for Solomon Linda's family.


The Tarzan yell

The
Tarzan yell The Tarzan yell or Tarzan's jungle call is the distinctive, ululating yell of the character Tarzan as portrayed by actor Johnny Weissmuller in the films based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs starting with '' Tarzan the Ape Man' ...
is the yodel-like call of the character
Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Creat ...
, as portrayed by actor
Johnny Weissmuller Johnny Weissmuller ( ; born Johann Peter Weißmüller, ; June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was a Hungarian-born German American Olympic swimmer, water polo player and actor. He was known for having one of the best competitive-swimming records o ...
in the films based on the character created by
Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American writer, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan (who appeared in ...
, starting with '' Tarzan the Ape Man'' (
1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...
). The yell was a creation of the movies, based on what Burroughs described in his books as "the victory cry of the bull ape."
Carol Burnett Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American comedian, actress, singer and writer. Burnett has played dramatic and comedic roles on stage and screen. She has received List of awards and nominations received by Carol Burnett, nu ...
has been associated with the Tarzan yell ever since doing it on her TV show that started in 1967 and ran for 11 years. This link from the
Larry King Now ''Larry King Now'' is an American television talk show hosted by Larry King, available on Ora TV, Hulu, and RT America. Launched on July 17, 2012, the series featured interviews with newsmakers, world leaders, celebrities, and Internet stars. T ...
show describes how she came to do i
Carol Burnett on how the Tarzan yell started


Radio

Other than the
National Barn Dance ''National Barn Dance'', broadcast by WLS (AM), WLS-AM in Chicago, Illinois starting in 1924, was one of the first American country music radio programs and a direct precursor of the ''Grand Ole Opry''. ''National Barn Dance'' also set the stag ...
, broadcast out of Chicago starting in 1924, and the
Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...
in 1925, American Country Western performers had only live performances and records to promote their music. When radio grew in popularity in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the powerful recording company
RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...
feared that free music would devastate their record business. RCA first attempted to prevent artists from appearing on the radio and then successfully stopped the growth of more powerful FM stations. But radio ownership grew from two out of five U.S. homes in 1931 to four out of five homes in 1938, and stations began to broadcast live shows featuring various artists, sometimes with a live audience. Some artists remained in their home area, but many traveled a circuit covering dozens of
low-power AM Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower broadcasting" (more commonl ...
stations throughout the country, introducing the various styles of singing to others outside of their region.


