867-5309/JENNY

'"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. Call came up with the name and number and completed the song with Keller. ^[1]

Contents

Background

Litigation

867-5309 in popular culture

In films and television

In computer games

Other sightings

Charts

See also

References

Background

It is often said that the phone number 867-5309 was that of an apartment building in State College, Pennsylvania, home of Penn State University. The number is said to have belonged to a girl living in downtown State College in either the Beaver Hill or Cedarbrook apartment buildings. Allegedly, this female had connections (although not clear what kind of connections) to the band, which is why her phone number was used.
The lyrics imply that 867-5309 was the real phone number of a girl named Jenny, which was acquired from a men's 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".^[2]
Throughout the song, the singer sings about the 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 girl," 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''.
Also, the song itself strongly resembles that of the B-52's song "0606-842" from their 1979 debut.
Bruce Springsteen's 2007 single "Radio Nowhere" was heard by many to be very similar to "867-5309", a fact noted by Tutone lead singer Tommy Heath.^[3]
Various claims have been made about the number, including:

★ (415)867-5309 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.

★ (716)867-5309 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, such as 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 +1-212-867-5309 on eBay received bids in the $200,000 range before the auction listing was pulled at the request of Verizon.
Although Tommy Tutone is primarily remembered for this song and commonly considered a "one-hit wonder," they actually had a Billboard Top 40 hit in 1980—two years before "Jenny"—with "Angel Say No," which peaked at #38. "Angel Say No," however, is now almost completely forgotten by the general public.
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. It should be noted that on a touch tone phone the numbers go diagonally up-right from each other.
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.)
Jennifer Fletcher of Schaumburg, Illinois successfully acquired the "8675309" Illinois license plate in 2004.^[4]

Litigation

Brown University transferred the number in the 401 area code (Rhode Island) to Gem Plumbing & Heating, a local business. In 2002, Gem began using the number in advertising campaigns in Rhode Island and in the 617 area code (eastern Massachusetts). Gem trademarked the number in 2005.
In 2006, Benjamin Franklin Franchising LLC, a large national plumbing firm, began using a toll-free version of the number (866-867-5309). In 2007, Gem brought suit against Clockwork Home Services, the parent company of Benjamin Franklin Franchising, alleging a violation of its trademark. Clockwork contended that Gem's trademark was invalid. Effective in May 2007, Clockwork was ordered by a court to stop using the number in New England. [1] [2]

867-5309 in popular culture

In films and television

★ In the episode of Eureka, "Try, Try Again," when Allison Blake is called upon to enter her password in order to become the new administrator of Global Dynamics, she enters 8675309.

★ In the episode of Family Guy, "Road to Rhode Island," Stewie dials 867-5309 as he trying to reach Lois. He then says, "Oh, wait, that's not it. Damn you, Tommy Tutone!"

★ In 2004, the song was featured in a TV commercial for Cingular Wireless, which promoted the company's number portability service. Many telephone carriers have refused to assign this number since the advent of this song, but it is still valid in some areas.

★ On the American show "Hit Me Baby One More Time," Tommy Tutone reunited for one night and sang the song for a chance to win money for charity.

★ In a first-season episode of the television show "Cheers," 867-5309 is given as Diane Chambers' phone number in a bit of men's room graffiti.

★ In the opener of CNN's "The Situation Room," the number 8675309 can be found at the bottom right of the frame in one of the boxes that display otherwise meaningless numbers. The number can be seen towards the end of the opener.

★ (801)867-5309 is used as a fictionalized number in "The Singles Ward," "The R.M." and "Sons of Provo."

★ In an August, 2006 episode of "The Colbert Report," a satirical news show on Comedy Central, a fake mugshot of Tom DeLay featured 8675309 as his prisoner ID number.

★ The stardate in the opening narration of "Duck Dodgers" s3e02 "Just The Two Of Us" is 86.75.309.

★ 8675309 was given as Kyle Reese's serial number in the original film treatment for ''The Terminator''.

★ In ''Freddy Got Fingered'', Betty's phone number that she gives to Gord is 867-5309.

★ The song is played in a TV commercial for the candy bar, Milky Way. It shows a man having difficulty singing the song because he is eating a Milky Way.

★ In the show "My Gym Partner's a Monkey," in the episode "The Spiffanos", it is implied that Bull Sharkowski's locker number is 8675309.

★ In the 1984 film, ''C.H.U.D.'', a little girl's uncle dials 867-5309 before getting eaten by a CHUD.

★ In the Britney Spears video for her version of "I Love Rock & Roll" it is written on her hand, with the name Bill above it.

★ In the episode "Depth Conception of the tv show ''Greek'' on ABC Family, the character Cappie volunteers to be an experiment for the psychology department of Cyprus-Rhodes University, and his ID number is 8675309

In computer games

★ In the MMORPG ''Everquest'', players can obtain an item named "Jenny's Two-tone Cuirass" from the zone boss Grieg Veneficus. This item is a breastplate, and grants the wearer 8 strength, 6 dexterity, 7 stamina, 5 charisma, 30 wisdom, and 9 intelligence, among other benefits.

★ In the Monolith Productions computer game ''No One Lives Forever'', an enemy sub has the number "8675309" painted on the side.

