Tommy Tutone – 867-5309 / Jenny

I never knew this in the 1980s but the singer is not Tommy Tutone…that is the band’s name. They were led by Tommy Heath and Jim Keller and originally called themselves Tommy and the Two-Tones.

If you were listening to the radio in the eighties you remember this song. A great little power pop song that gave you a phone number you could not forget. The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard 100 and #2 in Canada in 1982. After it became a hit I started to think about the poor souls who had that number under different area codes. It changed their lives…

Mrs. Lorene Burns, an Alabama householder formerly at +1-205-867-5309; she changed her number in 1982: 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 hold of his neck and choke him.

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.

Jim Keller, the lead guitarist of the band, claims that Jenny was a girl he knew and that some friends wrote her number on the wall of a men’s room as a prank. Keller says he called her and they dated for some time. Yet Alex Call, who co-wrote the song with Jim Keller, claims there was never any Jenny and that 867-5309 came to him “out of the ether.” They are lucky no one got to them and…get hold of his neck and choke him.

Alex Call: “Despite all the mythology to the contrary, I actually just came up with the ‘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.

This was back in 1981 when I wrote it, and I had at the time a little squirrel-powered 4-track in this industrial yard in California, and I went up there and made a tape of it. I had the guitar lick, I had the name and number, but I didn’t know what the song was about. This buddy of mine, Jim Keller, who’s the co-writer, was the lead guitar player in Tommy Tutone. He 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.’

I had the thing recorded. I had the name and number, and they were in the same spots, ‘Jenny… 867-5309.’ I had all that going, but I had a blind spot in the creative process, I didn’t realize it would be a girl’s number on a bathroom wall. 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.”

867-5309 / Jenny

Jenny Jenny who can I turn to
You give me something I can hold on to
I know you’ll think I’m like the others before
Who saw your name and number on the wall

Jenny I’ve got your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny don’t change your number

Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Jenny jenny you’re the girl for me
You don’t know me but you make me so happy
I tried to call you before but I lost my nerve
I tried my imagination but I was disturbed

Jenny I’ve got your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny don’t change your number
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine

I got it (i got it) I got it
I got your number on the wall
I got it (i got it) I got it
For a good time, for a good time call

Jenny don’t change your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny I’ve called your number

Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine

Jenny Jenny who can I turn to (eight six seven five three oh nine)
For the price of a dime I can always turn to you (eight six seven five three oh nine)

Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine (five three oh nine)
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine (five three oh nine)
Eight six seven five three oh nine (five three oh nine)

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

50 thoughts on “Tommy Tutone – 867-5309 / Jenny”

  2. Pingback: Tommy Tutone – 867-5309 / Jenny – MobsterTiger

    1. LOL…I remember it also… this was my generation as a teen….I just largely ignored mainstream radio. In my world it was 1968

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    2. Power Pop gold with this one! You couldn’t escape this song in the early to mid 80’s if you tried!

      My band once opened for Tommy Tutone in a small club when they were on their way out of popularity, must have ’87/’88… Nice guys and the place was PACKED! Thanks for the memories!

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  4. Damn song is Ear Candy that once it’s in your head you cannot get it out. lol. I think many a glam hard rock band that followed like Poison pursued that catchy 3 minute angle jangle.

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  7. a catchy tune and the bane to at least one household in every area code it would seem! Ironic that I still remember the number without having to think about it but have trouble now remembering my own cel number.

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  8. While I remember this earworm, 634-5789 is the phone number of my generation (a hit for Wilson Pickett in 1966, written by Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper). Adapted [by changing one digit] from Beechwood 4-5789 by the Marvelettes (1962, written by Marvin Gaye, Mickey Stevenson, and George Gordy- brother of Berry, head of Mowtown).

    My phone number was once one digit off from a local hospital. We got lots of unwanted calls.

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    1. I like the Pickett song better to tell you the truth. I can’t remember the number as well but I like it more.
      That is the reason I always want to put Beachwood in front of 634-5789!

      My current number was a hair stylist in Murfressboro TN… When I first got it I had people call me for appointments. I joked with them and had some fun conversations.

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  9. This song is about a guy who gets Jenny’s number off the bathroom wall.  He can’t work up the courage to call her, but thinks he can have her if he ever does.  Someone wrote her name and number on a bathroom wall along with the phrase “Call for a good time”, and now this obsessed stranger who is infatuated with Jenny won’t stop harassing her.  This guy is fixated, he’s memorized the number by constantly repeating it and now he thinks he needs her love.  If this guy is still around today, it is a good bet that he is a registered sex offender.  An ex who was trying to extract some type of revenge wrote Jenny’s number on the bathroom wall.

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  10. Great tune, I ran across it and gave it a listen a couple months ago. That story is a good case for why they started to use the 555 in TV and Movies etc. Of course, it wouldn’t help much here, and a buzz kill on the lyrics.

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  13. Max I love what you dug up about this song. I just wonder how many prank calls across the US and maybe beyond were made to that #. It’s one that is lodged in every brain that has listened to the radio. It’s a danged good song also.

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      2. Oh yes…Lisa I have never seen the incompetence that I heard today at AT&T. I have been trying to port a number that we own from them to us…since December! I have talked to 12 different departments and was passed around and back to the same place. Some companies are too big for their own good and I told them that!
        Anyway….sorry…thanks for letting me vent.

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      3. Sounds so frustrating! You’re right on companies too big for their own good. I’m guessing it still hasn’t been resolved? No need to apologize, Max. You’ve listened to me vent plenty. I owe you.

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      4. No it hasn’t…I told the lady I was talking to today I was about to cry lol. I spent 4 1/2 hours on the phone with them and a different company…so yea…that shot my day. But…I’m at home now!

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      5. So much for their tech support effectiveness! Your time and theirs was wasted. Do you have another company you could try? We use Verizon here, and I remember when I first moved out here in 2011 I had a land line from them. Their billing statements were enough to drive a person insane. Had terrible experience with them. I’m still thru Verizon but the internet hotspot and the cell phone are easy peasy (knock on wood) no probs at all.

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      6. Well the problem is AT&T have our number. It’s a number that ends with 0000…the owner has had it since the 90s. We haven’t used it in years but we need to bring it back to us. I do the phones there…we use MS Teams. I’ve never had a problem porting a number from different carriers…I told him I want to pull all the numbers from ATT period.

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      7. If he’s super attached to the 0000 maybe some other, better company can offer it to you? You’re the phone expert so this idea may be totally unthinkable. Just trying to help you out lol

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  15. Different times, years away from these easy-going cellphone days. When I started going to dances, out on the prowl (as I so naively thought,) I had a literal black book and stub of a pencil in my ass pocket, ready to be whipped out to take down the number of the lucky lass I had just begged a dance with. All too rarely got a real number, but the amount of times I was given the runaround by being given the number of Gold Star Taxis was heart and confidence breaking.

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    1. I know Phil…the 80s were my teen years…you can understand why I listened to the 60s and 70s through that decade…but this is a good one.

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