Notable performers


United States

Jimmie Davis James Houston Davis (September 11, 1899 – November 5, 2000) was an American singer, songwriter, and Democratic Party politician. After achieving fame for releasing both sacred and popular songs, Davis served as governor of Louisiana from ...
was a singer and songwriter, and served two terms as the governor of Louisiana. Singing on a local radio station, his early work was in the style of country music singer Jimmie Rodgers. Like Rodgers, he was influenced by African-American blues music and discovering its rich use of sexual double meanings, he wrote some of his own tunes such as "Tom Cat and Pussy Blues" and "Organ Grinder Blues". In his first run for governor his opponent tried to use some of his old work against him by playing it at a rally, but instead the crowds cheered for it and began dancing. On a week-end fishing trip, he and Hank Williams composed the Williams recording titled "
(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle "(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle" is a song written by Hank Williams and Jimmie Davis. It reached #9 on the Most Played Juke Box Folk Records in 1951. Background Hank Williams was a Jimmie Davis disciple, who scored big hits on Decca Records ...
". Blue yodeler Cliff Carlisle was one of the most prolific recording artists of the 1930s, and a pioneer in the use of the Hawaiian
steel guitar A steel guitar () is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar i ...
in country music. He frequently released songs with sexual connotations including barnyard metaphors (which became something of a trademark).
Hank Snow Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian country music guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' country charts betw ...
was one of the great country legends of the 1950s, but he had actually been singing in Canada for years where he was known as "The Yodeling Ranger". He admired Jimmie Rodgers as well, and learned to yodel by listening to his records. He even named his son Jimmie Rodgers Snow.
Tommy Duncan Thomas Elmer Duncan (January 11, 1911 – July 25, 1967), was an American Western swing vocalist and songwriter who gained fame in the 1930s as a founding member of The Texas Playboys. He recorded and toured with bandleader Bob Wills on and ...
, vocalist for "Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys", was a good yodeler. (See the sound file with Duncan singing Rodger's "Blue Yodel No. 1" in 1937)
Bob Wills James Robert "Bob" Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although Spade C ...
is considered by music authorities to be the co-founder of
Western Swing Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...
. In 1949,
Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...
recorded his first hit song "
Lovesick Blues "Lovesick Blues" is a Tin Pan Alley song, composed by Cliff Friend, with lyrics by Irving Mills. It first appeared in the 1922 musical "Oh, Ernest", and was recorded that year by Elsie Clark and Jack Shea. Emmett Miller recorded it in 1925 and ...
", first recorded by Emmett Miller in 1928. Williams was familiar with Miller's recording and first performed his version, replacing the jazz musicians with his own country music band but retaining Miller's yodel, in an appearance on The Louisiana Hayride. His recording became an overnight success, quickly reaching number one on '' Billboard's'' music charts. Singer
Patsy Cline Patsy Cline (born Virginia Patterson Hensley; September 8, 1932 – March 5, 1963) was an American singer. One of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century, she was known as one of the first country music artists to successfully Cross ...
could yodel. She released her version of "Lovesick Blues" in 1960. Perhaps yodeler
Bill Haley William John Clifton Haley (; July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was an American rock and roll musician. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and million-sel ...
, of ''
Bill Haley and the Comets Bill Haley & His Comets were an American rock and roll band formed in 1947 and continuing until Haley's death in 1981. The band was also known as Bill Haley and the Comets and Bill Haley's Comets. From late 1954 to late 1956, the group record ...
,'' has one of the strangest histories of all. Haley zoomed to fame as the "King of Rock and Roll" when his song "
Rock Around the Clock "Rock Around the Clock" is a rock and roll song in the 12-bar blues format written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter being under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was reco ...
" was featured in the popular film ''
Blackboard Jungle ''Blackboard Jungle'' is a 1955 American social drama film about an English teacher in an interracial inner-city school, based on the 1954 novel ''The Blackboard Jungle'' by Evan Hunter and adapted for the screen and directed by Richard Brook ...
'' in 1955, but it was little known that Haley and his band had been touring for years, performing
Western swing Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...
music with Haley featured as a yodeler. Haley had been born in 1925, and in 1955, when "Rock Around the Clock" initially charted, he and his band were using the name the Comets. However, prior to that time they had gone under the names the ''Down Homers,'' the ''Texas Range Riders,'' the ''Four Aces of Western Swing,'' and finally, '' The Saddlemen.'' At one point in the 1940s, Haley was even awarded Indiana State Yodeling Champion for his skill; this might have been a fact that his skillful manager,
Colonel Tom Parker Colonel Thomas Andrew Parker (born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk; June 26, 1909 January 21, 1997) was a Dutch people, Dutch talent manager and concert promoter, best known as the manager of Elvis Presley. Parker was born in the Netherlands and Il ...
