Month: July 2022

Top 30 Songs for July 10-16, 2022

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Weekly Top 30's16 Comments

A year after it’s release in July 2021, the beautiful “Seventeen Going Under” by the immensely talented English singer-songwriter Sam Fender reaches the pinnacle of my Weekly Top 30. Somewhat of a sleeper hit, the song finally peaked at #3 on the UK Singles Chart this past January, when it also began getting airplay in the U.S. It eventually appeared on various Alternative song charts (where it recently peaked at #10 on the Billboard Triple A chart). Though I actually ranked it #44 on my Top 100 Songs of 2021 list, I felt compelled to add the song to my Weekly Top 30 in May, and it’s quickly climbed my chart ever since. Even though it’s now fallen off most charts, I love it more than ever, and it’s my current favorite song. Those gorgeous jangly guitars, exuberant trumpet and sax, cracking drumbeats and Fender’s arresting tenor vocals are all magnificent.

Written by Fender and released as the lead single from his brilliant and critically acclaimed second album Seventeen Going Under, the album in general, and song in particular, chronicle his life at 17 when his mother was afflicted with fibromyalgia and depressed because she could no longer work after 40 years of service as a nurse. Though she’d never missed a day of work, the Department for Work and Pensions harassed her with letters and treated her unjustly. Fender wanted to help her financially, even considering selling drugs to earn money, but she talked him out of it. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he commented: “That’s when my rose-tinted glasses fell off. 17 is when all the challenges begin: you’re not a baby, but you’re definitely not an adult.” With his striking tenor voice, strong Geordie accent, and heartthrob good looks, it’s hard to believe Fender was bullied for being overweight and unathletic as a child.

I think “Seventeen Going Under” is one of the most perfect songs I’ve heard in a long while, and in May, the song won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. Fun fact: Sam Fender also plays Fender guitars.

In other chart highlights, Arcade Fire‘s “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid) leaps 8 spots to #3, and YUNGBLUD‘s “The Funeral” jumps 6 spots to #17. Debuting at #s 29 & 30 are the beautiful “Until I Found You” by Nashville singer-songwriter Stephen Sanchez and “SUPERMODEL” by Italian band Måneskin.

  1. SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER – Sam Fender (2)
  2. TELL ME THE TRUTH – Two Feet (1)
  3. UNCONDITIONAL I (LOOKOUT KID) – Arcade Fire (11)
  4. BELIEVE – Caamp (6)
  5. ABOUT DAMN TIME – Lizzo (7)
  6. A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (8)
  7. MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (4)
  8. AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (5)
  9. 2am – Foals (10)
  10. CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (3)
  11. WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (9)
  12. SYNCHRONIZE – Milky Chance (13)
  13. THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECAY – My Chemical Romance (15)
  14. CLOSER – The Frontier (16)
  15. LONELY – Sea Girls (17)
  16. BLOODRUSH – The Amazons (12)
  17. THE FUNERAL – YUNGBLUD (23)
  18. IN THE MIRROR – The Interrupters (20)
  19. WARNING SIGNS – Band of Horses (21)
  20. BEDS ARE BURNING – AWOLNATION feat. Tim McIlrath (19)
  21. MISTAKES – Sharon Van Etten (26)
  22. DESPERATELY WANTING – Brian Lambert & Marc Schuster (24)
  23. LIN MANUEL – Onism E (25)
  24. THAT’S WHERE I AM – Maggie Rogers (14)
  25. FAILURE TO COMPLY – MISSIO (27)
  26. LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (18) 20th week on list
  27. BROKEN RECORD – NAVE (30)
  28. WILD – Spoon (21)
  29. UNTIL I FOUND YOU – Stephen Sanchez (N)
  30. SUPERMODEL – Måneskin (N)

30 Day Song Challenge Day 9 – “American Pie” by Don McLean

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews13 Comments

The subject for Day 9 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song you ruined by overplaying it“. This is my least-favorite item on this song challenge, because 1) it’s negative, and 2) I don’t as a rule ruin songs for myself by overplaying them. Obviously, I only intentionally play songs that I want to hear, and if I’m tired of a song, I won’t play it. However, radio stations have ruined a number of songs for me over the years by playing them over and over until I’m sick to death of them, so I’m tweaking this subject to “A song that was ruined for me by being overplayed“.