★ In the video game ''MDK2'', the first level takes place in "sector 8675309," which is also identified as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada - home of BioWare, the game's development team.

★ In the video game ''Duke Nukem 3D'', "867-5309" can be found on the wall of the theater bathroom in Hollywood Holocaust (E1L1) next to the left urinal.

★ In the New World Computing computer game ''Heroes of Might and Magic II'', typing the code "8675309" in-game reveals the whole map.

★ In the video game ''NetStorm'', typing ".cheatorama 8675309" enables the game's cheat mode.

★ In the video game ''Soldier of Fortune'', one of the Suni engineers tells John Mullins the access code for the Suni mainframe, which is 8675309.

★ In the video game ''Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell'', a CIA employee is counting the batteries in a warehouse. He counts them as, "0J-8675307, 0J-8675308, 0J-8675...hold up....aww, man." He never quite reaches the famous number.

★ In the video game ''Deus Ex'', the only 7-digit keypad lock in the game can be opened by entering the combination "8675309".

★ In the arcade game ''San Francisco Rush 2049'', entering "8675309" on the numeric keypad during play immediately terminates the race.

★ In the video game ''Tony Hawk's Underground 2'', the New Orleans level features a dumpster with 8675309-E-INE painted on it.

★ In the MMORPG ''City of Villains'' while doing the invention tutorial at the bottom of the course list it shows, "Jenny (555) 867-5309 Call Her!"

★ On the petsite Subeta, the Mysterious Maple Katana (sold in the Millionaire Center) is priced at 8,675,309 sP

★ In episode 4 of Sam & Max Season One, Bosco says he is selling a truth serum for 867.5309 rubles or $100,000,000. Sam then points out that his rate of exchange is a little off.

Other sightings

★ The number appears as restroom graffiti in episode #25 of the comic strip "The Species" by Geoffrey Greer.

★ The song was parodied by Christian parody band ApologetiX to tell the story of Abraham's test in Genesis 22. The parody is titled "Genny 22" in the album Spoofernatural.

★ The number appeared on a package for a dry-erase message board sold by Wal-Mart.

★ The telephone number (213) 867-5309 was available for sale from a marketing firm in Los Angeles.

★ In a screenshot on page 12 of the Nintendo Wi Fi Connection Instruction Booklet distributed with online-capable Nintendo DS games, "8675309" is entered as the example WEP key.

★ In 2003 the song was covered by singer/songwriter Mark Weigle on his album ''Different and the Same'', though his version changed the name (and gender) of the song's subject to "867-5309/Jimmy".

★ The song was covered by ska-punk Less Than Jake and is available on the EP compilation Losers, Kings and Things We Don't Understand

★ On the first "Extras" disk to AnimEigo's release of ''You're Under Arrest!'', 8675309 is the code that has to be typed in on the on-screen keypad to access the Easter egg.

★ Typing 8675309 on Microsoft WebTV (such as the original EchoStar DishPlayer), UltimateTV and newer MSN TV 2 units when in off/standby mode would cause them to call home to download Microsoft TV software.

★ Near the end of Kid Radd, the password to the controls for the Chimera program was 8675309.

★ Dallas plumbing company, Benjamin Franklin Plumbers, has obtained a toll free telephone number and has chosen 867-5309 as its main number (radio and television advertising features clips from the song).

★ In several magazine advertisements for the Mac OS X operating system, 867.5309 appears in the calculator window.

★ An image of SpongeBob SquarePants' mugshot on a school folder shows his ID number to be 8675309.

★ In the English dub of the anime series Paradise Kiss, 867-5309 is announced as Yukari's cell phone number. (See episode 3.)

★ The integer 8675309 is the 52,196th twin prime along with 8675311.

★ Comedy musician Stephen Lynch once ended the song "Kill a Kitten" by repeating "8675309."

★ On April 7th, 2007 the song was performed live by Tommy Tutone and Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon.

★ The song has been mixed and mashed in the form of "Jenny Don't Be Hasty" by UK artist Paolo Nutini.

★ The number is used in a Shapeshifters song "You Know You Want it"

★ Industry Canada issued a Certificate of Incorporation for 8675309 Canada Ltd. on July 1, 2006 [3]

★ There is a line of "cell phone erasers" that has the number on each eraser. The eraser would have the print: "Calling...867-555-5309. (The extra 555 is there because they cant put a real number on it)

★ The 530 exchange of area code 867 (Yukon, NWT, Nunavut), if ever made active, would mean a potential of 1000 customers with an 867-530-9xxx phone number.

★ The number (XXX)867-5309 is used by many individuals all across USA as a fictitious number when signing up for store "club-shopping" cards. Adding the local area code and 867-5309 will net you the shopping card discount at many popular stores without ever giving information or signing up for a card.

Charts

Chart (1982)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	4
U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks	1

See also

★ 555 - the telephone exchange used for fictional numbers

★ ''Bruce Almighty'' telephone controversy

References

1. "Jenny (867-5309)" Songfacts. ''Songfacts''. Retrieved July 27 2007.
2. Urban Legends Reference Pages: Jenny 867-5309
3. Mark Caro, "Tommy 'Tutone' Heath speaks!", ''The Chicago Tribune'', August 31, 2007. Accessed September 1, 2007.
4. Long wait at the license bureau: "Jenny, I've Got Your Number"