SONG/ARTIST/ALBUM/LABEL/DURATION
Look Around/Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66/Foursider/A&M/3:01
Pennsylvania 6-5000/Glenn Miller/The Essential Glenn Miller/RCA/3:17
Alexander Graham Bell/Lily Tomlin/this Is A Recording/Polydor/2:24
Mr. Veedle/Lily Tomlin/This Is A Recording/Polydor/3:30
The Telephone Call/Kraftwerk/Electric Cafe/Elektra/8:04
Telephone and Rubberband/Penguin Cafe Orchestra/Concert Program/Zopf-Windham Hill/3:34
The Telephone Song/Stan Getz featuring Astrud Gilberto/Getz Au Go-Go/Verve/2:05
Call Me/Mike Flowers Pops/Austin Powers Original Soundtrack/Hollywood Records/2:52
Hello Grandma/Lyle Lovett/I Love Everybody/Curb/2:35
As Soon As I Hang Up the Phone/Loretta Lynn (with Conway Twitty)/Honkey Tonk Girl: Collection/MCA Records/2:43
I Can Still Make Cheyenne/George Strait/Blue Clear Sky/MCA Records/4:14
Tequila and Me/Kate Wolf/Back Roads/Owl Records/3:34
Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)/Jim Croce/The 50th Anniversary Collection/Saja/3:49
It’s The Phone/Cheryl Wheeler/Defying Gravity/Philo/2:04
Star 69/Christine Lavin/Please Don’t Make Me too Happy/Shanachie/3:37
Ernestine – Phone Company Commercial/Lily Tomlin/On Stage/Arista/2:30
Telephone Line/Electric Light Orchestra/A New World Record/Jet Records/4:38
Woman To Woman/Shirley Brown/Woman To Woman/Stax/3:58
Telephone/Shelby Lynne/Identity Crisis/Capitol/3:48
Diamonds and Rust/Joan Baez/Diamonds and Rust/Vanguard/4:46
634-5789/Alex Chilton/Live in Anvers/Last Call Records/4:01
Memphis/Johnny Rivers/Anthology, 1964-1977/Rhino/2:32
853-5937/Squeeze/Babylon and On/Universal-Polydor/3:17
Hangin’ On the Telephone/Blondie/Blondie’s Greatest Hits/Capitol/2:20
Never There/Cake/Prolonging the Magic/Capricorn/2:34
Telephone/Lady Gaga/The Fame Monster/Streamline/3:41
I Want To Stay Here/Dusty Springfield/Reputation/EMI/2:47

You can play your own music with a touch-tone phone. Just don’t run up a huge phone bill. dialsongs.com
“Hello My Baby” is believed to be the first song mentioning the telephone…1899.

Ev’ry single morning you will hear me yell
Hey central, fix me up along the line
He* connects me with my honey and I ring the bell

* [the first telephone operators were young boys]

This theme seemed perfect for the first day of the KHSU spring membership drive… the phones were ringing!

SONG/ARTIST/ALBUM

Look Around/Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66/Foursider [intro theme]

Telephone/Kraftwerk/Electric Cafe

Phone Company Commercial/Lily Tomlin/On Stage

The Kinship of the Telephone/unknown/promotional public service announcement

Alexander Graham Bell/Lily Tomlin/This is a Recording

Telephone Line/E.L.O./A New World Record

Operator/Jim Croce/50th Anniversary Collection

London Still/The Waifs/A Brief History

Diamonds and Rust/Joan Baez/Diamonds and Rust

Hello Grandma/Lyle Lovett/I Love Everybody

Star-69/Christine Lavin/Please don’t Make Me too Happy

Mr. Rockefeller/Bette Midler/songs for the New Depression

The Telephone Song/Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz/Getz Au Go-Go

It’s The Phone/Cheryl Wheeler/Defying Gravity

Phone Call to God/Ellen Degeneres/Taste This

When Lightnin’ Struck the Coon Creek Party Line/The Hoosier Hotshots/The Definitive Hoosier Hotshots Collection

842-3089(Call My Name)/Etta James/The Essential Etta James

Memphis/Johnny Rivers/Anthology 1964-1977

Your Number or Your Name/The Knack/The Knack

Don’t Hang Up/Ringo Starr with Chrissie Hynde/Choose Love

5705/City Boy/5705

Bad Connection/Yaz/Upstairs at Eric’s

Love on the Telephone/Foreigner/Head Games

Jenny (867-5309)/Tommy Tutone/Tommy Tutone

Hung Up/Madonna/Confessions on the Dance Floor

Switchboard Susan/Nick Lowe/Labor of Lust

Got Me On the Line/Ratt/Invasion of Your Privacy

8th annual Telephone Tunes

Honoring the invention of the telephone, March 10, 1876

SONG/ARTIST/ALBUM

Look Around/Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66/Foursider [intro theme]

