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Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr., known for his yodeling and his three octave falsetto range has sold in excess of 120 million records, most of them through late night direct television marketing in the 1980s. He did not embark on a musical career until the end of World War II, after he had served in the South Pacific with the US Navy.

He was self-taught left-handed guitarist, even though he was right-handed. He lost almost all of the second finger on his left hand in an accident so he reverted to playing left-handed. Paul McCartney credits him as the first left-handed player he'd seen which inspired him to restring his right-handed guitar and the rest is history.

When "Colonel" Tom Parker heard him singing on the radio he signed him to RCA Records and Whitman's career took off, doing "The Louisiana Hayride" with the likes of Hank Williams and eventually "Slim" was Elvis Presley's opening act.

His popularity in Europe far exceeds his American fame, and his recording of "Rose Marie" held the record in the UK for the longest running #1 single (19 weeks) for some 36 years. Michael Jackson cited Whitman as one of his ten favorite vocalists and George Harrison said Whitman was as an early influence: "The first person I ever saw playing a guitar was Slim Whitman ... Guitars were definitely coming in". Even Rob Zombie used Whitman's song "I Remember You" in his directorial movie debut "House of 1000 Corpses". The guy's an icon and although I own a 36 disc compilation of his RCA recordings, I seldom get a chance to post one of his songs. Even though "Evening Prayer" is reminiscent of tropical breezes and Hawaiian steel guitar, the lyrics are lovely.