, felt not important to mention to his screaming teenage rock 'n' roll fans. Yodeler
Kenny Roberts Kenneth Leroy Roberts (born December 31, 1951) is an American former professional motorcycle racer and racing team owner. In 1978, he became the first American to win a Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championship. He was also a two-time w ...
was another member of the ''Down Homers;'' he had taught Bill Haley to yodel before he did a stint in the Navy when Haley took his place in the band. In later years Roberts was popular on children's TV shows where he used to leap over two feet in the air while playing guitar and yodeling. Otis Dewey "Slim" Whitman performed for over 60 years. Whitman avoided the "down on yer luck" songs, preferring instead to sing laid-back romantic melodies about simple life and love. Critics dubbed his musical style "countrypolitan," due to its fusion of country music and a more sophisticated
crooner A crooner is a singer who performs with a smooth, intimate style that originated in the 1920s. The crooning style was made possible by better microphones that picked up quieter sounds and a wider range of frequencies, allowing the singer to acce ...
vocal style. Pop singer
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...
cited Whitman as one of his ten favorite vocalists. Beatles
George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...
and
Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
cite Whitman as an early influence In the film ''Mars Attacks!'', a Kansas teenager discovers that the Martians are vulnerable to Whitman's song "
Indian Love Call "Indian Love Call" (first published as "The Call") is a popular song from ''Rose-Marie'', a 1924 operetta-style Broadway musical with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, and book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II. Origi ...
," whereupon he and his grandmother use it to destroy the Martians. Janet McBride grew up in Maine where she began to yodel while still a child. She continued to sing and record, writing some of her own music, for over 40 years. She has toured in the U.S. and in Austria. McBride was awarded Western Music Association's Female Yodeler of the Year in 1991. Swiss-American folk and country singer
Jewel Kilcher Jewel Kilcher (born Juel Kilcher on May 23, 1974), mononymously known as Jewel, is an American singer-songwriter. She has been nominated for four Grammy Awards and has sold over 30 million albums worldwide as of 2024. Jewel was raised near Home ...
yodels, and is known for her version of "Chime Bells". Jewel says that she learned to yodel from her father, Attila Kuno "Atz" Kilcher, who himself also learned to yodel by listening to Jimmie Rodgers.
Mike Johnson James Michael Johnson (born January 30, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 56th speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2023. A member ...
is an African American yodeler who combines the Jimmie Rodgers, Swiss, and Cowboy yodeling styles. In 2007, 114 of his yodeling songs were inducted into the Recorded Sound Reference Center's permanent music collection in the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
in Washington D.C. Jazz singer
Leon Thomas Amos Leon Thomas Jr. (October 4, 1937 – May 8, 1999), known professionally as Leon Thomas, was an American jazz and blues vocalist, born in East St. Louis, Illinois, and known for his bellowing glottal-stop style of free jazz singing in the ...
, best known for his work with
Pharoah Sanders Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...
, particularly the 1969 song "The Creator Has a Master Plan" from Sanders's ''
Karma Karma (, from , ; ) is an ancient Indian concept that refers to an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called ...
'' album, was known to break out into yodeling in the middle of a vocal. Thomas said he learned to yodel from listening to African Pygmy singers. This style has influenced singers James Moody,
Tim Buckley Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. He began his career based in folk rock, but subsequently experimented with genres such as psychedelia, jazz, the avant-garde, and funk paired with his ...
and
Bobby McFerrin Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter, and conductor (music), conductor. His Vocal pedagogy, vocal techniques include singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in Pitch (music), pitch—fo ...
, among others. Kerry Christensen, who hails from Idaho, has been performing since he was three years old. He yodels in both western and Alpine styles and also plays the
accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...
, the
zither Zither (; , from the Greek ''cithara'') is a class of stringed instruments. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body. Zithers are typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers or a ...
, and the
alphorn The alphorn (; ; ) is a traditional lip-reed wind instrument. It consists of a very long straight wooden natural horn, with a length of , a conical bore and a wooden cup-shaped mouthpiece. Traditionally the alphorn was made in one piece from ...
... and is very good at imitating
chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...
s. Yodeler Taylor Ware was a contestant on ''
America's Got Talent ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is an American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distributed by) and ...
'' when she was eleven years old. According to Ware, she taught herself to yodel from an audiotape and instruction book when she was seven years old.