Ernestine/Lily Tomlin/On Stage

It Must Be Him/Vikki Carr/Back 2 Back

The Telephone Song/Stan Getz(Astrud Gilberto)/ Getz Au GoGo

Call Me/The New Classic Singers/Cocktail Capers

Ring Ring/ABBA/Best of ABBA

Mr. Rockefeller/Bette Midler/Songs for the New Depression

*69/Christine Lavin/Please Don’t Make Me Too Happy

Woman to Woman/Shirley Brown/titlecut

As Soon As I Hang Up the Phone/Loretta Lynn (w/Conway Twitty)/Honky Tonk Girl

Hello Grandma/Lyle Lovett/I Love Everybody

Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares/Travis Tritt/GH from the Beginning

I Can Still Make Cheyenne/George Strait/Blue Clear Sky

He’ll Have To Go (Put Your Sweet Lips a Little Closer to the Phone)/Jim Reeves/The Essential JR

London Still/The Waifs/Up All Night

Don’t Hang Up/10cc/How Dare You!

The Telephone Call/Kraftwerk/Electric Cafe

Alexander Graham Bell/Mr. Veedle/Lily Tomlin/This is a Recording

Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)/Jim Croce/50th Anniversary Collection

Your Number or Your Name/The Knack/Get the Knack

Memphis/Johnny Rivers/JR GH

Switchboard Susan/Nick Lowe/Labor of Lust

Telephone Line/ELO/A New World Record

853-5937/Squeeze/Babylon and On

Love on the Telephone/Foreigner/Head Games

Hello Operator/The White Stripes/De Stijl

Never There/Cake/Prolonging the Magic

Bad Connection/Yaz/Upstairs at Eric’s

I Just Wanna Stay Here/Dusty Springfield/Reputation [outro theme]

Last year’s Telephone Tunes playlist is here. 

See older Telephone Tunes playlists here.

7th annual Telephone Tunes

Commemorating the famous moment when voice was first transmitted over the invention of Alexander Graham Bell on March 10, 1876. “Come here, Watson. I want you.”

Look Around/Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66/Foursider (Intro theme)

The Telephone Song/Astud Gilberto & Stan Getz/Getz Au Go Go
The Telephone Call/Kraftwerk/Electric Cafe
Don’t Hang Up/10cc/How Dare You?
Memphis/Johnny Rivers/Greatest Hits
As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone/Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn/20 Classics: Conway Twitty
Alexander Graham Bell-Mr. Veedle/Lily Tomlin/This is a Recording
Ring Ring/ABBA/Forever Gold
Telephone Man/Meri Wilson/Dr. Demento 50th Anniversary Collection: Dementia 2000
London Still/The Waifs/Up All Night
The Call/Anne Murray/Signature Series
26 Cents/The Wilkinsons/Nothin But Love
Operator (That’s Just the Way It Feels)/Jim Croce/Photographs & Memories
Telephone & Rubberband/Penguin Cafe Orchestra/Concert Program
When the Lightnin’ Struck the Coon County Party Line/Hoosier Hotshots/The Definitive Hoosier Hotshots Collection
Mr. Rockefeller/Bette Midler/Songs for the New Depression
*69/Christine Lavin/Please Don’t Make Me Too Happy
It’s the Phone/Cheryl Wheeler/Defying Cravity
Diamonds & Rust/Joan Baez/Diamonds & Rust
It Must Be Him/Vicki Carr/Back 2 Back
842-3089 (Call My Name)/Etta James/The Essential EJ
5705/City Boy/5705
Telephone Line/E.L.O./A New World Record
Bad Connection/Yaz/Upstairs at Eric’s
Switchboard Susan/Nick Lowe/Labour of Lust
Phone Call/Pretenders/Pretenders
Never There/Cake/Prolonging the Magic
Obscene Phone Caller/Rockwell/Somebody’s Watching Me
The Phone Call/Joe Satriani/Flying in a Blue Dream

I Just Want to Stay Here/Dusty Springfield/Reputation (outro theme)

Readings included:

The History of the Telephone by Herbert N. Casson

“In the Dark II” Cristina Bauss, North Coast Journal. March 8, 2007.

“No blaring TV, background radio, humming computer, cranky refrigerator, popping toaster, beeping microwave, tinny ringing of cordless phone. My backup is an avocado-green rotary dial office model, circa 1962, that’s especially handy for both outages and confusing my teenage daughter’s friends. It rang once in two days, and I couldn’t use line two — my home-office line. I must confess I didn’t miss it.”