I don’t listen to much commercial radio anymore, except occasionally when in the car, but when I was a teenager and young adult, I listened to a lot of radio. When I think back on songs that I’d liked at first, but later grew to detest because they were so grossly overplayed, most were generally from the 70s and 80s. And the one that most quickly comes to my mind is the 1972 classic “American Pie” by Don McLean. It was a massive #1 hit and one of the most popular songs of the 1970s, and like all big hits, it was played to death on the radio. To make matters worse, it was so damned long, clocking in at over 8 1/2 minutes, and seemed to go on forever. I liked it at first, but after a few months of non-stop airplay (back in the day when hearing songs on the radio was our main form of listening to music besides playing them on our stereos), I came to loathe it. The moment I’d hear “Long, long time ago…” I’d jab my finger on the radio button to change the station as quickly as possible.

If I never hear “American Pie” again that would be a good thing. And if I had my own radio station, it, along with a several other songs, would not be allowed in the building.

30 Day Song Challenge Day 8 – “I Drove All Night” by Cyndi Lauper

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews15 Comments

The subject for Day 8 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song to drive to late at night“, and the first song I thought of was “I Drove All Night” by Cyndi Lauper. (A runner-up was the beautiful Cars song “Drive”, but Cyndi Lauper’s 1989 hit is a no-brainer for this subject.) The song was a sizable hit for Lauper, reaching #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, #7 in the UK and #8 in Canada. She had a string of hits from 1984-89, beginning with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, and two of them – “Time After Time” and “True Colors” went all the way to #1. “I Drove All Night” was her last single to reach the top 10 in the U.S.

The song was originally written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly for Roy Orbison, who recorded it in 1987, a year before his death, but his version was not released until 1992. Lauper recorded the song and released it as a single in April 1989. She liked the song and wanted to record her version because she liked the idea “of a woman driving, of a woman in control.” I love the strong propulsive rhythms, blasting drumbeats and edgy strings that powerfully convey the passion and urgency of a woman driving all night to get to her lover. And I really like Lauper’s vocals, which have a somewhat more mature quality than on some of her earlier songs.

The song was included on her third studio album A Night to Remember, and considered by nearly everyone to be the highlight of an otherwise disappointing album. A Night to Remember received mixed-to-poor reviews and less commercial success than her two previous albums. Because of its poor reviews and disappointing sales, as well as the problems she experienced with producer and boyfriend David Wolf⁠ during the production of the album, Lauper referred to it as “A Night to Forget”. Despite the album’s poor performance, “I Drove All Night” was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

The song was also later covered by Celine Dion in 2003, whose version topped the Canadian Singles Chart and reached #7 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.

Here’s Roy Orbison’s original version, which is also pretty good. The song’s official video features the young and very beautiful actors Jennifer Connelly and Jason Priestly.

30 Day Song Challenge Day 7 – “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews11 Comments

The subject for Day 7 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song to drive to in the morning“. I think it’s a rather odd subject, but my interpretation is that it’s a song that gets you going in the morning, and the one that immediately comes to my mind is “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf. If that adrenaline-inducing rocker – perfectly described by Hal Horowitz of AllMusic as “a roaring anthem of turbo-charged riff rock” – doesn’t charge your engines first thing in the morning, then nothing will!

“Born to Be Wild” was originally written as a ballad by Canadian rock musician Mars Bonfire (aka Dennis Edmonton), who was previously a member of the Sparrows, the predecessor band to Steppenwolf, and whose brother Jerry became Steppenwolf’s drummer. The other founding members of Steppenwolf included John Kay (born Joachim Fritz Krauledat in Germany) on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Michael Monarch on lead guitar, Rushton Moreve on bass, and Goldy McJohn on keyboards. Bonfire initially offered the song to a few other bands, but “Born to Be Wild” was eventually recorded by Steppenwolf in a sped-up and rearranged version that came to define their signature hard rock sound. Those raging riffs of shredded guitars, chugging rhythms and thunderous percussion, accompanied by fantastic psychedelic keyboards and Kay’s powerful gritty vocals, made the song a classic that beautifully captured the rebelliousness of the late 60s.

