…would it be a sin?

Ah yes, the penny whistle, aka the tin whistle or the English Flageolet or (in our case) the Irish Feadóg. No matter the name, this simple, six-holed woodwind instrument is a celebrated member of the Fipple Flute family, along with the Recorder, the American Indian Flute, the Greek Aulos and the Roman Tibia, among others.

By all accounts nearly every primitive culture had a type of fipple flute and it is considered to be the first pitched flute-type instrument in existence, with a Neanderthal fipple flute from Slovenia that reportedly dates as far back as 81,000 B.C. As musical instruments go, you don’t get much more “Old School” than that.

So what better song to feature such an antediluvian instrument than today’s high-speed selection, which spent two months on the UK Singles Chart in 1986, as performed by Lick the Tins, a London-based Celtic band that had a (mainly domestic) following in the mid-to-late ‘80s; me among them.

Written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore and George David Weiss, “Can’t Help Falling in Love” was first recorded by Elvis Presley and was featured in his 1961 film, “Blue Hawaii” after which it spent six weeks at Number 1 on the Easy Listening chart in the USA. It also reached Number 1 on the British charts in 1962.

During his later-1960s and ‘70s performances it would serve as “the King’s” finale……just before he left the building.

LISTEN TO TODAY’S SONG – Friday 2 March