Elmo Tanner

Elmo Tanner

Elmo Tanner
Elmo Tanner circa 1940's - 1950s.
Background information
Birth name	William Elmo Tanner
Born	August 8, 1904 Nashville, Tennessee
Died	December 20, 1990 aoremovetag(aged 86) St. Petersburg, Florida
Genres	Big Band, Easy Listening, Traditional pop music
Occupations	singer, whistler, DJ
Years active	late 1920s – early 1960s
Associated acts	Ted Weems, Perry Como
Notable instruments
washboard

William Elmo Tanner, known as Elmo Tanner (August 8, 1904 – December 20, 1990) was an American singer, whistler, bandleader and disc jockey, best known for his whistling on the chart-topping song “Heartaches” with the Ted Weems orchestra. He earned the nicknames ““Whistler’s Mother’s “Boy””, “The Whistling Troubador,” and “the nation’s best-known whistler.” Tanner, like Bing Crosby, was able to whistle from his throat due to the muscles in his larnyx.

Early Life

Tanner was born on August 8, 1904 in Nashville, Tennessee. He grew up in Detroit, moving with his family to Memphis by 1926. Tanner worked there as a mechanic and liked to whistle and sing while he worked. One day, he had a repair job for a customer who happened to work at WMC radio. After hearing Tanner singing while working on his car, the announcer suggested Tanner audition for the radio station. His on-air appearance brought a call from Paramount Records, which had offices in Chicago.

Career

Early Recordings

By the late 1920s, Elmo Tanner had moved to the Chicago area and had established himself as a professional musician. Although Elmo Tanner never gained a large reputation as a singer, (though occasionally featured as such with Weems,) it was as a vocalist that he made his initial recordings. He recorded a few dozen sides as a soloist for Paramount and Vocalion in 1927 through 1929. Interestingly, the Paramount discs appeared in the Race record series, and the Vocalion sides were likewise marketed to African Americans. His versatility was noted by Vocalion, who utilized him to provide vocals for jazz outfits such as Jimmie Noone and for more sedate recordings with the Victor Young orchestra and with organist Eddie House. Not having signed an exclusive contract with any recording company, he was able to appear on the prestigious Victor label with Nathaniel Shilkret. In 1928 he formed a duet with Fred Rose as “The Tune Peddlers” and appeared on radio stations WLS, KYW, and WBBM.

Ted Weems Orchestra and “Heartaches”

Tanner joined the Ted Weems band as a singer in 1929 and became a prominent feature of the group. Tanner's whistling talent was unveiled by accident. In high spirits on their way to their next performance, the band members were singing, yelling and whistling on the bus. When Tanner joined in, Weems was impressed enough to add a whistling segment to one of the band's sets. Tanner whistled the Show Boat song, "Make Believe" the audience asked for an encore. Tanner's whistling became so popular that Perry Como, another featured performer in the band, said “The whistler was the whole band.” In 1938 he appeared in the movie “Swing, Sister, Swing” with the Weems outfit. On occasion, Tanner’s lips would pucker up, interfering with his whistling. Although generally noted for his graciousness as a bandleader, Weems would have fun at Tanner’s expense, running him through the most difficult songs in his repertoire when he noticed Tanner was struggling. Perry Como said “I used to sit there in the bandstand and watch, and my heart would really bleed for the guy,” In an era when whistling was commonly featured on popular recordings, Tanner was often confused with . People would come up to Tanner and ask if was true that he was blind. “Only on Saturday night,” he would reply. Ted Weems considered Tanner's whistling so important to his band, he insured the musician's throat with Lloyd's of London for $10,000 in 1939. During this time period Tanner appeared on the popular show Beat the Band with Weems which ran from January 28, 1940 until February 23, 1941.

Tanner, Ted Weems, and the rest of his orchestra joined the Merchant Marine in 1942. At (and intermittently before) his discharge in 1944 he pursued a solo career. He headlined in various nightclubs and theaters such as Chicago’s Oriental and Colosimo’s and at the Orpheum in Los Angeles alongside the King Sisters and . He would continue to perform songs that were associated with Weems, such as “Nola”. Tanner announced he would be fronting a twelve-piece band in September of 1946. He took over the Andy Anderson unit that was based in Atlanta and signed on with the William Morris Agency. His orchestra featured his whistling and vocals by Carol Bridges. However, this proved to be short-lived because of the surprise success of an old recording.

“Heartaches”, composed by Al Hoffman and John Klenner in 1931, was recorded as an unusual half-rumba, half washboard rhythm. Victor had assigned the recording of the song to Ted Weems and his Orchestra, and wanted it recorded quickly. Weems and his band had time for only one rehearsal before recording the song. Initially, Weems did not like the song; he decided to omit the lyrics by way of having Tanner whistle instead. While running through the song at rehearsal, someone thought of trying it with a speedier tempo than initially written. It was not a large seller initially, but a DJ in North Carolina began plugging the recording in 1947. This older recording went to the top of all the main charts in 1947, including sales, juke box play, and airplay.Unusually, two separate recordings were given equal credit in the charts. Victor’s version was recorded on August 4, 1933 and issued on Bluebird B5131. Decca’s recording was made on August 23, 1938 and originally appeared on catalog number 2020B. The hit records were credited to RCA Victor 20-2175 and Decca 25017, respectively. Altogether the recordings were credited with selling 8.5 million copies. Tanner said in a 1960 interview that neither he nor Ted Weems received any compensation for the "Heartaches" re-issue as they both had let the contracts on the song expire while they were in the Merchant Marine.

Because of the renewed success of “Heartaches, Tanner joined the re-formed Weems outfit in March of 1947, and both were signed to Mercury records. This later outfit often received poor reviews, with the exception of Elmo’s “outstanding” whistling, and it was Elmo’s whistling that audiences most responded to.

Later career

Tanner left Weems in 1950 to open a restaurant in Nashville. This occupied him for a year and a half, but it proved to be a failure and Tanner suffered financially. He formed the Elmo Tanner Quartet and resumed touring for the next few years, until, tired of travel, he broke up his group in Seattle in 1958. He spent the next fourteen months in Birmingham as a disk jockey. He reunited briefly with Weems, then settled in the St. Petersburg, Florida area in Treasure Island and became a permanent fixture on radio station WILZ starting in 1959, a position which lasted several years. During this time he continued to make recordings with orchestras such as David Carroll and Billy Vaughn to continued positive reviews. His association continued with Weems, making the occasional guest appearance with the band he was closely connected to. In the early 1960s, Tanner was also selling Datsuns at a local St. Petersburg auto dealership.

Personal life and death

Tanner was married to Verne Tanner. They lived in Chicago and divorced in 1936. He snuck out between shows and married Eleanor Jones of Birmingham on January 31, 1939 in Indianapolis. Tanner met his second wife while working with the Weems band on Catalina Island. They had four children together: Elmo Jr., twins Margaret and Patricia, and John Emmet. By 1969 he was retired. Tanner underwent gall bladder surgery in 1985 and was able to recover at his home in St. Petersburg. He died on December 20, 1990 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Tanner is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee.

Style

Tanner was noted for the ease with which he hit high notes and performed trills. He had the ability to whistle while Triple-tonguing. His range was from low G to high B♭. Besides musical whistling, he imitated birds for Disney.

Partial discography

as solo

singles

with David Carroll

albums

with Buddy Morrow

singles

with Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orch

singles

with Jay Richards

singles

with Frank Sullivan

singles

with Ted Weems

albums

singles

References

Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmo_Tanner