867-5309/Jenny
"867-5309/Jenny" is a 1981 song written by Alex Call and Jim Keller and performed by Tommy Tutone that was released on the album "Tommy Tutone 2", on the Columbia Records label. It peaked at No. 4 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart in May 1982, and No. 1 on the "Billboard" Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in April 1982. The song led to a fad of people dialing 867-5309 and asking for "Jenny". Creation. Lead guitarist Jim Keller, interviewed by "People" in 1982, 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." On March 28, 2008, Tommy Tutone lead singer Tommy Heath stated on the "WGN Morning News" that the number was real and 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. However, in a June 2004 interview with "Songfacts", co-writer Alex Call explained his version of the song's real origins: "There was no Jenny," Call also told a Tampa, Florida, columnist in June 2009. "The number? It came to me out of the ether." In the music video, the "Jenny" character is played by Karen Elaine Morton. Popularity and litigation. The song, released in late 1981, initially gained popularity on the American West Coast in January 1982; many who had the number soon abandoned it because of unwanted calls. Asking telephone  companies to trace the calls was of no use, as Charles and Maurine Shambarger (then in West Akron, Ohio at +1-216-867-5309) learned when Ohio Bell explained: "We don’t know what to make of this. The calls are coming from all over the place." A little over a month later, they disconnected the number and the phone became silent. In some cases, the number was picked up by commercial businesses or acquired for use in radio promotions. Springsteen controversy. Singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen's 2007 single "Radio Nowhere" features a set of guitar riffs at the beginning  that many fans considered particularly similar to "867-5309/Jenny", although the lyrics and the tone of the two songs are quite different. Regarding legal action, Heath said "I think it's close enough that if I wanted to, I could work with it... I don't really get into that sort of thing, but the kids do need braces, so maybe I will." He later clarified that he had no interest in suing and felt "really honored at a similarity, if any."