#NoTheme Week on #MondaysMusicMovesMe with #PhoneNumber Song Titles/Lyrics
Good morning, Kittens and Dawgs! I’m starting off this week wrong already. I will be a way to tend to some appointments but I’ll be boogieing with you tomorrow. Although, I’m not here it’s still fabulous that you dropped by today! Are you ready to groove to some mewsic? Michelle’s July “number song titles” theme inspired me to create a playlist containing phone number song titles/lyrics.
FYI: playlist inspiration derived from popculturemadness, vulture, and steveharveyfm.
When I was a kid in the mid-60s, my parents had a telephone on a party line which meant more than one family shared the same line. The way you knew to answer was by your assigned number of long/short rings but that didn’t keep people from listening in on your conversation. If you had a good ear, you could hear the click when someone picked up. 🙂 It seems when making long distance calls, I recall the adults always using the operator for assistance.
They would give the city and state with the four or five digit phone number. The first two songs on my playlist are some examples with Pennsylvania 6-5000 by Glenn Miller and Beechwood 4-5789 covered by The Carpenters. The original was done in 1965 by The Marvelettes. It was the discovery of 867-5309/Jenny (Tommy Tutone) that inspired my theme spin-off. There aren’t a lot of song titles or lyrics that use phone numbers but I was happily introduced to several new
It’s funny, I cannot remember the phone number my parents had when I was a kid but I do remember my best friend’s parents’ phone number which is still in service. Do you remember your childhood phone number? How about your best friend’s phone number? Have you called a phone number mentioned in a song or in a movie?
This is a ‘NO THEME’ week, so anything goes and you’re invited to boogie with my fellow co-hosts: XmasDolly (Party Coordinator) whose still recuperating from back surgery but should be out of the hospital soon and Stacy had day surgery last Thursday and might be too sore to dance and Alana who I don’t think has fallen apart yet but is experiencing issues with her elderly MIL and Colette I presume is still taking it easy from her eye surgery and then there’s me – a little hard of hearing but ready to shake my tail feathers! Kindly say a little prayer for my gals before you step onto the dance floor!
[tweetthis]Hit the dance floor for
Keep those tunes playing, your body swaying, and I’ll be boogieing over to see you soon.
X💋X 💋, Cathy
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32 Comments
Birgit
I called that # from an 80’s song and, I believe, it came on the news for people to stop calling that #. I do remember my childhood # and my neighbours since I always played with their daughter and we still talk. They had a party line and I do recall someone listening in and asked them to get off the phone. It was always the same person. My mom’s parents and sister lived in Austria by the time I was born so I recall having to get the operator, who had to get the overseas operator who had to ge5 the operator for Austria to finally hook up with Oma and Opa. The connection was never great and we had to talk loud in order to hear and a 10 min call would cost $60! Now, we just call and the6 sound like they live right around the corner.
Cathy Kennedy
Birgit,
I don’t recall if I actually made an international call but I did get one from a penpal once. She lives in New Zealand and one Christmas she called. I thought that was really cool! $60 dollars is a lot of money for ony 10-minutes. Today, it’s quite different, isn’t it? Technology is grand!
15andmeowing
Numbers is a cool theme, many of these are new to me. You are all in my prayers for speedy recoveries.XO
Cathy Kennedy
Elen,
I’m feeling good but my ears will take time. I just have to be patient is all and that’s something I’m not very good at. 🙁
Melissa Lapierre
I remember party lines! When I was a little girl my parents and I were in church, and out of the clear blue sky I blurted out our phone number. I was really young and my parents had no idea that I knew it!
Cathy Kennedy
Melissa,
It’s funny how a sequence of numbers get lodged in your brain. 🙂
Kim
We never had a party line, but long distance calls were a really bad no-no in my household. who’d have thought that we would eventually have tiny phone computer camera music players that we carried around with us and long distance would be a thing of the past? I, for one, resisted a cell phone until a problematic car made it necessary for me. Now I can’t imagine my life without it!
Speaking of numbers, the Pennsylvania 6-5000 one was one I had never heard, but I HAD heard its 80s treatment from the movie “Transylvania 6-5000”! Maybe I will include that one in a Halloween themed Music Monday one of these days! This is the video to that one if you ever want to check it out!