The song is often invoked in both popular and counter culture to symbolize a biker appearance or attitude, partly due to being featured in the 1969 film Easy Rider. It’s also been described by many as the first heavy metal song, and the second verse lyric “heavy metal thunder” was the first use of this term in rock music. According to Robert Walser in his 1993 book Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music, the words “heavy metal thunder” describe a motorcycle, not a musical style.

“Born to Be Wild” became Steppenwolf’s most successful single, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. (It was kept from the #1 spot by the Rascals’ “People Got to Be Free”.) Rolling Stone ranked “Born to Be Wild” at #129 on their 2004 list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and in the same year, the song was ranked #29 on AFI‘s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. VH1 ranked it #40 in their list of the 100 Greatest Songs of Rock and Roll in 2000, and the 53rd best hard rock song of all time in 2009. In 2018, the song was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a new category for singles. (Wikipedia)

Here’s the iconic scene from Easy Rider in which “Born to Be Wild” is featured

30 Day Song Challenge, Day 6 – “Finally” by CeCe Peniston

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews12 Comments

The subject for Day 6 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song that makes you want to dance.” This was a tough one for me, as there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of songs that make me want to dance. I considered some great dance songs by the likes of Donna Summer, Madonna, Janet Jackson and Dua Lipa, among others, but when I walked into my local Trader Joe’s last evening and heard the CeCe Peniston classic “Finally” playing on their sound system, I immediately had my song pick for Day 6. I’ve always loved the song, with its infectious throbbing bass drum-driven dance groove and her euphoric soulful and sexy vocals.

First, a bit of background on CeCe: Born Cecilia Veronica “CeCe” Peniston in Dayton, Ohio in 1969, she moved with her family to Phoenix at the age of nine. She attended high school there, and sang at church and performed in plays and musicals in middle and high school, as well as local theater groups. After graduating from high school, she studied liberal arts at Phoenix College, where she got involved in athletics, and entered beauty pageants. She was crowned Miss Black Arizona in 1989.

Her music career began in January 1991, when Felipe “DJ Wax Dawg” Delgado, a record producer and friend also based in Phoenix, asked Peniston to record back-up vocals for Tonya Davis, a rapper known as Overweight Pooch. Though Overweight Pooch’s album was a commercial flop, another DJ and producer Manny Lehman had taken notice of Peniston’s powerful backing vocals. He offered Delgado a chance to produce a track for Peniston to cultivate her potential as a solo artist. Delgado called hometown friend and music producer, Rodney K. Jackson, to help co-produce Peniston’s first single, which would become “Finally”.

Peniston began writing pop songs while in school, and initially wrote the words to “Finally” as a poem during a chemistry class, while thinking about dating and how she hadn’t yet found her Mr. Right. She was 21 years old when “Finally” was released in September 1991, and it became an instant dance hit, reaching #1 only a month later on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The song went on to peak at #5 on the Hot 100 in January 1992, and #2 in the UK that March.

It’s major impact on the dance music genre has been recognized by numerous publications. VH1 ranked “Finally” at #29 in their list of the “100 Greatest Dance Songs” in 2000. MTV Dance ranked it #28 in their list of “The 100 Biggest ’90s Dance Anthems of All Time” in 2011. Heart TV ranked it #3 in their list of “55 Biggest ’90s Club Classics” in March 2017. Also in 2017, BuzzFeed placed it at #1 in their list of “The 101 Greatest Dance Songs of the ’90s”, noting “When it comes to ‘90s dance songs, you’d be hard-pressed to find another song that so perfectly incorporates other music genres that made the decade so great — i.e., R&B, house, and pop — which is what makes “Finally” the quintessential ‘90s dance song.” And last, but not least, Slant Magazine ranked it #37 in their list of “The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time” in 2020. (Wikipedia)

“Finally” was featured in the 1994 Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a hilarious road comedy written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The film portrays the misadventures of two drag queens, played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, and a transgender woman, brilliantly played by Terence Stamp, as they journey across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they’ve named “Priscilla”, encountering various groups and colorful individuals along the way. Here’s a clip of the trio’s over the top drag performance to the song:

30 Day Song Challenge, Day 5 – “Hit the Road Jack” by Ray Charles

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews14 Comments

The subject for Day 5 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song that makes you want to travel“. There are some great songs about traveling, such as Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again”, Ricky Nelson’s “Travelin’ Man”, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Travelin’ Band”, and John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. But my pick is the marvelous Ray Charles song “Hit the Road Jack“. While not necessarily about travel, the song’s bouncy R&B groove really gets the toes tapping, compelling you to move! It’s barely two minutes long, but packs quite a punch.

