Bowling Ball Whistle

Bowling Ball Whistle (ボウリングボールホイッスル) is a 1998 J-pop single written and sung by Kagami Ochiai. The song was released on October 2, 1998. Despite receiving mixed reviews, it was still a success and managed to reach 79th place in the Top 100 on Oricon.

The song gets its name from the "zing-out" whistle made by Fred Flintstone in The Flintstones whenever he would throw his bowling ball, and the Hanna-Barbera sound effect "Big Whistle Zing Out" is often heard. As suggested by the date of release, the song was written to commemorate the 40th anniversary of The Huckleberry Hound Show, where the "whistle" made its debut. As "Big Whistle Zing Out" is Susumu Takajima's arch nemesis for sound effects, he decided not to translate the song to English and left it to the fans to do it.

Composition
Bowling Ball Whistle is written in the key of F Minor/A Flat Major with a speed of 160 BPM.

Reception
The song received mixed reviews, with critics praising Kagami Ochiai's vocal talent but criticized the repetitive use of Big Whistle Zing Out in the song. Susumu Takajima eventually wrote an instrumental version without the whistles.