Alyse Eady Alyse Cynthia Eady (born March 15, 1988) is an American news anchor and beauty pageant titleholder who was Miss Arkansas 2010. Eady was named first runner-up at the Miss America, Miss America 2011 pageant, which was won by Miss Nebraska 2010 Tere ...
, who holds the title of Miss Arkansas 2010 and was 1st runner-up in the Miss America 2011 Pageant, both yodeled and did ventriloquism in the song "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" as her talent performance. According to Bart Plantenga, author of ''Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World,'' "... unlikely yodellers include the Muppets (with, of course, special guest Julie Andrews), Shakira, Goofy, Bill Murray (remember ''Charlie's Angels?''), Gene Wilder (who was taught to yodel by Rough Guide contributor and yodel legend Kenny Roberts), and South Korea's former Miss World Ji-Yea Park." ''
The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. ...
'', one of
Rodgers Rodgers is a patronymic surname deriving from the given name of " Rodger" commonly used by the Normans and meaning "son of Rodger". Variant form of Rogers. The name Rodger is of Old German origin and is likely derived from the Germanic name Hrod ...
's and
Hammerstein Hammerstein is a municipality on the river Rhine in the district of Neuwied in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. Near the village, is the Hammerstein castle. The ancient German noble family Hammerstein, which have sponsored the Hammerstein Ball ...
's best-known collaborations, contains a yodelling song, "The Lonely Goatherd," in which
Mary Martin Mary Virginia Martin (December 1, 1913 – November 3, 1990) was an American actress and singer. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles on stage over her career, including Nellie Forbush in ''South Pacific (musica ...
yodelled to good effect in the original production on Broadway in 1959.
Julie Andrews Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over eight decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...
was similarly effective in the 1965 film version, with the same song.
Gwen Stefani Gwen Renée Stefani Shelton ( ; born October 3, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer. Stefani rose to fame as a member and lead vocalist of the band No Doubt, whose hit singles include " Just a Girl", " Spiderwebs", an ...
also yodeled in the 2006 single "Wind It Up". The lead vocalist for American electro-punk band the Epoxies is also known for her yodeling in a lot of their songs. Soul singer
Aaron Neville Aaron Joseph Neville (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer renowned for his distinctively smooth, vibrato-heavy tenor and a genre-crossing career that spans R&B, soul, gospel, jazz, country, and pop. He gained national prominence with hi ...
said he was inspired by Gene Autry's yodelling to develop his unusual vibrato singing style. In a sketch that aired on the TV "
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of the '' Late Night'' franchise. Hosted by Jimmy Fallon,
," the actor
Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. In a Brad Pitt filmography, film career spanning more than thirty years, Pitt has received list of awards and nominations received by Brad Pitt, numerous a ...
and
Jimmy Fallon James Thomas Fallon (born September 19, 1974) is an Americans, American comedian, television host, actor, singer, writer, and producer. Best known for his work in television, Fallon's breakthrough came during his tenure as a cast member on the ...
engaged in a yodeling conversation atop New York City skyscrapers. As they yodeled back and forth, subtitles inform viewers of what they are saying to each another. After some small talk, Pitt asks Fallon if he'd like to try a "double yodel." Fallon responds, "A double yodel? But that's never been done before!" The episode concludes with the two yodeling in harmony. In April 2018, eleven-year-old
Mason Ramsey Mason Blake Ramsey (born November 16, 2006) is an American singer. In March 2018, after gaining Internet fame from a viral video of him yodeling "Lovesick Blues" by Hank Williams at a Walmart, Ramsey was signed to Big Loud. Early life Mason B ...
, from
Golconda, Illinois Golconda is a city in and the county seat of Pope County, Illinois, United States, located along the Ohio River. The population was 630 at the 2020 census. Most of the city is part of the Golconda Historic District. History The city is named ...
, was caught on camera yodeling the
Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...
hit "
Lovesick Blues "Lovesick Blues" is a Tin Pan Alley song, composed by Cliff Friend, with lyrics by Irving Mills. It first appeared in the 1922 musical "Oh, Ernest", and was recorded that year by Elsie Clark and Jack Shea. Emmett Miller recorded it in 1925 and ...
" in a Walmart store. Within a few days, videos of his performance collectively garnered over 25 million views and he became a viral sensation and Internet meme. Ramsey's performance sparked new interest in Hank Williams 70 year-old recording of the song and, in March,
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
reported that
Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...
's Viral 50 chart for the U.S. ranked Hank William's "Lovesick Blues" at Number Three, and Number Four around the globe. The Wikipedia views of their "Yodeling" article jumped from a few hundred to over 5,000 a day. As a result of his newfound fame Ramsey made an appearance on the ''
Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The show ran for nineteen seasons from September 8, 2003, to May 26, 2022, in which it broadcast 3,339 episodes. It was produced by ...
''. Saying that his dream was to appear on
Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...
one day, DeGeneres surprised Ramsey by saying he had been booked for the following weekend.


