867-5309/Jenny

"867-5309/Jenny" is a song by American rock band Tommy Tutone. It was released as a single on November 16, 1981.  It peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Rock Top Tracks chart in April 1982. The song led to a fad of prank calling the number 867-5309 and asking for "Jenny".

Bruce Springsteen's 2007 single "Radio Nowhere" has a set of guitar riffs at the beginning that are similar to "867-5309/Jenny". The lyrics and the tone of the two songs are quite different. Tommy Heath has stated  he had no interest in suing. If anything, he felt "really honored at a similarity, if any".

 Creation 
Lead guitarist Jim Keller has said "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."

Tommy Tutone lead singer Tommy Heath stated on the WGN Morning News that the number was real. He said it was the number of a girl he knew. As a joke, he wrote it on a bathroom wall in a motel where they were staying. "We laughed about it for years," he said.

In a June 2004 interview with Songfacts, co-writer  Alex Call explained the song's real origins. "There was no Jenny. "I was just trying to write a 4-chord Rock song and it just kind of came out." He added that "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."

In the song's music video, the "Jenny" character is played by Karen Elaine Morton.

Prank calls
After the song's release, people started prank calling phone numbers with different area codes. This made some people who owned the number frustrated, and some people had to change their phone number because of this. 

 Charts 
Weekly charts
Chart (1982)Peakposition Australia (Kent Music Report) 22US Cash Box Top 1005

Year-end charts
Chart (1982)RankCanada Top Singles (RPM)20US Billboard Hot 10016US Cash Box Top 10038

References

Other websites

 867-5309 in all US and Canadian Area Codes (Telephone World)

Category:1981 songs
Category:Telephone numbers in the United States