Members of Tommy Tutone
Little did he know when he snatched up his new phone number that it would become such a novelty. Now, a North Jersey owner of 867-5309 is putting it up for sale.
You hear it in your head already, don't you?
That monotonous ditty made famous by a one-hit wonder band called Tommy Tutone at the peak of New Wave's popularity in the early 80s. It isn't a difficult number to remember -- especially since they repeat it 20 times in three minutes.
A Weehawken man who bought the number five years ago -- long after "867-5309/Jenny" peaked at No. 4 on the Biilboard charts -- tells the Star Ledger of Newark that he's moving out of town and selling off the famous digits on eBay.
Spencer Potter, 28, said he and several roommates requested the 201 number as a goof. They were in luck, it seemed. When they discovered it was available in the 201 area code, they snatched it up (there are dozens of others nationwide, one of which belongs to a Rhode Island plumbing company).
A few beats later, the phone began to sing.
"All hell broke loose and it hasn't stopped since," Potter, a local deejay, told the Ledger, adding that he had to add an answering machine and another phone.
The volume of calls may have even outstripped Mojo Nixon's "819-239-KING," a special line he set up so that Elvis Presley -- if the King were stll alive, as rumors contended -- could call him. Nixon told me a few years back that he put the phone out on the porch because it rang so much, and then he finally disconnected it.
Of course, if you go a couple of generations back, you could dial Wilson Pickett's "634-5789." Decades before that was the Glenn Miller Orchestra's rendition of the Charleston-inspired "Pennsylvania 6-5000" -- which, many may not know, is the number for the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan and has been in continuous use for a city-record 90 years.
For the musical congnescenti: There's Brenda "Little Dynamite" Lee's "BIGELOW-6200."
So what's the 411?
Potter is selling the number along with his entertainment business and moving to Westchester to latch on with a different firm. Vonage gave the OK for the sale, he told the Ledger.
"It's been awesome, you meet some great people," he said. "I've met people from all over the (United States)."
Soon, someone else will have the privilege.
Comments
I miss the days of real numbers---now every number mentioned onscreen is a 555 faker. For years, I received prank calls telling me my number spelled out "e-at-t b-a-l-l." I found the calls amusing and was sad to lose that number.
im a buy this # for 1 million $
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