Canada

Canadian country singer and yodeler
Donn Reynolds Stanley Beresford "Donn" Reynolds (June 26, 1921 – August 16, 1997) was a Canadian country music singer and yodeler most widely known for his Bavarian style of yodeling. Often referred to as Canada's "king of the yodelers",Stompin' Tom Connors Charles Thomas "Stompin' Tom" Connors, Order of Canada, OC (February 9, 1936 – March 6, 2013) was a Canadian country music, country and folk music, folk singer-songwriter. Focusing his career exclusively on his native Canada, he is credited wi ...
of Canada is also noted for yodeling in some of his songs. Rod Erickson born in Beaverlodge, Alberta is also a well known yodeller. His first release after signing with MGM was "She Taught Me How To Yodel" which reached the top ten worldwide within a month. The only yodel song to ever go top ten worldwide. Some of Erickson's other chart toppers include "Yodel Sweet Molly", "Cannonball Yodel" and "Cattle Call." In 1976 his song "Going Home" went top in Canada, a first for a country song in Canada.


Europe

Yodeling is a major feature of folk music (
Volksmusik Alpine folk music (; German's ''Volksmusik'' means "people's music" or as a Germanic connotative translation, "folk's music") is the common umbrella designation of a number of related styles of traditional folk music in the Alpine regions of S ...
) from Switzerland, Austria, and southern Germany and can be heard in many contemporary folk songs, which are also featured on regular TV broadcasts.
Stefanie Hertel Stefanie Anke Hertel (born 25 July 1979 in Oelsnitz, Vogtland, Saxony, East Germany, German Democratic Republic) is a German singer of popular music, Volkstümliche Musik, popular folk music, schlager music, television presenter, and former yode ...
is a German yodeler and popular performer of Alpine folk music. Hertel has won numerous prizes as a performer; in 1992, she won the Grand Prix der Volksmusik with the song "Über jedes Bacherl geht a Brückerl". Franz "Franzl" Lang, known as the Yodelking (German: Jodlerkönig), was a famous yodeler from
Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
. Lang also played the guitar and the accordion and he authored several books on yodeling. Ursprung Buam is an Austrian folk music trio from Zillertal, Tyrol. One of the most popular touring groups in Austria, Ursprung Buam often tours Germany and many places across the European Union, as well as the Tirolean festival scene.
Oesch’s die Dritten Oesch's die Dritten is a yodel volksmusik family group from the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland. It consists of its lead vocalist and yodeler Melanie Oesch (born 14 December 1987), her mother Annemarie (born 8 February 1963), her father Hansueli ( ...
is a Yodel Volksmusik family group from the
Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland (; ; ), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as ''Oberland'' witho ...
, Switzerland.
Bobbejaan Schoepen Bobbejaan Schoepen (a pseudonym of Modest Schoepen; 16 May 1925 – 17 May 2010) was a Flemish pioneer in Belgian pop music, vaudeville, and European country music. Schoepen was a versatile entertainer, entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, guit ...
was an extremely accomplished, successful, and versatile Belgian entertainer, entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, guitarist, comedian, actor, and professional whistler. In 1948, "De Jodelende Fluiter" ("The Yodeling Whistler") was Schoepen's first hit. In 1953, he was one of the first Europeans to appear at the "Grand Ole Opry" in the United States. Outside of regional ''Volksmusic'', Karl Denver was a Scottish singer who had a series of yodel-based hit singles in the early 1960s. Most famous of these was a 1961 version of " Wimoweh".
Harry Hopkinson Harry Hopkinson (8 June 1902 – 4 March 1979), also known as Austin Layton and Harry Torrani, was a British music hall performer, a soprano and songwriter who has been credited as one of the world's greatest yodelers. He was billed as the ...
(1902–1979) has been credited as one of the world's greatest yodelers. He used the stage name Harry Torrani and was billed as the "Yodeling Cowboy from Chesterfield".
Frank Ifield Francis Edward Ifield OAM (30 November 1937 – 18 May 2024) was a British-born Australian country music singer and guitarist who often incorporated yodelling into his music. Born in the United Kingdom, Ifield grew up in rural Australia wher ...
, an Australian-English singer, released a double A-sided single record, "Lovesick Blues" and "She Taught Me How to Yodel" in the UK in 1962. It reached number 1 in the UK charts, and also reached number 44 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. In England,
Edith Sitwell Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess ...
