Today’s classic song of the day is a bona fide novelty song, all about a young lady’s dalliance with the guy installing her new telephone. (That was a thing back when Bell Telephone had a monopoly in the U.S. and they had to manually install corded phones in your home.) The song is “Telephone Man” and the singer was a young lady named Meri Wilson.
Meri Wilson wrote “Telephone Man” and released it as a single in June of 1977. It was supposedly based on her brief affair with a Ma Bell employee who installed a phone in her Dallas apartment. As a novelty song, it was filled with innuendo and Ms. Wilson’s breathy, Marilyn Monroe-like vocals.
“Telephone Man” was a surprise hit, going all the way to #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #6 in the UK. It sold more than a million copies and became a staple on the Dr. Demento Radio Show, which I used to listen to on Sunday evenings when I was younger and into those things.
Based on the success of “Telephone Man,” Ms. Wilson decided to make a career out of singing slightly naughty novelty songs, with titles like “Peter the Meter Reader,” “Dick the DJ,” “My Valentine’s Funny,” and, in 1999, an updated version of “Telephone Man” called “Internet Man.” None of those singles made a splash, however, making Meri Wilson a bona fide one-hit wonder.
Regrettably, Meri Wilson was killed in an auto accident in 2002 during an ice storm in Georgia. She was 53 years old.
So here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Meri Wilson lip synching “Telephone Man” on the Dutch television program TopPop. She got it in the bedroom, she got it in the hall, she got it in the bathroom, and she got it on the wall…