45RPM Vynil Record Label
"867-5309/Jenny" is a 1981 song written by Alex Call and Jim Keller and performed by Tommy Tutone that was released on the album Tommy Tutone 2, on the Columbia Records label. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #16 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart in May 1982.
The song caused a fad of people dialing 867-5309 and asking for "Jenny".
On March 28, 2008, Tommy Tutone lead singer Tommy Heath stated on the WGN Morning News that the number was real and it was the number of a girl he knew. As a joke, he wrote it on a bathroom wall in a motel where they were staying. "We laughed about it for years," he said.
The song "Jenny" has been covered by a number of artists, including Everclear, Foo Fighters, Less Than Jake, Bracket, Crease, the Goo Goo Dolls and Nirvana.
The song, released in late 1981, initially gained popularity on the American West Coast in January 1982; many who had the number soon abandoned it because of unwanted calls at all hours of the day and night.
It's no coincidence 867-5309 is no longer a working number in many of the area code zones in North America. Though no lawsuits have come to court because of Tommy Tutone's 867-5309/ Jenny, many who once had that number seem to have at least considered dialing M for murder.
One irate woman with the number in Cleveland, for instance, complained to WMMS-FM, which played the song regularly. The station referred her to the record company's local office, but she got no satisfaction until she changed her number.
A beleaguered woman in New Mexico says, "The calls start about 7 in the morning. We're trying to ride it out. We've had this number a lot longer than Tommy Tutone has had this song." She notes that most callers are "curious adults. But I keep tellin' them there's no Jenny here."
In Gastonia, N.C., Southwest Junior High School Principal Johnny White-sides couldn't understand why the school's unlisted number was getting up to 200 calls a day from as far away as California. Tutone's label, Columbia Records, ended up sponsoring a dance for the school's students with radio station WROQ in Charlotte.
It is a tribute to the spirit of American enterprise, if perhaps inevitable, that in at least one instance somebody asked to have the 867-5309 number. In San Jose, Calif., the owners of the Sound Ethics Talent Agency requested the number early on and attached a taped commercial for their business to the phone. What was the response? "Incredible," co-owner Paul Montgomery told a reporter from KNTV-TV. "The phone doesn't stop ringing."
This area had the 867-xxxx Telephone Exchange for
Detroit, which is why this cache was placed here.
BE AWARE OF MUGGLES 24/7 here and
BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS.