Phone numbers in songs.

Subject: Lyr Add: BEECHWOOD 4-5789
From: Peace
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 04:14 PM

'LINCOLN, R.I. - One-hit wonder Tommy Tutone made the phone number 867-5309 famous in the band's 1982 hit single, which uses the digits over and over in its catchy refrain.

Now, a Rhode Island company and a national firm are battling over the right to use the number, which doesn't reach the "Jenny" that Tutone sings about, but could find callers a decent plumber.

Two years ago, Gem Plumbing & Heating of Lincoln, R.I., trademarked the phone number in the early 1980s hit, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Gem acquired the number in Rhode Island when its original owner, Brown University, gave up 867-5309 after growing weary of the constant prank calls.

Gem's number works in the 401 area code in Rhode Island and the 617 area code in southern Massachusetts.

But Florida-based Clockwork Home Services, also a plumbing company, uses a toll-free version of 867-5309 in New England. They argue a company can only trademark a vanity number, like 1-800-FLOWERS.

Gem won round one in its legal fight over the number when a federal judge in Boston recently barred Clockwork from using the number in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, effective this week. But Clockwork's lawyers said they would fight on.

Tommy "Tutone" Heath told The Boston Globe that he'd prefer if neither company used the number.

"It's ridiculous," said Heath. "If I wanted to get into it, I could probably take the number away from both of them."'

*****************************************************************

Cool Beans mentioned Beechwood 4-5789 on another thread.

Written by Marvin Gaye, Mickey (William) Stevenson, and Berry Gordy
Recorded by The Marvelettes
Included in Motown Hitsville, USA, Volume 1 disc 1

(La, La. La, La, La, La, La)
Hey-ah-ay-ay
(La, La. La, La, La, La, La)
Oh, baby
(La, La. La, La, La, La, La)
Hey-ah-ay-ay

You can have this dance with me
You can hold my hand and
Whisper in my ear sweet words that I love to hear

(Whisper sweet words in my ear) Oh, baby
Don't be shy (don't be shy)
Just take-a your ti-ime (just take your time)
I'd like to get to know you (like to get to know you)
I'd like to make you mine (like to make you mine)

I've been wai-aiting, standing here so patiently
Fo-oh-oh-or you to come over and have this dance with me
And my number is Beechwood 4-5789
You can call me up and have a date any old time

(La, La. La, La, La, La, La)
Hey-ah-ay-ay
(La, La. La, La, La, La, La)
Oh, baby
(La, La. La, La, La, La, La)
Hey-ah-ay-ay

Don't be shy (don't be shy)
Just take-a your ti-ime (just take your time)
I'd like to get to know you (like to get to know you)
I'd like to make you mine (like to make you mine)

Beechwood 4-5789
You can call me up and have a date any old time
And my number is Beechwood 4-5789
You can call me up and have a date any old time

Beechwood 4-5789
You can call me up and have a date any old time


Y'all got any to add?

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 04:37 PM

Pennsylvania six five oh oh oh!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: Lyr Add: PENNSYLVANIA 6-5000
From: Peace
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 04:39 PM

PENNSYLVANIA 6-5000
Glenn Miller


I got my shoes shined up
I got my hair slicked down
'Cause baby I wanna hit the town
Call me - Pennsylvania 6-5000

I'm gonna shake you up (all night)
Rock you all night long (all right)
Baby you got something
Goin' on
Call me - Pennsylvania 6-5000


From International Lyrics Playground.

Write it down,in your book
On your wall,oh baby just call
Pennsylvania 6-5000

You got the look I like(oh yeah)
Come on and show it off
Whatever your doin' blow it off
Call me - Pennsylvania 6-5000

You know I just got paid
I got my hot rod wheels
So if you wanna find out how it feels
Call me - Pennsylvania 6-5000

Write it down,in your book
On your wall,oh baby just call
Pennsylvania 6-5000
In your room,in your bed
Keep it in your head,oh baby just call
Pensylvannia 6-5000

Hey oh(hey oh)
Hey oh(hey oh)
Na na na na(na na na na)
Pensylvania 6-5-0-0-0
Write it down,in your book
On your wall,oh baby just call
Pensylvania 6-5000
In your room,in your bed
Keep it in your head,oh baby just call
Pennsylvania 6-5000
Pennsylvania 6-5-0-0-0

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers in songs.
From: dwditty
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 04:41 PM

634-5789

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers in songs.
From: PoppaGator
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 04:51 PM

Are "634-5789" and "Beechwood 4-5789" the same song?