The song was written by R&B singer Percy Mayfield, who first recorded it in 1960 as an a cappella demo that he sent to music executive Art Rupe. “Hit the Road Jack” was later recorded by Ray Charles in June 1961, with delicious call and response vocals by Margie Hendrix, who was the lead singer of The Raelettes, a girl group originally formed to sing backup on many of Ray Charles songs. She admonishes Charles in the song, informing him in no uncertain terms that she thinks he’s a bum “you ain’t got no money, you just ain’t no good“, while his pleas for her forgiveness “Now baby, listen baby, don’t ya treat me this way, ’cause I’ll be back on my feet some day“, fall on deaf ears.

The song became a huge hit, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1961, as well as in Sweden and New Zealand. It also won a Grammy award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording, and became one of Charles’ signature songs.

Here’s the demo recorded by Percy Mayfield:

30 Day Song Challenge, Day 4 – “A Beautiful Morning” by The Rascals

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Favorite Songs12 Comments

The subject for Day 4 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song that reminds you of Spring“, and for my pick I’m going way back to 1968 with “A Beautiful Morning” by The Rascals. It’s not a song about Spring per se, but for me, its positive title and exuberant sunny vibe evoke images of a lovely Spring-like day, where it just feels good to be alive.

Co-written in Honolulu by band members Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati while the band was performing in Hawaii, “A Beautiful Morning” continued with the theme of carefree optimism expressed on their massive hit song “Groovin'”. The song was appropriately released at the beginning of Spring on March 22, 1968, and was the band’s first single released as the ‘The Rascals’, rather than their previous moniker ‘the Young Rascals’. The single was also one of the earliest to be released in stereo, as 7-inch 45 singles had generally been recorded in mono. Together with the Doors “Hello, I Love You” it’s credited with changing the industry standard of singles. (Wikipedia) “A Beautiful Morning” also became a big hit, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

30 Day Song Challenge, Day 3 – “Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea” by MISSIO

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews8 Comments

The topic for Day 3 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song with a location in the title”, and my pick is the mesmerizing “Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea” by MISSIO. The bottom of the sea is admittedly a somewhat unorthodox location, but a location it is!

Based in Austin, Texas and comprised of singer-songwriter/producer Matthew Brue and songwriter/producer and instrumentalist David Butler, MISSIO burst onto the music scene in early 2017 with their single “Middle Fingers”. I loved the trippy song and quickly became a fan of their edgy, thoroughly original and eclectic sound that’s a glorious mash-up of gritty alternative electronic rock, hip hop and dreamy emo vibes. Then there’s Matthew’s uniquely stunning vocals that register in the higher octaves just below a falsetto, giving them a distinctive sound unlike any other singer, and making their music instantly identifiable as only MISSIO’s.

They followed “Middle Fingers” with “Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea”, which spent many weeks at #1 on SiriusXM’s Alt Nation Top 18 Chart in the summer of 2017. Both songs were included on their outstanding debut album Loner, which also featured “Twisted” and “Everybody Gets High”, which was recently awarded a gold record certification by RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

Like many of the songs on Loner, (as well as their second album The Darker the Weather // The Better the Man), “Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea” was inspired by Matthew’s struggles to attain sobriety as he reflected back on his teen years as an alcoholic and addict. As noted on the website GENIUS, “he uses the feeling of being pulled down to the bottom of the sea as a metaphor for the failure to overcome addiction (or anxiety or depression).” In a 2017 interview with the Pop Break, Matthew explained that the song “is a conversation between the victim of temptation and the tempter, represented by the chorus. The way that I always describe addiction is that it’s very sexual in a way. You have this beautiful thing that’s staring at you and it’s constantly telling you to dive in. Then you actually decide to give in to whatever your struggle is, and it just pulls you down. It does a 180 and literally controls your life. Whether it be addiction, anxiety or depression—the feeling is that you’re trying to swim up from the depths and it’s just pulling you to the bottom of the sea.” 

