( CNN ) -- Slim Whitman , the high-pitched yodeling county music singer whose productive career spanned decades , died Wednesday , his son-in-law told CNN . He was 90 . The singer-songwriter , born Ottis Dewey Whitman Jr. , died of heart failure at Orange Park Medical Center in Florida , Roy Beagle said . Whitman gained fame in Europe as well as the United States . `` Love Song of the Waterfall , '' which a Country Music Television biography calls his `` breakthrough '' hit , was released in the early '50s . His next single `` Indian Love Call '' brought him stardom , according to the bio . `` Whitman joined the Grand Ole Opry , and then went to Britain in 1956 as the first country singer to play the London Palladium . Throughout the late '50s and early '60s , he had a string of British hits , including 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds , ' 'Unchain My Heart , ' and ' I 'll Take You Home Again Kathleen , '' the bio said . He gained cult status after he filmed a TV commercial that touted a released of his top greatest hits , a compilation that was a great success . `` Between 1980 and 1984 , Whitman had a small run of minor hits , highlighted by 1980 's number 15 hit 'When . ' In the late '80s , he returned to television-marketed albums , releasing Slim Whitman : Best Loved Favorites in 1989 and 20 Precious Memories in 1991 . During the '90s , Whitman recorded infrequently but continued to tour successfully , particularly in Europe and Australia , '' CMT said . His music was featured in the 1996 film `` Mars Attacks ! '' In the film , the sound of Whitman 's `` Indian Love Call '' made the heads of invading Martians explode . People we 've lost in 2013 : The lives they lived .
Country music singer Slim Whitman died at 90 Wednesday . The cause was heart failure . The yodeling singer gained fame in Europe as well as in the U.S .