They're NOT the same phone number; the prefix "BE" for Beechwood would represent "23."

I remember the Marvelettes record ("Beechwood 4-5789") ~ not sure I can think of a different song for "634-5789"{).

Subject: Lyr Add: 236-6132
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 04:58 PM

Although most folks may not know it, here's this, from Drum Hat Buddha
2001 - Signature Sounds

236-6132
© 2001 Dave Carter / Dave Carter Music (BMI)

236-6132 is the number of my love
Even though it's been some time since he made fair to answer
'Cause he feints and fades from view like a fighter ducks a glove
Though I play the highway kind and he the china dancer
If I was afraid to break or bleed
I would find someone much easier to need
But when drifters' dreams come true and when push comes 'round to shove
236-6132 is the number of my love

236-6132 is the number I must call
When casey's at the bat, and sleeping beauty slumbers
When the frost is on the dew, and my teardrops freeze and fall
'Til the world is frozen flat, and the long night snows me under
On the icy nails of no return
We will strike the match and set the night to burn
'Cause when beauty wakes anew and when casey cracks the ball
236-6132 is the only number

I am not looking for no champion of my freedom
I am anything but anybody's foundling
Sometimes I feel like I am wandering, an old balloon on broken string
A bubble in a baby's dream, a lost and lonely buzzardling
A vulture beating creaky wings, while angry storms go gathering around me

236-6132 is the number of my love
When the clouds are howlin' rain and the sky is black as ashes
'Cause it's sunlight where we flew, though the trail is cold above
And the raven quakes in vain while the lightning barks and flashes
Still the clouds will fade to gray cocoons
And spring the winkin' monarchs, nodding never-blinkin' moons
When the crows come home to roost and the eagle weds the dove
236-6132 is the number of my love

Subject: Lyr Add: 634-5789
From: Peace
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 04:58 PM

(steve cropper/eddie floyd)

[Done by a gang of people.]

If you need a little loving call on me
If you want a little hugging call on me
You know Ill be right here at home
All you got to do is pick up your telephone
And dial now 634-5789
634-5789

If you need a little kissing call on me
If good love is what youve been missing girl call on me
No more lonely nights will you be at home
All you got to do is pick up your telephone
And dial now 634-5789
634-5789

Ill be right there girl just as soon as I can
But if Im just a little bit late
I hope youll understand

Ill be right there baby just as soon as I can
But if Im just a little bit late
I hope youll understand
Call me at 634-5789
634-5789

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:00 PM

What's that song that starts out "Help me operator, get in touch with my Marie"? The number was written on the wall, or something. Even though it's never given, does that count? Title is about trying to ring Memphis, I think? Did the Big Bopper record that?

Or - on surer ground - there's that song from the musical Bells Are Ringing sung by an answering-service operator, which has the refrain, "I'm in love with a voice, Plaza 0 double-4 double-3..." All about how it's a poifect relationship because the two people involved don't know each other!

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers in songs.
From: wysiwyg
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:01 PM

Izzenat the one in Blues Brothers (2?)?

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:05 PM

Hey Bruce, I de-BS'd this.

Bonnie, I believe the song you mentioned is MEMPHIS, by Chuck Berry. No numbers, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:08 PM

The song that starts 'long distance, information' is 'Memphis, Tennesee', and doesn't actually mention the number at all.

Recorded by many artists, including Chuck Berry and the Beatles.

LTS

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Francy
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:08 PM

Remember Hawkshaw Hawkins? Lonesome 7 7203? Frank Of Toledo

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Peace
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:18 PM

Cool. My first music thread, I think.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: PoppaGator
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:24 PM

How could I have forgotten Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd's "634-5789," a song as different from Marvin Gaye and Berry Gordy's "Beechwood 4-5789" as Memphis soul is from Motown?

Shame on me.

"Memphis, Tennessee," of course, was not only recorded by Chuck Berry and others, it was written by the great Mr. Berry.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:24 PM

Congratulations. A momentous occasion. Shall I alert the media? (Just being a smart-ass. I don't have a phone number. Now THAT would be a song, eh?)

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: topical tom
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:25 PM

Lonesome 7 7203

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:27 PM

Chuck Berry's Promised Land ends with a phone numeber, but I can't remember what it is.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Peace
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:30 PM

Here ya go, Greg.

Los angeles give me norfolk virginia,
Tidewater four ten o nine

Subject: Lyr Add: PROMISED LAND (Chuck Berry)
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:31 PM

Greg, here 'tis:
Promised Land

I left my home in Norfolk Virginia,
California on my mind.
Straddled that Greyhound, rode him past Raleigh,
On across Caroline.

Stopped in Charlotte and bypassed Rock Hill,
And we never was a minute late.
We was ninety miles out of Atlanta by sundown,
Rollin' 'cross the Georgia state.

We had motor trouble it turned into a struggle,
Half way 'cross Alabam,
And that 'hound broke down and left us all stranded
In downtown Birmingham.

Straight off, I bought me a through train ticket,
Ridin' cross Mississippi clean
And I was on that midnight flyer out of Birmingham
Smoking into New Orleans.

Somebody help me get out of Louisiana
Just help me get to Houston town.
There's people there who care a little 'bout me
And they won't let the poor boy down.

Sure as you're born, they bought me a silk suit,
Put luggage in my hands,
And I woke up high over Albuquerque
On a jet to the promised land.

Workin' on a T-bone steak a la carte
Flying over to the Golden State;
The pilot told me in thirteen minutes
We'd be headin' in the terminal gate.

Swing low sweet chariot, come down easy
Taxi to the terminal zone;
Cut your engines, cool your wings,
And let me make it to the telephone.

Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia,
Tidewater four ten O nine
Tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin'
And the poor boy's on the line.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Beer
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:36 PM

25-4-6-24
Rock n Roll number
Can't remember if this was the title or a line in the song.

Maybe by "The Who".
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:42 PM

Yes?
I didn't think it was a phone number.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Beer
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:47 PM

Your right Jeri.
I just blew it.
Duhh!.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:49 PM

Oops - it was Chicago and '25 or 6 to 4'.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Howard Kaplan
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 10:04 PM

Here are some excerpts from a song recorded by Allan Sherman, co-written with Lou Busch:

It's the "The Let's All Call Up AT&T And Protest To The President March."
Can you see him smirking and smiling?
'Cause he's got us all digit dialing...

Let us wake him up in his slumber.
Get a pencil, I'll give you his number.

It's 3 1 8 5 2 7 3
0 8 7 4 2 9 dash!
5 1 1 4 9 0 6 7
4 0 8 5 2 hyphen!
1 1 4 6 2 0 5
7 9 hyphen dash 0 3...

More complete lyrics of unevaluated authenticity can be found on various places around the web.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 10:54 PM

Don't think it was ever in a song, but Junior Samples' car lot phone number was BR 549.

("Hee Haw" staple, for those who don't catch it)

If it isn't in a song, it should be.

Freightdawg

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: freightdawg
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 11:02 PM

Grrrrrrrrrrrr,

Don't know why my cookie disappeared, but that really was me.

FD

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: meself
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 11:06 PM

What?! No one's mentioned "8 double-zero, 565-7421"?! Beer? gnu? Jim Lad? Bee?

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Beer
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 11:36 PM

I have to admit "meself" that I don't think I ever heard that one.
Who sang it?
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: number 6
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 11:48 PM

Nine Six Seven .. eleven, eleven.







The Pizza, Pizza song


ok ... sorry, but it's the only song I know with a phone number in it.

biLL

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: number 6
Date: 18 Feb 08 - 11:51 PM

1-800-565-7421

Stompin Tom's song for P.E.I tourism or something like that.

biLL

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: alison
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 12:15 AM

here's one form the late 70's - early 80's by a band called City Boy

5705 - but there's no reply (I keep calling)
5705 - why do you keep me hanging on the line........

and for the aussies out there - to the tune of the william tell overture
481 double 1 double 1
481 double 1 double 1
481 double 1 double 1
pizza hut delivery

didn't work so well when they added a 9 to the beginning of the number

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: JennieG
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 01:03 AM

I remember the song from 'Bells are Ringing'.....many years ago when I was young and lovely I belonged to a musical theatre and that was one of the shows we did. It was great fun, thank you for reviving the memories!

