Paul Evans’ Hello, This is Joanie, is a story song about a guy trying leaving messages on his girlfriend’s phone after they had had a spat, and she had left in anger. In the video, the actress playing Joanie is Susan Paul, who was once married to the odious songwriter Joseph Brooks. Susan Paul appeared on the cover–but not inside–of a Playboy magazine in the early 1970s.
Okay, if no one else is going to do it, I will:
The ultimate phone song, in more ways than one.... :dubious:Nobody’s mentioned Eric Carmen’s All By Myself???
Living alone
I think of all the friends I’ve known
But when I dial the telephone
Nobody’s home
Heard this on Willie’s Roadhouse this morning: Lonesome 7-7203, by Hawkshaw Hawkins
Erm, yes, it’s a joke. Hence the d+r.
ELO’s Yours Truly, 2095 does not feature a call per se, but the protagonist is missing a woman and lamenting falling for a robot that looks like her.
The robot has a lot of features:
Answering Machine Rupert Holmes
“Tulsa Telephone Book” by Tom T. Hall:
All of the Tulsa operators know my voice now
And they gotta know how long I’ve been alone
If you meet a girl named Shirley with some ribbons in her hair
Would you tell her that she’s wanted on the phone?
“A Apolitical Blues” – Little Feat
Well my telephone was ringing
and they told me it was chairman mao
well my telephone was ringing
and they told me it was chairman mao
you can tell him anything
'cause i just don’t wanna talk to him now
“Maybe the Last Time” – James Brown & the Famous Flames
…When you’re all alone
You wanna talk on the telephone now
You wanna give your heart a little ease
And just about the time you get comfortable
Your operator says, “Signal when you’re through, please”
Oh I, oh I, I don’t know…
“Does Everyone Stare” – The Police
…I break into a cold sweat reaching for the phone
I let it ring twice before I chicken out and decide you’re not at home…
“Can’t Stand Losing You” – The Police
I called you so many times today
And I guess it’s all true what your girlfriends say
That you don’t ever want to see me again
And your brother’s gonna kill me and he’s six feet ten …
“Confusion the Waitress” – Underworld
She said you can do anything you want
She said you can be with anyone
She said you can go anywhere you want
She said she said you can say anything you need
She said you can be anywhere you feel
She said just pick up the phone
She said don’t go dark on me again
She said she said the silence in the silence
I see you my confidence
She said
She said loophole how are you
She said oh no once again the superstar
She said he loves you but can you name me his children
She said oh the god you lost again
She said the colour of your boyfriend
She said get out of bed and answer the phone …
“Janine” – Soul Coughing contains samples from NYC party-line sex-chat numbers and a recording of Mike Doughty’s (ex-)girlfriend singing an improvised version of “Lemon Tree” into an answering machine from a payphone in Sheridan Square
Well, Credence (CCR) had this song Suzy Q, and in the middle of the song, the singer’s voice sounds like he’s singing into a telephone…