[Verse 1]
The blood surrounding my body crushing every bit of bone
The salt, it seeps into the pores of my open skin
I wait on you inside the bottom of the deep blue sea
I wait on you inside the bottom of the deep blue

[Chorus]
Welcome to my cage, little lover
Attempt to rearrange with ya, baby
Still don’t know your name, Miss Honey
Let’s go up in flames, pretty lady

[Verse 2]
The sweet surrender of silence forces me to live alone
Locked and loaded, where the hell is peace of mind?
I wait on you inside the bottom of the deep blue sea
I wait on you inside the bottom of the deep blue

[Chorus]
Welcome to my cage, little lover
Attempt to rearrange with you, baby
Still don’t know your name, Miss Honey
Let’s go up in flames, pretty lady

Musically, the song is both haunting and captivating, with an utterly brilliant arrangement. The song opens with somber piano chords accompanied by tapping percussive synths, then Matthew’s fragile-sounding vocals enter the proceedings as layers of magical and eerie synths, pulsating reverb and heavier percussion are added, creating a mysterious ethereal soundscape that evokes the dark and dangerous beauty of a deep blue sea. For me, the biggest highlights of the song are the gorgeous hypnotic piano riff during the interludes between the verses and choruses, and Matthew’s enchanting, highly emotive layered vocals. I can listen to “Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea” on endless repeat.

My 2019 review of The Darker the Weather // The Better the Man has garnered more than 2,800 views, making it my highest-viewed album review ever. 

Header photo by Alexandra Thomas.

Connect with MISSIO:  Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

Top 30 Songs for July 3-9, 2022

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Weekly Top 30's6 Comments

Two Feet holds at #1 for a second week with his fiercely erotic “Tell Me The Truth”, while Sam Fender‘s glorious “Seventeen Going Under” jumps four spots to #2. Despite the fact it’s been around a while, my love for the beautiful and emotionally powerful song just keeps growing stronger. And speaking of staying power, Harry Styles‘ “As It Was” and the Black Keys‘ “Wild Child” are now in their 12th week in the top 10. “As It Was” has actually spent 11 weeks in the top 5, two of them at #1, while “Wild Child” spent 10 weeks in the top 4, two of them also at #1. Entering the top 10 this week is “2am” by Foals, from their marvelous new album Life Is Yours. Leaping 11 spots to #11 is the uplifting and poignant “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)” by Arcade Fire, while “The Funeral” by YUNGBLUD climbs five spots to #23.

The one debut track this week is the hauntingly beautiful and cinematic “Broken Record” by British artist NAVE, the solo music project of singer-songwriter, composer and producer Nathan Evans. The prolific and hyper-talented musician, who possesses a gorgeous singing voice, is also front man for alternative rock band Native Tongue. Nathan states “‘Broken Record’ focuses on the like, follow and share society we have transitioned into over the past decade. Likes release dopamine like a drug and we become addicted to the validation, attention and acknowledgment of our successes or happiness. We hide behind filters and fake smiles to show an inaccurate reality we wish was real.” I can attest to the fact that I’m frightfully addicted to the need for validation, attention and acknowledgment of not only my blog, but also my tweets, Instagram and Facebook posts, all of which causes me frequent disappointment and unhappiness.

  1. TELL ME THE TRUTH – Two Feet (1)
  2. SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER – Sam Fender (6)
  3. CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (2)
  4. MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (3)
  5. AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (5)
  6. BELIEVE – Caamp (7)
  7. ABOUT DAMN TIME – Lizzo (8)
  8. A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (9)
  9. WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (4)
  10. 2am – Foals (12)
  11. UNCONDITIONAL I (LOOKOUT KID) – Arcade Fire (22)
  12. BLOODRUSH – The Amazons (10)
  13. SYNCHRONIZE – Milky Chance (14)
  14. THAT’S WHERE I AM – Maggie Rogers (15)
  15. THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECAY – My Chemical Romance (16)
  16. CLOSER – The Frontier (17)
  17. LONELY – Sea Girls (18)
  18. LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (13)
  19. BEDS ARE BURNING – AWOLNATION feat. Tim McIlrath (19)
  20. IN THE MIRROR – The Interrupters (21)
  21. WILD – Spoon (11)
  22. WARNING SIGNS – Band of Horses (23)
  23. THE FUNERAL – YUNGBLUD (28)
  24. DESPERATELY WANTING – Brian Lambert & Marc Schuster (26)
  25. LIN MANUEL – Onism E (27)
  26. MISTAKES – Sharon Van Etten (29)
  27. FAILURE TO COMPLY – MISSIO (30)
  28. SLEEP – Gooseberry (20)
  29. VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (25)
  30. BROKEN RECORD – NAVE (N)