I'm in love with a man, Plaza oh-double 4-double 3,
It's a perfect relationship -
I can't see him
He can't see me.......

Cheers
JennieG coming over all misty with nostalgia

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: GUEST,Dewey
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 03:29 AM

Lonesome 77-203

Hawkshaw Hawkins (Classic Country Song)

The chorus was : Just call lonesome-77-203

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Splott Man
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 03:50 AM

Huw & Tony Williams - active on the UK folk scene until a few years ago - sang a song with their own phone number in, just in case you wanted to book them.
I won't put it here as it's still Tony's private number.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: oldhippie
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 07:41 AM

Freightdawg wrote:

"Don't think it was ever in a song, but Junior Samples' car lot phone number was BR 549."

No, but it became the name of a band.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: bankley
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 08:46 AM

1982

'Operator please connect me to nineteen eighty two,
I need to make apologies for what I didn't do'... Randy Travis

not sure if this is a phone #, address, or year or all of the preceding......

was Randy's breakout hit.... in 1986


"if my telephone's not ringin', I assume it still ain't you"         from another RT song....

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: NormanD
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 12:51 PM

"I Don't Even Try" by John Hiatt:

"I thought I had your number, there must be some mistake
I dialed 6 - 3 - 7 - 11 - 88
I got some geezer; said his girlfriend's on the town
I said, "I've got the wrong number," and I slammed the phone down
Thought about it for a minute 'til the anger went away
I figure every dog in town is gonna have his day
Well, I could count the teardrops, or I could wonder why
Well I used to be your lover - now I don't even try..."

norman

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: kendall
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 12:59 PM

Didn't Buryl Ives sing one with a phone number in it?

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: The Mole Catcher's Apprentice (inactive)
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 01:18 PM

Song title:

Shall I Alert The Media? (But I don't Have A Phone Number)*LOL*

Charlotte (the view from Ma and Pa's unlisted piano stool)

Subject: Lyr Add: LONG TALL SHORTY (from The Kinks)
From: Cattail
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 02:14 PM

The Kinks - Long Tall Shorty


They call me the Long Tall Shorty
'Cause I know what love is all about
They call me Long Tall Shorty
'Cause I know what love is all about
Well I can tell you where the lights go
Oh, when they go out

Girls, if you get lonely
Dial 4-2-4-6-8-9
Well, girls, if you get lonely
Dial 4-2-4-6-8-9
And your troubles will be over
I'll even give you back you dime
Oh yeah

I like 'em long, I like 'em tall
I like 'em short, and that ain't all
Now when I die, don't bury me deep
Just put some women to my head, to my feet
Tell all the world now, to come and peep
Long Tall Shorty now has gone to sleep
Whoa now

I like 'em long, I like 'em tall
Oh yeah

They call me Long Tall Shorty
'Cause I know what love is all about
They call me Long Tall Shorty
'Cause I know what love is all about
Well I can tell you where the lights go
Oh, when they go out

Cheers

Cattail !

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 03:13 PM

"1-800-565-7421

Stompin Tom's song for P.E.I tourism or something like that."

biLL wins the prize - although the "1-" didn't make it into the song.

("Golf the courses, play the horses ... "). It was on the radio all the time for a year or two or three or more.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Mysha
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 06:24 PM

You'll have to figure out the digits yourself, but:

Prayer is the number,
Faith is the exchange,
Heaven is the street and
Jesus is his name.
Operator, Information,
Get me Jesus on the line!

(Operator - William Spivery)
                                                                  Mysha

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Slag
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 07:53 PM

The very first Jerry Lewis telethon had a studio in Fresno CA participating and to the tune of "When the Saints Go Marching In" they sang over and over and over....:

    AMherst 8, Oh AMherst 8, Oh Amherst 8 0411
    You'll be glad you called that number, AMherst 8 0411.

It really killed the song for me.

Tangentially, Johnny Burnette has a song "It's a Big, Big World" that starts off "9127 Avenue, walked up to the door, 'Hello sir, how are you?'" I never figured out if that was 91, 27 (th) Avenue or the other. At any rate the tangent point was in the verse: "Going out and find myself a telephone, got a pocket full of dimes, I know her last name is Jones. Jones, Jones, all I see, page 19 to 23. Big big world can be unkind, the phone just took my last dime."

OK, I'll throw in the chorus in case you haven't seen it before:

    It's a big, big city,
    It's a big, big world.
    How's a boy gonna find
    A pretty little girl
    In this big, big world?

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Nick E
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 08:34 PM

Operator, can you help me, can you help me please, and give me the right Area code & the number... that I need. Central don't got Directory done forgot it...

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: BTMP
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 09:23 AM

There's the Ink Spots' song 'Information, Please'.

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: PoppaGator
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 10:01 AM

I didn't think an ad-hoc fundraiser improvisation was eligible for nomination, but after reading Slag's post, I might mention that WWOZ's twice-yearly pledgeathon has for many years featured live-in-the-studio performances, and the great Snooks Eaglin always creates a big production number by chanting the station phone number over nd over:

568-1234

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Flash Company
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 10:55 AM

All those posts and not a mention of Leadbelly!

Hello Central, Give me Long Distance Phone,
Please, Central, Give me Long Distance Phone,
Hello Central, Give me Long Distance Phone,
Want to talk to my baby 'cos I'm all alone,
Hello Central give me Long Distance Phone.

Well hello Central, give me Forty four,
Please Central give me Forty four,
Hello Central give me Forty four,
Want to talk to my baby just once more,
Hello Central give me Forty four

Also asks for Forty nine ( Want to talk to my baby one more time)

FC

Subject: RE: Phone numbers in songs.
From: Cool Beans
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 11:20 AM

There was a dirty song we used to sing as kids:
Lulu had a steamboat
The steamboat had a bell
Lulu went to heaven
The steamboat went to...
Hello, operator,
Get me number nine.
If you don't connect me
I'll shove it up your...
Ask me no questions,
I'll tell you no lies..and so on

Subject: Lyr Add: SORROW (John Tams)
From: ClaireBear
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 11:27 AM

Thought of one! Came to me as in a dream -- which is to say I remembered this song in the middle of the night.

I retrieved the words this morning from the Mostly English Folk Music site, but you should really hear it on the Home Service's Alright Jack album, where it's arranged with a touch of Dies Irae, leading into Babylon Is Fallen. It's brilliant. The phone number is in the last verse:


SORROW

By JOHN TAMS

(C) 1986 Hobsons Choice Music Ltd.

There's a cold wind in the city, there's a darkness on the land
It's rust upon the slipways where the great ships used to stand
There's a queue that waits from day's first light till disappointed night
And there's sorrow once again, sorrow once again
There's sorrow once again to greet tomorrow

And I used to trust in providence and plan for better times
But now there's even more of us waiting in the lines
And we could build you anything you chose from ships to patent leather shoes
And there's sorrow once again, sorrow once again
There's sorrow once again to greet tomorrow

And you promised me tomorrows, you led me by the hand
Out of the veil of sorrows into the promised land
And everyone had work to do except maybe the odd million or two
And there's sorrow once again, sorrow once again
There's sorrow once again to greet tomorrow

And there's sorrow once again, sorrow once again
There's sorrow once again to greet tomorrow

And there's rumours by the score they've got vacancies galore
And if you want to find out more Freephone Heaven 284
Seems they want angels who can sing and they'll supply the wings
Though there's references desired, there's no experience required
Though the stipulation read "All applicants must be dead" ...

Subject: Lyr Add: VATICAN CASKETS (Patrick Sky)
From: moongoddess
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 04:21 PM

This song is one of my favorites by Patrick Sky and it contains a very clever phone number.

VATICAN CASKETS
Words and music by Patrick Sky

Vatican Caskets are just fine,
Made of sandalwood and pine.
When your loved ones have to go,
Dial et cum spirit 2 - 2 - 0.

When your loved ones pass away,
Have them pass the Vatican way.
Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's, too,
Holy water just for you.

Vatican Caskets unlike a rose,
They will never decompose.
For they stand the test of time,
No need to kill the flies with lime.

Get down on your knees and pray,
When your loved ones pass away.
Vatican customers all sing,
Death, oh death, where is thy sting?
Oh, shit.