featured a "Jodelling Song" as part of her series of poems ''
Façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...
'', set to music by
William Walton Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the cantat ...
. An unusual marriage between yodeling and rock music was portrayed in "
Hocus Pocus Hocus-pocus is an exclamation used by magicians, usually the magic words spoken when bringing about some sort of change. Hocus Pocus, Hokus Pokus, or variants may also refer to: Books * Hocus Pocus (novel), ''Hocus Pocus'' (novel), a 1990 novel ...
" by the
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
band
Focus Focus (: foci or focuses) may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in East Australia Film *Focus (2001 film), ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based on the Arthur Miller novel *Focus (2015 ...
released in 1971. Irish singer
Dolores O'Riordan Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan ( ; 6 September 1971 – 15 January 2018) was an Irish musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band The Cranberries. O'Riordan was the principal songwriter of ...
was renowned for her "natural"
Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...
yodeling particularly in tracks such as "
Dreams A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5–20 minutes, althou ...
", one of several O'Riordan-penned singles from the five-times
RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
certified
platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...
album, ''
Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? ''Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?'' is the debut studio album by Irish alternative rock band the Cranberries. Released on 1 March 1993 through Island Records after four EPs, it is both the band's first full-length album and major l ...
'' by
the Cranberries The Cranberries were an Irish rock music, rock band formed in Limerick in 1989. The band was composed of lead singer and guitarist Dolores O'Riordan, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan (Noel's brother), and drummer Fergal Lawler. O'Riord ...
. It can also be heard on most of O'Riordan's songs, especially on " I Can't Be with You", and "
Zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...
", the lead single from the seven-times RIAA certified platinum album, ''
No Need to Argue ''No Need to Argue'' is the second studio album by Irish alternative rock band the Cranberries, released on 3 October 1994, through Island Records. It is the band's best-selling album, and has sold over 17 million copies worldwide as of 2014. I ...
''. O'Riordan continued to incorporate her trademark yodeling in works throughout her career, as in the song "Black Widow" which appears on her solo album '' Are You Listening?''. Author Bart Plantenga wrote, "Dolores O'Riordan's voice is truly unique, to the point that, as with throat singers, you want to dissect her throat to inspect the physiological source of her enchanting yet discomfiting yodel-inflected vocals". The song "
Yodel It! "Yodel It!" is a song recorded by Romanian singers Ilinca Băcilă, Ilinca and Alex Florea, released on 30 January 2017 by Cat Music. The track was written by Alexandra Niculae and produced by Mihai Alexandru for the Swiss band Timebelle who r ...
" from
Ilinca Băcilă Maria Ilinca Băcilă (; born 17 August 1998), also known as simply Ilinca, is a Romanian singer and yodeler. She is well known for her unique yodel. She participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, representing Romania, along with Alex Flo ...
and
Alex Florea Alexandru Ionuț "Alex" Florea (; born 15 September 1991) is a Romanian singer. Along with Ilinca Băcilă, he represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song " Yodel It!", finishing in 7th place in the grand final. Flore ...
represented
Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Romania was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Yodel It!" written by Mihai Alexandru and Alexandra Niculae. The song was performed by Ilinca and Alex Florea. In October 2016, the Romanian broadcaster Televiziunea Rom ...
, reaching seventh place. The track musically portrays a mixture between yodeling,
rap Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...
,
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
,
pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...
and
hip hop music Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...
, featuring Ilinca yodeling through the chorus. "Yodel It!" was originally thought for Swiss band Timebelle, but was then handed to Ilinca to record; Florea was ultimately chosen as a featuring artist for a better quality. In Spain, the band El Pony Pisador uses yodel mixed with Irish music and bluegrass to create new sonorities.


