Slim Whitman, RIP

I had a Slim Whitman record, a single. He sang an Elvis song and I don't remember what was on the other side.

He did have a huge hit in England which really did outsell Elvis and the Beatles.

Slim Whitman has died at age 90.

I don't know how he felt about the movie Mars Attacks where his rendition of "Indian Love Song" makes the Martians' heads explode.

I saw him long ago, back when they were selling his records on TV, on the David Letterman Show. The audience went wild, and I had the impression that he knew they were being ironic. He was a big man, bigger than Letterman who I thought was pretty tall himself. Letterman wanted to try on Whitman's sparkly jacket.

He performed here in Eugene in the early '50s----I learned this looking through the microfilm of the local paper at the library.

He had a more interesting life than I have so far.