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Telephone Line by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)
"I remember buying this album (A New World Record) with my birthday money shortly after receiving my first personal phone call from a girl wishing me "Happy Birthday." Her name was Pam, and I remember feeling flushed when my mom came with a smile to tell me I had a phone call. She stood there as I received my greeting and nearly passed out from a combination of embarrassment and pure infatuation.
This song came at a time when I first began my hobby of talking on the phone to girls, which I continued all through my teen years, going so far as begging for (and receiving) my own private home phone number and having that number listed in the name space on the back of my senior jersey (an '80s thing). So to this day, every time I hear this song, I momentarily get weak in the knees remembering my first personal phone call..."
I feel so bad!! I received this request months ago and saved this post as a draft and forgot to schedule it until today. Thanks so much for the song suggestion and story to go with it.
These days, when a song opens with Hello, you expect it to be Adele telling you that it's me, so it was a nice change of pace to hear Hello, how are you? (Although, real talk, Adele asks this same question in one of her verses.)
The two songs actually have a very similar theme, and it goes deeper than the telephone parallel. They're both about an ex-relationship in which one lover is still invested, while the other has moved on.
Despite the disappointment in the lyrics, the song actually sounds quite pleasant.
I love the choral doo-whop, dooby-doo, doo whops, or whatever those syllables are. The layers of voices are weirdly comforting.
Maybe it's just sadness that softens it, but I prefer to think of it as being filled with a gentle hope, even though the odds are that if she hasn't picked up by now, she never will.
Even though ELO is an English band, they thought "it seemed obvious to Jeff Lynne to use an America ring tone during the song" (x).
To get the sound on the beginning, you know, the American telephone sound, we phoned from England to America to a number that we know nobody would be at, to just listen to it for a while. On the Moog, we recreated the sound exactly by tuning the oscillators to the same notes as the ringing of the phone.
The sound shows up first in the intro and recurs throughout the song. It's probably too obvious, but I really wouldn't want it any other way.
Fun Fact: "The group's name is an intended pun based not only on electric light (as in a light bulb as seen on early album covers) but also using "electric" rock instruments combined with a "light orchestra" (orchestras with only a few cellos and violins...popular in Britain during the 1960s)." (x).
Overview:
Genre:
Progressive Pop
Favorite Lyrics:
Well, can't you just let it ring a little longer?
Verdict:
don't wanna let go if holding on sounds this sweet
😘
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