“Whistle” by Flo Rida

song info

    “Whistle” by Flo Rida (official video) is a hip-hop song.

    
    U.S. Billboard Hot 100: #38, 27 weeks on chart, peak #1
    Rap: #6 (six), 18 weeks on chart, peak #2 (two)
    Pop: peak #1 (one)
    Adult Contemporary: peak #3 (three)
    Adult Pop: peak #25
    Dance/Club Play: peak #41
    Radio Songs: #52, 21 weeks on chart, peak #2 (two)
    Digital Songs: #48, 27 weeks on chart, peak #1 (one)
    On-Demand Songs: peak #23, 20 weeks on chart, peak #2 (two)
    Ringtones: #3 (three), 20 weeks on chart, peak #1 (one)
    Latin: peak #36
    Latin Pop: #35, 10 weeks on chart, peak #17
    Canadian Hot 100: peak #29
     Billboard information for the week of Nov 24, 2012
     Billboard chart listings courtesy of Billboard Magazine

link to the static song information page for this song:
http://www.thissideofsanity.com/music/songs/wh/whistle.php

    Summary quotation from Wikipedia:

    “Whistle” is a song by American rapper Flo Rida from his fourth studio album, Wild Ones (2012). It was released on April 24, 2012 as the third single from the album. “Whistle” was written by Flo Rida, David Glass, Marcus Killian, Justin Franks, Breyan Isaac and Antonio Mobley while production was handled by DJ Frank E and Glass. It contains sexually suggestive lyrics which Flo Rida confirmed in an interview. It was described by Flo Rida as “the biggest record I’ve done yet”.

    “Whistle” is a guitar-driven pop song with a whistling melody. It has been compared with Maroon 5’s and Christina Aguilera’s 2011 song “Moves Like Jagger” due to the whistles heard in the background. Upon its release, the song received mixed to positive reviews from music critics. They generally praised its pop sound, noting that it had the potential of becoming another hit with its “catchy” hook. However, several critics gave a mixed review for the lyrics calling it “the least subtle song ever”. “Whistle” was a commercial success, topping the charts in most countries and peaking in the top ten in others.

    An accompanying music video for the song, directed by Marc Klasfeld was released on May 24, 2012. It was filmed in Acapulco, Mexico and makes use of split screen at various points. It mostly shows shots of Flo Rida and several girls on a beach. Upon its release, it received mostly positive reviews from critics, who noted that it was a perfect accompaniment for the song. Flo Rida also promoted the song by performing it during the final of the talent show, The Voice.

    “Whistle” was written by Flo Rida, David Glass, Marcus Killian, Justin Franks, Breyan Isaac and Antonio Mobley while production was handled by DJ Frank E and Glass. The song premiered online in April, 2012. During an interview with Billboard magazine, Flo Rida described the song as “the biggest record I’ve done yet”. Later, during an interview with MTV News, Flo Rida revealed that the lyrics of the song are sang in a metaphorical way, saying that it had sexually suggestive lyrics. He noted, “Well, put your own swing on it, but for the most part I keep it clean, but if you listen to it, you can take it another way as well”. When asked how does he know where to draw the line between sexually suggestive and downright dirty lyrics, he acknowledged that when he’s in the studio, “I have my boys in there and they’ll tell me and give me their suggestions and what they think… If it’s too much I’ll go back.”

    “Whistle” is a pop and a pop rap song, instrumentally complete with a guitar and a whistling melody. It opens with a whistle heard in the background. During the chorus, Flo Rida sings the lines “Can you blow my whistle baby, whistle baby? Let me know / Girl I’m gonna show you how to do it and we start real slow / You just put your lips together and you come real close / Can you blow my whistle baby, whistle baby?”. Robbie Daw of the website Idolator, Kevin Rutherford of Billboard magazine and Katherine St Asaph noted that the use of whistles throughout the song was very similar with Maroon 5’s and Christina Aguilera’s 2011 song “Moves Like Jagger”. Rutherford further compared it with OneRepublic’s 2010 song “Good Life”. Paul Cantor of the website PopCrush, further compared it with Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” (2010) and Peter Bjorn and John’s indie rock song, “Young Folks” (2006). The song makes numerous references to oral sex.

    The music video for “Whistle” was directed by Marc Klasfeld and premiered on May 24, 2012 at 4 p.m. EST. A preview of the video was released on May 21, 2012. It was filmed in Acapulco, Mexico. A behind-the-scenes video was released the next day on May 25, 2012. It makes use of split screen at various points. It mostly shows Flo Rida lying on a bed on a beach singing the song. Shots of the beach and women in bikinis are also shown throughout the video.

    Hamish Macbain of NME described the video, “The video setting: Flo Rida, topless, head shaved, shorts on, on a cliff edge. Other video personnel: women in bikinis, some allowed to whistle to take Flo Rida’s dream outlined at the beginning of this track one step closer to reality.” Becky Bain of Idolator reviewed the video positively, saying: “Flo Rida’s thinly-veiled sexual euphimism, ‘Whistle’, gets exactly the type of video you’d expect: shot in sunny Acalpulco, the … vid[eo] features boobs, babes, bikinis, and little else. The clip also acts as a video pamphlet for any millionaires out there looking to find the next location for their luxury vacation. Flo Rida and his booty-shakin’ ladies not included, but with an unbelievable setting like this, you can do more than just whistle the night away.” A writer of Rap-Up noted that “Water, women, and wild parties rule” with the video and further wrote that viewers will “escape to paradise with Flo”. Katherine St Asaph of Popdust gave a mixed review for the video, writing that “it’s fitting that the ‘Whistle’ video is basically an update of ‘Wild Ones,’ with less Sia and more whistling”. However, she praised the landscapes in the video, saying that “This could double as a travel commercial–a commercial for the very idea of travel.”

—from Wikipedia (the Wikipedia:Text of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License applies to Wikipedia’s block of text and possible accompanying picture, along with any alterations, transformations, and/or building upon Wikipedia’s original text that ThisSideofSanity.com applied to this block of text)

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