I've been calling 867-5309 for 15 years and still no Jennie answers - what's the deal?

Answer 1

who's jennie?

Answer 2

"867-5309/Jenny" is a song written by Alex Call and Jim Keller and performed by Tommy Tutone which peaked at Number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1982.

The lyrics imply that 867-5309 was the real phone number of a girl named Jenny, which was acquired from a mens' room wall under the legend, "For a good time, call...". The song caused a fad of people dialing 867-5309 (which was then a valid phone number in dozens of area codes) and asking for "Jenny".

Throughout the song, the singer just keeps thinking about this mysterious Jenny and how happy she makes him. It is more or less implied that the men's room graffiti featuring her name and number mentioned that she was an "easy lay," and that this is the reason for the singer's interest. However in the music video, Jenny gives the singer her phone number along with her name.

The song was released on the album Tommy Tutone 2, on the Columbia Records label. It has been covered by a number of artists, including Less Than Jake.

The guitar riff of the song is almost identical to the one at the end of the intro track on The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The band and label eventually changed their story as to the number's origins, claiming it to be a random number that the songwriters came up with. (In fact the number is not quite as random as it may seem; when dialing the number on a standard touch-tone phone, the number forms a consistent upward diagonal pattern on the keypad: 8-6, followed by 7-5-3, followed by 0-9.) Calls to 1-(area code)-867-5309 were still arriving in quantity as late as the end of the 1990s.

Most media companies use a fictitious 555 telephone number, or on rare occasions real numbers that they own, to avoid problems with real telephone numbers. However, in 2003 the movie Bruce Almighty precipitated a situation reminiscent of "867-5309" when it depicted God using "776-2323" to contact Jim Carrey's character. (That number was replaced with "555-0123" in the DVD and television versions of the movie.)

Answer 3

I heard a story that the number actually belonged to one of the band member's ex-girlfriends (named Jenny, of course) and that he wrote the song to get back at her for dumping him. She supposedly got a restraining order taken out against him and won a court order to have the song pulled from the airwaves for a while, etc. etc. Even recently, phone customers unlucky enough to have been assigned an 867-5309 number were still getting plenty of crank calls. Unfortunately, the problem is not getting better, and people just keep calling. Some ask for Jenny, some play the Tommy Tutone song on the girls' answering machine, and some males even leave their phone numbers in hopes of finding a date...

Answer 4

Various claims have been made about the number, including:

[phone] had been a real number in San Francisco of a friend (Sean Fao) of someone in the band, promptly disconnected after the song's release.
[phone] was the number of the daughter of the Erie County, New York County Sheriff who vigorously investigated prank callers and turned them over for prosecution.
When the song became a hit, listeners began dialing 867-5309 in high volume, with diverse effects on the people who actually had that number:

subscribers with same or similar numbers in other area codes also ordered them disconnected after receiving many calls
some radio stations at the time were applying to obtain lines with +1-areacode-867-5309 numbers for promotional purposes (some, WLS in Chicago, actually succeeded)
Phones in dormitories at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island begin with 867, and students with 867-5309 for a time had to deal with prank calls. The number was later acquired by a local business (see below).
a more recent attempt to auction the number [phone] on eBay received bids in the $200,000 range before the auction listing was pulled at the request of Verizon \

: )

Answer 5

Nice. But check this article out. It's got some interesting trivia about the problems that various people in various area codes had with that number due to the song's popularity.

Answer 6

This WAS an actual phone number, But it was a 70 yr old lady back in the 1980's She got tired of all the phone calls and eventually changed the number so, that number no longer exists

Answer 7

its weird it just says a different number can't answer the phone right now it says like you have reached to voice mail box of 2 something and none of the numbers Match and it says press the pound key for more options instead of 1 and that was on 4-6-15

Answer 8

Jennie is a sl ut,I think she sells herself out of the cottontail ranch in Nevada,but im not sure.She was a disappointment to her parents and they discontinued that phone number before the song was even released! She balled Tommy Tutone and the whole band,the songs kinda a tribute to her.

Answer 9

You've got to have the area code.

Tommy Tuntone did this on purpose, and Jenny remains safe from stalkers to this day.

Answer 10

Quit calling my sister collect. Don't you know daddy already took her T-Bird away for that?


Terrax

Answer 11

She died 16 years ago. And she didn't live in your area code anyways.