"It was then that I realized the true power of the yodel."
April 23, 2019 11:49 AM   Subscribe

Back in the early 1990s, Wylie Gustafson was the go-to yodeler for quirky TV ads, when the fad was yodeling and surf music. A little start-up that was first known as Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web (Wikipedia) and became the biggest internet index site (1996 site capture on Archive.org) wanted to get in on the action, and Wylie was hired for the Ya-HOOO-ooo! Yodel (YT), in what was supposed to be a regional commercial, for a one-time payment of $590.38. Then Gustafson heard his yodel on a superbowl ad (YT) and realized it wasn't just a one-off regional commercial clip he provided. So requested an appropriate payment for his ubiquitous yodel, but after he was offered another $590, he became the yodeler who sued Yahoo! (The Hustle).

If you're of a certain age and exposed to U.S. commercials, Wylie's yodel will instantly be recognizable. For some examples of how wide-spread his Yahoo Yodel became, in addition to quirky ads, it was used in a musical bottle opener and featured in Inspector Gadget (YTx2).

The deal, whose final figure was undisclosed (CBS News, 2002), included regional appearances (YTx2) and in the mid-2000s, Yahoo! put on a national yodeling tour (Yenra), bouncing from city to city in search of America’s best yodelers*. Gustafson served as the judge. The winner was Taylor Ware (YT), who was 9 years old at the time of filming that ad.

If you'd like some more country and western music, here's Yodeling Fool (YT), the musical tale of Wylie, by Wylie and The Wild West. They have a full playlist of live videos (YT), including a bit more yodeling.

If that's not enough yodeling, here's YODEL 101 with Wylie Gustafson (YT).

* Apparently, there was another yodeling competition in 1998, where MeFite spitbull was the academic expert judge (comment link).
posted by filthy light thief (20 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
Whoever wrote the "Law-suuuuuuuu-uuuit" subhead in the Hustle article deserves a raise.
posted by Brodiggitty at 12:41 PM on April 23, 2019 [8 favorites]


w00t! Born and raised in Conrad, Montana!
posted by davidmsc at 12:47 PM on April 23, 2019


What? No Slim Whitman??? (whose modeling saved Earth in the movie Mars Attacks the year before the Gustafson/Yahoo kerfuffle... it was obvious the head Yahoos were seeking to cheap out on their yodel ad by not hiring Slim)
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:50 PM on April 23, 2019 [5 favorites]


Goddamn is that yodel still engraved on my brain two decades later. I'm glad he got a settlement in the end.

The era of Yahoo! commercials on TV was also the era of Yahoo! Internet Life, a print magazine that my family subscribed to. We found out about all the cool Flash games that way.
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:53 PM on April 23, 2019 [5 favorites]


Very glad to learn that he was eventually paid some big bucks.

And yes, the "law-suuuuuuu-uuuit" is fun! BUT the author lost points for "... low and behold "
posted by davidmsc at 12:54 PM on April 23, 2019 [3 favorites]


Slim Whitman, yes!

As a child of the ‘70s, I also have his yodel deeply embedded in my consciousness, hearing it on innumerable repeats of the tv commercial for his Greatest Hits album. (On LP disc or 8-track tape!)

“Una paloma blancaaa-aaa-AAAA...”
posted by darkstar at 1:07 PM on April 23, 2019 [5 favorites]


Not what most people think of as yodeling, but I love me some hawaiian mellow hula falsetto. Dennis Pavao.
posted by ctmf at 1:18 PM on April 23, 2019 [2 favorites]


It just occurred to me that there are children in high school who very likely have never needed to go to a Yahoo!-branded website for anything in their lives. The only thing keeping me in their ecosystem for the past 15 years was my flickr account, and I don't think anybody but dedicated photo hobbyists really use it anymore. It's gone from being an essential part of internet life to literally nothing.

But damned if I can't still hear that trademark yodel in my head as clear as a bell. Good on Wylie for getting a piece of the action while the getting was good.
posted by Strange Interlude at 2:31 PM on April 23, 2019 [2 favorites]


As I noted later on the thread in question, my memory was wrong and I judged the Yahoo! Yodeling contest with Wylie, whom I slightly knew at the time, in 2003, not 1998.
posted by spitbull at 2:33 PM on April 23, 2019 [1 favorite]


Also, a mention is in order for the very best yodeler of his generation, the late great Don Walser, whom I was lucky to know.
posted by spitbull at 2:35 PM on April 23, 2019 [4 favorites]


If we’re discussing yodellers , special mention should be made of John R Crowder, who very memorably contributed to the Raising Arizona soundtrack.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:58 PM on April 23, 2019 [2 favorites]


I learned to love yodeling by listening to Jean Valli
posted by Quasimike at 3:30 PM on April 23, 2019 [2 favorites]


Also to mention ... thanks to Don Walser, in 1991 I was able to meet and hear Ruby Blevins (Patsy Montana) sing (at Waterloo Records in Austin). She died in 1996. Her 1935 record “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” has been a yodeling standard ever since it became the first country record by a woman to sell over a million units. At 82 she could still bring it. And she was really nice too.

ETA in general people who can yodel well tend to be nice, I’ve noticed.
posted by spitbull at 3:49 PM on April 23, 2019 [2 favorites]


Another unusual vocal form is kulning as discussed and demonstrated on the BBC World Service.
posted by Botanizer at 4:45 PM on April 23, 2019 [2 favorites]


For better or worse, Chicken Attack, has replaced the Yahoo! yodel as what I hear in my head whenever anyone mentions yodeling.

This led me to Takeo Ischi, the "Japanese Yodeler," who probably deserves his own post at some point.

On preview: he sort of has one! That guy's been yodeling about chickens for longer than I realized.
posted by NormieP at 5:20 PM on April 23, 2019 [1 favorite]


In 1929 three generations of my mother’s family drove a 7-passenger Studebaker from Pittsburgh to California just because. As they crossed dusty, unpaved desert roads my Swiss great-grandmother would, when prompted, yodel from the back seat of the open car.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:55 PM on April 23, 2019 [2 favorites]


And my personal favorite, jazz yodeller Leon Thomas.
posted by Jode at 7:05 PM on April 23, 2019 [2 favorites]


It the UK, Frank Ifield being played on the blandest of the bland radio shows was my main introduction to yodelling as kid. Rather bizarrely the remix of 'She Taught Me To Yodel' became a minor rave/dance hit in the UK in the early 90s.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:53 AM on April 24, 2019


Something about rustic vocal treatments of company named sticks with me. Yahoo’s yodel is one; Expedia’s two-part name is another. The “Expedia” part was said by a young man excited about booking travel online. The “dot com” part was intoned by a trio(?) of cowpokes backed by a banjo or pedal-steel instrument.

To be honest, I really only remember the “dot coooooooom” part.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:32 AM on April 24, 2019


The Expedia jingle was done by Matt Mahaffey of SeLF. SeLF, who is Matt, is also responsible for an all time great YT performance, a one-man-band cover of Back In Black.
posted by half-cut-skeleton at 10:19 AM on April 24, 2019


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