Phone calls have been featured pretty prominently in music lately. By now you've probably heard Drake’s “Hotline Bling” and Adele’s “Hello”. Both artists in their latest singles lament their exes moving on from them demonstrated via lack of outreach/response via phone. Singing about missing an ex is nothing new, and neither is singing about phone calls and even giving phone numbers out for that matter.
Before Drake started always dancing on beat and Adele took us on an emotional rollercoaster and gave us flip phone envy, there were these famous songs featuring phone numbers.
"Diary" - Alicia Keys
The R&B singer invites a man to confide in her and tell her his secrets. She sings that he can reach her at 489-4608, which was once Keys’ phone number and callers who dialed the number with the correct area code (347) would reach the songstress’ voicemail box. However, people didn’t usually dial the correct area code and one pastor from Georgia received over 20 calls a day from Keys’ fans.
"6060-842" - B-52's
On their eponymous first album, that included the song “Rock Lobster”, the B-52’s sang a song about Tina. Tina is a girl who went to the bathroom and saw the number 6060-842 written on the wall with the instructions to call the number “If you’d like a very nice time.” Tina calls and calls until the operator tells her the line’s been disconnected, and then she keeps on calling. Get it together Tina!
"777-9311" - The Time
Put your dancing shoes on because this song is funky! The lead single on The Time’s album “What Time Is It?” was recorded, produced and composed by Prince. Morris Day sings the lead and asks a beautiful girl what her phone number is. She gives him the 777-9311 number. The number at the time was actually that of Dez Dickerson, the guitarist in Prince’s band The Revolution. The song has been sampled in many other songs about phone numbers, like Tupac’s “Whatz Ya Phone #?”
"Kiss Me thru the Phone" - Soulja Boy Tellem feat. Sammie
Soulja Boy tells his future wifey to kiss him through the phone and gives the number 678-999-8212. The song had substantial success in the U.S. reaching #3 on the Billboard’s Hot 100, it was also quite successful in the UK and New Zealand. U.S. fans who called the number were treated to a message from Soulja Boy himself and could send him kisses through the phone.
"Baby Got Back" - Sir Mix-A-Lot
This song dedicated to bootylicious babes tells listeners with beautiful butts to dial 1-900-MIX-A-LOT. When you try to call the hotline you find out that the call can’t be completed as dialed, which is disappointing. Most recently “Baby Got Back” was sampled in Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda”, which not coincidentally also pays homage to ladies with curves that are kickin'.
"867-5309/Jenny" - Tommy Tutone
This 80’s classic dedicated to Jenny, whose name and number were written on a wall, has the infectious chorus that had us all singing and dialing 867-5309. There is mystery behind the number as one of the songwriters, Jim Keller, says that Jenny was very much a real person, and the other songwriter, Alex Call, said there was never any Jenny and that the name and number just came to him out of nowhere. Regardless of whether or not Jenny actually existed, the song caused many Americans unlucky enough to have the 867-5309 number to disconnect their phone lines in order to stop the constant calls looking for Jenny.