Keeping with our theme of phone number-named tunes, today’s classic song of the day is that major earworm from the early ’80s, “867-5309/Jenny” by Tommy Tutone. Released in November of 1981 and supported by massive MTV music video airplay, this irresistible little ditty hit #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, #5 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart.
In case you’re wondering, Tommy Tutone was the name of the band, not of any one individual. The band was formed when singer Tommy Heath and guitarist Jim Keller got together in 1978; originally known as Tommy and the Tu-Tones, they eventually shortened it to just Tommy Tutone. The group had a rotating phalanx of bass players and drummers over the years; for 1981’s Tommy Tutone 2 album, which included the “867-5309/Jenny” track, Jon Lyons played bass and Victor Carberry manned the drum kit.
“867-5309/Jenny” was written by Jim Keller, the band’s guitarist, and his friend Alex Call. There are conflicting accounts of how the song came about, however.
Tommy Tutone’s lead singer, Tommy Heath, said the number belonged to a girl he knew and that, as a joke, he wrote it on the bathroom wall of a motel where they were staying. “We laughed about it for years,” he said.
Guitarist Jim Keller told a similar but somewhat different story:
“Jenny is a regular girl, not a hooker. Friends of mine wrote her name and number on a men’s room wall at a bar. I called her on a dare, and we dated for a while. I haven’t talked with her since the song became a hit, but I hear she thinks I’m a real jerk for writing it. “
Then there’s co-writer Alex Ward, who remembered things much differently:
“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 four-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.’ … When Jim showed up, we wrote the verses in 15 or 20 minutes, they were just obvious. It was just a fun thing, we never thought it would get cut.”
As much as you and I and millions of others loved the song, there was also a legion of girls named Jenny who were not fans. Also not liking the song was anyone in the U.S. who had the 867-5309 phone number, many of whom called Ma Bell to have their number changed.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Tommy Tutone’s immensely popular music video for “867-5309/Jenny.” Come on, you know you sang along with it when it played on MTV back in the day.
