867-5309/JENNY – TOMMY TUTONE

In the fall of 1981, the Bay Area Band, Tommy Tutone, released a hit single, 867-5309/Jenny from their second album. The song is a catchy power pop nugget that tells the tale of a man seeking to reach “Jenny” a girl whose phone number he found written on the bathroom wall. The singer imagines Jenny as the perfect girl that he can’t wait to meet.

Co-song writer Alex Call explained in a 2004 interview:

“Despite all the mythology to the contrary, I actually just came up with the ‘Jenny,’ and the telephone number and the music and all that just sitting in my backyard. There was no Jenny. 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 was back in 1981 when I wrote it, and I had at the time a little squirrel-powered 4-track in this industrial yard in California, and I went up there and made a tape of it. I had the guitar lick, I had the name and number, but I didn’t know what the song was about. This buddy of mine, Jim Keller, who’s the co-writer, was the lead guitar player in Tommy Tutone. 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. I said, ‘That’s exactly right, that’s exactly what it is.”

“Jenny Jenny you’re the girl for me

Oh, you don’t know me but you make me so happy I tried to call you before but I lost my nerve I tried my imagination but I was disturbed....”

‘I was 10 years old in the Winter/Spring of 1982. During the “spring semester”school year, my mother, who was an elementary school P.E. Instructor at the time, coached the 5th and 6th grade girls basketball team for one of the county elementary schools. Dad and I (I am/was an only child) would always attend the Friday night games at the local middle school and the family would typically end the evening at one of the (few) local eating establishments. One of my favorites was the 41 Drive In, a local diner so named for it being located on HWY 41 going through the middle of town.

One of my most favorite things about the 41 Drive

In wasn’t necessarily the food (which was actually fantastic), but the well stocked jukebox located at the end of the dining room between the last window booth and the end of the diner’s bar. I discovered many songs that burned their melodies and lyrics into my brain from that particular jukebox.

The one song that I ALWAYS remember coming from that magical machine was Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/ Jenny”. For whatever reason, this tune has always remained as one of, if not, my most favorite song of all time. It always brings a smile to my face whenever I hear that distinctive guitar intro by co-songwriter and Tutone’s lead guitarist Jim Keller. It is for those reasons that “867-5309/Jenny has always been the ultimate earworm for me.”

“Fantastic album from The Electric Flag, Jimi Hendrix Band Of Gypsy’s drummer, vocalist & composer, Buddy Mileshoused in a stunning gatefold sleeve. Great funk-rock sound.”

“When I was a teenager and a young mother, sadly, my best friend, who had given birth to a beautiful baby boy, lost this child after only 5 weeks of him being on this Earth.

Someone we knew came to the house and brought this album. I played the song, “The Way I Feel Tonight” over and over and over again. We all stayed up till dawn with tears in our eyes and sorrow in our hearts. This song expressed all our feelings with the simple line, “my house is filled with pain”.

I have carried this album with me my entire life, and I have lived in several countries, different States in America, and it is the one possession I would reach for if I lost everything else. This song is my ultimate Earworm.”

Elise J. Colson, Publisher

March 26, 1874, San Francisco, California, U.S.— died January 29, 1963, Boston, Massachusetts), American poet who was much admired for his depictions of the rural life of New England, his command of American colloquial speech, and his realistic verse portraying ordinary people in everyday situations.