Cathy Kennedy
Kim,
It seems like we did see the flick, “Transylvania 6-5000” which I totally forgot about until you mentioned it. The video you shared is a nice feature for your mewsic lineup for Halloween! Oh yes, making long distance calls was a huge no-no when I was at home and even after I moved out, we safeguarded all our calls for fear of raking up a big bill. It was so expensive to call out our local exchange. I love that we have unlimited calling nowadays. 🙂
messymimi's meanderings
Grandpa has had the same phone number since 1969. Great music!
Cathy Kennedy
Mimi,
I’m not when DH’s parents were assigned the phone number that I know but it was long before we began dating in 1976. I wouldn’t be surprised it dates back to the 60 easily because I know in the mid to late 60s we only had a four-digit number it seems. Now that his parents are no longer with us, the phone number is still assigned to the residence of the new owner.
John Holton
An interesting idea! You made some good choices here. I can’t think of another I’d pick. You might want to change out the Tommy Tutone one, I got a message saying it “wasn’t available in my country.”
Cathy Kennedy
John,
I was able to play Tommy Tuton just fine but thanks for letting me know. Thanks for sharing the dance floor with me, my friend!
John Holton
What might have happened was that my VPN said I was in Canada instead of the US, even though it’s telling me that I “appear to be in the United States.”
Cathy Kennedy
John,
Isn’t that weird your VPN disguised your location as being outside the US? Does that happen often? I don’t blame you for the layered security. I was going to say I have Firefox private mode set but I turned it off and forgot to check it. Let me do that now… BRB!
John Holton
Private mode really doesn’t do much. It makes your browsing history invisible to others who might use the browser and that’s about it. So I’ve heard, anyway.
I can make it look like I’m coming from just about anywhere. I’ve set it to come from the US, which I guess Norton thinks Canada is…
Cathy Kennedy
John,
OH, okay. Mez didn’t know that, so thanks for the techie tip.
Comedy Plus
You would be surprised by some of the CDs I have on the boat. Lots of big band. Still love all this music.
I linked you to Awww Mondays already. Love the kitties. So precious and loved the joke too.
Have a purrfect Awww Monday, my friend. Big hugs. ♥
Cathy Kennedy
Sandee,
Boat…do you live on one? I get confused sometimes. Do y’all move about or stay in one general spot year round? You got me curious now. 😉
-Eugenia
OMW! I remember those days and can’t imagine that in this day and time! Yep, I remember my childhood phone # – 22964. I’ve never tried to call any #’s in these songs. Wow, there’s some great mewsic here!!
Cathy Kennedy
Eugenia,
I have not called of these numbers, either. Years ago, they would be long distance calls for me. That’s a thing of the past with unlimited calling. Man, kids have no idea how easy they have it, do they? Speaking of which I recall cashing in a silver dollar to place a long distance phone call to a boy who wasn’t even home. How stupid and I lost that silver dollar forever! It was given to me by my grandpa, too. That’s one regret I have the rest of my life. I try to not think about it but it serve to remind me of a stupid decision.
-Eugenia
I can relate. I’ve done things like that too. Funny, how memories like that linger in our minds.
Cathy Kennedy
Eugenia,
Really? lol I never thought to call song phone numbers but I did pull telephone pranks; all quite harmless but had to be annoying all the same. That was in the day before caller ids and tracing calls back to the last caller.
greyzoned/angelsbark
Hi Cathy!
Happy Monday. What a fun theme and playlist you came up with! I had no idea there were so many songs with phone numbers in them! That’s crazy. I knew a bunch of them but never made the connection (pardon the pun) 🙂
I sure remember those numbers that started with letters. I think this was right around the time that phone companies were changing from letters to all numbers because when I was young, we had a 7-digit number but my aunt had letters in her phone number. Hers was BU-4-…. (which was the exchange 284). I thought perhaps it was because she lived in Buffalo and BU stood for Buffalo but then there was that fabulous Liz Taylor movie “BUtterfield-8” and that wasn’t set in Buffalo; instead it was set in Manhattan. Maybe it was a state thing and all numbers in the state of New York started with BU. I remember having a promotional glass that was my favorite glass because it had the name of the company on it with its phone number which started with BU-, indicating its age. Unfortunately my Dad dropped it and it broke… It was for Mortimer’s Glass Company, I remember that much.
I really enjoyed your first track, Glenn Miller’s “Pennsylvania 6-5000”. You had several cool songs here. My favorite by far is Wilson Pickett’s. LOVE that! I needed some of that this morning….
AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds…” and Etta James’ “Call Me” are my other favs here.
I was pleasantly surprised by Soulja Boy (“Kiss Me Through the Phone”). I really liked it and didn’t expect to. Although I like the cute title.
Quite the eclectic mix here Cathy. Very creative takeoff on the numbers theme. Way to go!
I just left you a comment at your BOTB post too…
Michele at Angels Bark
Cathy Kennedy
Michele,
Ahh, I’m flattered by yours and others nice comments regarding my theme spin-off. It was a lot of fun to pull together. Tom planted an idea in my head if I don’t forget it before I can put it drafts. LOL Anyhow, so glad you were able to boogie with me. Have a great week, dearie!
csuhpat1
Those are some super cool songs. Thanks for sharing them. Thanks for hosting and I hope that you have a wonderful week.
Cathy Kennedy
Patrick,
Thanks for boogieing with the 4M gang yesterday. It’s always great having repeaters on the dance floor. Have a tunetastic week!
DrillerAA
The Glenn Miller Orchestra was my parents favorite band from the big band era. I hadn’t heard that song in decades. Thanks for the memories and have a blessed week.
Cathy Kennedy
Driller,
The Glenn Miller Orchestra is a vintage sound that fills one with great nostalgia! The mewsic really transports a person, doesn’t it?
Thomas Anderson
Hi, Cathy!
This is a fun theme for this Monday’s post. Like yours, my family was on a party line when I was a boy. During our phone conversations we often heard a click followed by breathing and background noise and would need to say “The line is busy.” My mother always complained about neighbors who “hogged” the line and wouldn’t allow anybody else to get on and make a call. I’m sure most young people today can’t imagine what that was like. Yessum, I absolutely do remember my childhood phone number. It contained only six digits and changed to a seven digit number around 1960.
Most of your songs containing phone numbers in the title or lyrics are new to my ears. My parents were in their teens and twenties during the Big Band and Swing era and they loved and danced to “Pennsylvania 6-5000.” I almost forgot that the AC/DC song “Dirty Deeds” contains the phone number (phony number?) 36-24-36. 🙂 My favorites in this batch are that one by AC/DC, “Jenny” by Tommy Tutone, “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” by hip hop artist Soulja Boy Tellem, and Blues and R&B great Etta James singing “842-3089.”
Let us remember there are other songs that make reference to a phone number w/o actually revealing it. Three that immediately come to mind are…
Chuck Berry’s “Memphis, Tennessee”
She could not leave her number, but I know who placed the call
‘Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall
Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”
Rikki don’t lose that number
You don’t want to call nobody else
Send it off in a letter to yourself
Rikki don’t lose that number
It’s the only one you own
You might use it if you feel better
When you get home
and Mariah Carey’s “Get Your Number”
Oh damn
The club ’bout to close in a minute
Can I get your number, baby
So you and I can go get in it
Let me come and pick you up, oh
And go take you out, oh
Can I get your number, baby
So I can show you what I’m all about
Prayers go out to XmasDolly, Stacy, Alana, Colette and to you, dear friend Cathy. Thank you for the Monday Mewsic and have a tunetastic week!
Cathy Kennedy
Tom,
Yes, breathing and background noise was usually detected. We were always quick to say “the line is busy”, too. I remember feeling like some neighbors hogged the line. When I came up with my playlist, I think I stumbled upon these songs and their references to phone numbers without actually giving one. I almost used them but then I shied away to keep a real number theme. That being said, this could an interesting spin-off theme for another time, eh? Thanks for walking down memory lane with me and enjoying the mewsic, my friend. Also, on behalf of the 4M gan, many thanks for the prayers!
Mary B
Hey there Cathy!
I can barely remember my current number! But my previous number I had for over 20 years and I definitely know that one. I used to remember the number my parents had while I was living with them, and then when I moved away my number at that time was the same number, but with the last four transposed. Small bit of trivia – the number I had when I first moved away was when I lived in Ketchum, Idaho. One mile away was Sun Valley, Idaho. Guess who had the same exact number as I did, but he lived in Sun Valley – Clint Eastwood. Yes, that Clint Eastwood! My roommates and I figured it out after a few wrong numbers from producers and directors. Crazy, right?!?
Hope you’re feeling better soon!
~Mary
Jingle Jangle Jungle
Cathy Kennedy
Mary,
That’s great fun – you and Clint shared the same number. Did you ever call it? That would be super cool to actually speak with him, wouldn’t it? lol Thanks for sharing the dance floor with me!