Outside Europe and North America

Kishore Kumar Kishore Kumar (born Abhas Kumar Ganguly; ; 4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987) was an Indian playback singer, musician and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of modern India ...
was a
playback singer A playback singer, as they are usually known in South Asian cinema, or ghost singer in Western cinema, is a singer whose performance is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and the performers lip-sync the ...
from India, famous for his yodeling, while it was JP Chandrababu talented comedian of Tamil film who introduced yodeling as
playback singing A playback singer, as they are usually known in South Asian cinema, or ghost singer in Western cinema, is a singer whose performance is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and the performers lip-sync th ...
in India. Australia's first singing cowboy, Smoky Dawson, was well known for his western-style yodel and featured yodel on his first single, "I'm A Happy Go-Lucky Cowhand". In South Africa, yodeling is featured in some Afrikaans-language pop music. Joy McKean, Australian country music singer-songwriter, is known as the "grand lady" of
Australian country music Australian country music is a part of the music of Australia. There is a broad range of styles, from bluegrass, to yodeling to folk to the more popular. The genre has been influenced by Celtic and English folk music, the Australian bush balla ...
. By the age of 18 she was performing with her sister Heather on their own radio show as the McKean Sisters, noted for their yodeling harmonies. Mckean performed with her husband
Slim Dusty Slim Dusty, AO MBE (born David Gordon Kirkpatrick; 13 June 1927 – 19 September 2003) was an Australian country music singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. He was an Australian cultural icon, referred to universally as Australia's Ki ...
till his death in 2003. Slim, a singer-songwriter and yodeler as well, wrote his first song, "The Way the Cowboy Dies" when he was only 10 years old. He received 37 
Golden Guitar The Big Golden Guitar is one of the many "big" attractions that can be found around Australia. Located in Tamworth, New South Wales, the monument is one of the best-known points of interest in New England. It is also a major attraction duri ...
and two
ARIA In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...
awards and was inducted into the
ARIA Hall of Fame Since 1988 the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has inducted artists into its annual ARIA Hall of Fame. While most have been recognised at the annual ARIA Music Awards, in 2005 ARIA sought to create a separate standalone ceremo ...
. Mary Schneider is an Australian singer and performer who yodels the works of classic composers. She mainly appears in club and pub venues around Australia as well as overseas, but she has also performed at many arena venues. Her daughter
Melinda Schneider Melinda Schneider (born Melinda-Jane Bean; 7 October 1971) is an Australian country music singer. She has been performing since she was three and sang with her mother, yodelling country artist Mary Schneider, on the album ''The Magic of Yodell ...
is also a country music singer and yodeller. , Germanized as Ischi, is a Japanese yodeler active in Germany. While in college Ischi taught himself to yodel by listening to the recordings of
Franzl Lang Franz "Franzl" Lang (28 December 1930 – 6 December 2015), known as the ''Yodel King'' (), was an alpine yodeller from Bavaria, Germany. Lang's genre is German folk music; he typically sang in the Bavarian dialect of the rural Alpine regions. ...
and he began to perform on Japanese television. While studying in Germany Lang took him "under his wing" and he began to sing at a beer hall in Zurich. Ischi met his wife Henriette in 1981 and proposed to her at an ''onsen'' (hot spring) in Japan, where he yodeled his proposal to her. Taiwanese singer
Harlem Yu Harlem Yu (; born 28 July 1961) is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter, television host and businessman. He has been hosting television shows in Taiwan since 1994 and in China since 2011, and served as a coach for three seasons of '' The Voice of Chi ...
has one song that uses yodeling (山頂黑狗兄).


See also

*
Andachtsjodler The ''Andachtsjodler'' ('devotional yodel'), also called ''Sterzinger'' ''Andachtsjodler'', ''Mettenjodler'', ''Rauhnachtjodler'', or ''Jodlerandacht'' is an untexted spiritual yodeling song which originated in the Christmas mass of the South Ty ...
, Austrian devotional yodel * Blue yodeling * '' Cooee'' *
Field holler The field holler or field call is mostly a historical type of vocal work song sung by field slaves in the United States (and later by African American forced laborers accused of violating vagrancy laws) to accompany their tasked work, to comm ...
* Jodeldiplom *
Kulning Kulning, also known as the Nordic herding call, refers to high-pitched herding calls that were developed centuries ago in Norway and Sweden. Different regions have different names for these calls, such as ''kauka'', ''lålla'', ''kula'', ''kulok ...
*
Old-time music Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, contra dance, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering ...
*
Singing cowboy A singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western (genre), Western films. It references real-world campfire side ballads in the American frontier. The original cowboys sang of life on the trail with all the challenges, ...
* Tahrir (vocal technique) *
Ululation Ululation (, ), trilling or lele, is a long, wavering, high-pitched vocal sound resembling a Howl (sound), howl with a Trill (music), trilling quality. It is produced by emitting a high pitched loud voice accompanied with a rapid back and forth mov ...
*
Western music (North America) Western music is a form of music composed by and about the people who settled and worked throughout the Western United States and Western Canada. Western music celebrates the Western lifestyle, lifestyle of the cowboy on the open range, along th ...
*
Western swing Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...
* Zäuerli


References


Further reading

* * * * – from
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
to the
avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
, an exhaustive survey of the field. *


External links

* {{Authority control Austrian styles of music German styles of music Singing techniques Swiss styles of music Swiss folklore Vocal skills