Aired on Treasure Island Oldies – November 03, 2024
Did you ever have to change your phone number because of being inundated with crank calls?
Well, that exercise was shared by a number of people living in North America in the early 80s. These phone number changes were a result of a 1982 hit record that remained on the Billboard Hot 100 for twenty-seven weeks, peaking at the #4 position.
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The California power pop band responsible for this impactful tune was founded in 1978 by Tommy Heath (vocalist/rhythm guitar) and Jim Keller (lead guitar).
The title of the song was a combination of a phone number and a girl’s name. In March 2008, on Chicago’s WGN Morning News, Heath reportedly stated that the number was real and so was the girl whom he knew.
However, in a 2004 Songfacts interview, co-writer Alex Call had this to say: “Despite all the mythology to the contrary, I actually just came up with the [girl’s name] and the telephone number and the music and all that just sitting in my backyard. There was no [girl by that name]. I don’t know where the number came from, I was just trying to write a 4-chord Rock song and it just kind of came out…This buddy of mine, Jim Keller, who’s the co-writer, was the lead guitar player in [the band]. He stopped by that afternoon and he said, ‘Al, it’s a girl’s number on a bathroom wall,’ and we had a good laugh.”
Many people who had this number in different area codes soon abandoned it. A case in point was a couple in Ohio who had to disconnect their number. In attempting to trace the numerous calls they were receiving, Ohio Bell explained, “We don’t know what to make of this. The calls are coming from all over the place.”
Some organizations saw this as a commercial opportunity. In 1982, WLS radio obtained the number from a Chicago woman, receiving 22,000 calls in four days. In 1999, Brown University obtained the +1-401-867 prefix and assigned it to a student dormitory room that was promptly inundated with nuisance calls. The number was subsequently assigned to a plumbing company, which registered it as a trademark. And a February 2004 auction for the number in a New York City area code had to be shut down by eBay after objections from Verizon; bidding had reached $80,000.
One thing is for sure. The phone number in this song surpassed the popularity of the Marvelettes’ 1962 hit “Beechwood 4-5789.” And the band, Tommy Tutone, (originally known as Tommy and the Tu-tones) has been immortalized for prompting us to call “867-5309/Jenny.”
YouTube listing of the song:
This “Moments In Time” story is yet another example of a “golden oldie” or forgotten favorite that earned its place in the evolution of Rock & Roll.
