Here’s a collection of some of my favourite commercials where they sing the phone number. Have been meaning to collect this for a while. Enjoy. If possible.
Poison Control, 1 800 222-1222
On a work trip I was driving through upstate New York and this jingle came on the radio and I thought – wait – did I just hear that correctly?
Stompin’ Tom, PEI Tourism. 800 565-7421
Stompin’ Tom was a songwriting genius who could seemingly turn out a catchy tune on virtually any topic. Phone numbers? Sure!
Alfie Zappacosta and Syd Kessler for Pizza Nova, 439-0000
This one is epic. EPIC! Especially the bridge where they start singing not just the phone number, but singing ABOUT the phone number! Four Three Nine. Lots of Zeroes.
ITravel2000.com . 1 866 WOW DEAL
The IT Crowd, the new Emergency Number
just dial 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3.
speaking of emergency services
There seems to be a whole genre of emergency service commercials where they sing the phone number.
1 800 267 2001 Alarm Force
1 866 247 4999 The Monitoring Center
Clever phone number. I think the schtick was that you got 24*7 monitoring for $9.99 /month.
Geez I’m having trouble finding this one. Ah here we go. Skip ahead to about 1:50 in this informercial. Catchy!
And in Canada at least, the granddaddy of them all, a commercial that’s been around possibly 50 years (and which they’ve re-recorded as new area codes came online)
Pizza Pizza 967-1111
A phone number jingle so popular that they actually made commercials about how popular the jingle was.
Pennsylvania 6-5000
Actually I suppose the REAL Granddaddy of them all has to be Glenn Miller’s **Pennsylvania 6-5000″, the number of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City, where the band frequently performed.
I’ll have to dig out the video from Waterloo’s FASS 1985 show where I was the pit band leader, and we warmed up the crowd by playing Pennsylvania 6-5000 except we altered the lyrics to include the university phone number, 885-1211, and of course. 967-1111. At the time it was hilarious. (Although if I watch that video again now, I realize the show was a lot more hilarious for the performers than the audience.)
Finally, I wonder
Back in Alexander Graham Bell’s time frame, I wonder if you’d go to a live performance by John Philip Sousa’s band at the bandshell, and some singers would come out, advertising a nearby restaurant and they’d sing the number…. “Four!”