30 Day Song Challenge, Day 2 – “867-5309/Jenny” by Tommy Tutone

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews9 Comments

The topic for Day 2 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song with a number in the title”. There are so many great songs with numbers in their title, such as “One” by U2, “Two Hearts” by Phil Collins, “Eight Days a Week” by the Beatles and “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon, to name a few that quickly come to mind. But I’ve chosen a song with a title made up almost entirely of numbers, the great power pop classic “867-5309/Jenny” by California pop-rock band Tommy Tutone. Released in November 1981, the song was a huge hit, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the Spring of 1982. The song’s incredibly catchy, with an infectious hard-driving groove overlain with fantastic jangly guitar riffs and terrific vocals backed by equally great harmonies.

Tommy Tutone was originally formed in 1978 as Tommy and the Twin Tones in Northern California by Tommy Heath and Jim Keller, along with Terry Nails, with Heath as lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Keller on lead guitar and backing vocals, and Nails on bass and backing vocals. Like many bands, they underwent numerous personnel changes, and it was Jon Lyons who actually played bass on “867-5309”. (Lyons was soon replaced by Greg Sutton, later Pete Costello, and more recently Jimmy James.)

The song was co-written by Keller and Alex Call, who’d been a member of the San Francisco Bay Area country rock band Clover, which was active from 1967 to 1978 and best known for its member Huey Lewis and for backing Elvis Costello on his debut album My Aim is True. There have been numerous stories and myths over the years about the song, particularly the phone number and the identity of “Jenny”, some of which were created by Keller and Heath to seemingly add to the song’s lore. But in a 2004 interview with Songfacts, Call explained his version of the song’s real origins:

“Despite all the mythology to the contrary, I actually came up with ‘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. I had the guitar lick, I had the name and number, but I didn’t know what the song was about. My buddy Jim Keller, who’s the co-writer and lead guitar player in Tommy Tutone, 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.’

Tommy Tutone’s been using the story for years that there was a Jenny and she ran a recording studio and so forth. It makes a better story but it’s not true. That sounds a lot better than I made it up under a plum tree in my backyard. 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. In fact, even after Tommy Tutone made the record and ‘867-5309’ got on the air, it really didn’t have a lot of promotion to begin with, but it was one of those songs that got a lot of requests and stayed on the charts. It was on the charts for 40 weeks.

A lot of women have told me they use the name and number as a brush off, which I think is really great. A guy wakes up with a hangover, he’s been obnoxious to some girl in a bar last night, he opens up a folded piece of paper and it’s ‘Jenny – 867-5309’. I’ve also met a few Jennys who’ve said, ‘Oh, you’re the guy who ruined my high school years’. But for the most part, Jennys are happy to have the song. A guy came up to me at one of my gigs – his family is from Florida and they had the number. They loved it, and as they’ve all grown up, everyone in the extended family has the number 5309 on their cell phones, no matter what the prefix is, so all you need to know is what cousin Bob’s prefix is. There’s a number here in town, it’s a used car lot – he’s got a big sign. It’s funny that that song has such legs and keeps going. But a lot of people who had it were really pissed off about it.”

Numerous homes around the country with the number 867-5309 were besieged with prank phone calls or come-ons from horny men looking for a ‘Jenny’. In 1982, Brewton, Alabama resident Lorene Burns told the press “When we’d first get calls at 2 or 3 in the morning, my husband would answer the phone. He can’t hear too well. They’d ask for Jenny, and he’d say ‘Jimmy doesn’t live here anymore.’ Tommy Tutone was the one who had the record. I’d like to get a hold of his neck and choke him.”