Telephone Man

TELEPHONE MAN
 
 
I was at a variety store somewhere ages ago and saw a rack of marked-down albums.  They were priced at only 4 for a dollar, so I couldn’t lose there.  One was an album by Meri Wilson called First Take; the songs on the record were marked as to which were recorded on the “first take”, and that was true of about half of them.  Like the other three, I had no clue who she was. 
 
But Meri Wilson had recorded a catchy, bawdy novelty song called “Telephone Man” in 1977 that I had heard numerous times – “My heart began a-thumpin’ and my mind began to fly / And I knew I wasn’t dealin’ with no ordinary guy / So while he was a-talking I was thinkin’ up my plan / Then my fingers did the walkin’ on the telephone man” – which made it to #6 on the UK charts and #18 on the US charts.  And Telephone Man was there about halfway through the first side of First Take.  I could not have been more surprised. 
 
(December 2015)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021