HANGING ON THE TELEPHONE (The Nerves)
“Hanging on the Telephone” is a song written by Jack Lee. It was first performed by his short-lived US West Coast power pop trio The Nerves. The tune was the lead-off track on The Nerves’s 1976 EP, the group’s only release. (More from Wikipedia)
The lead song on the Nerves’ EP, “Hanging on the Telephone” was gloriously covered by Blondie, and became the opening track on their breakthrough album Parallel Lines. Rumor has it that someone put the Nerves EP on while the band was on their way to a gig, and the rest is history. “Heart of Glass” might have been their #1 hit song, but as the follow-up, “Hanging on the Telephone” reached #5 in the UK and ensured that Blondie would remain a force in rock music well into the 1980’s – in fact, they are still touring and recording good albums to this day.
(April 2010)
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As I remember, I already had an article partially written on somebody else when an order from Bomp! Records came in that included a specially priced package of new CD’s by three related power-pop bands: the Nerves, the Plimsouls and the Breakaways. I already knew the Plimsouls’ hit “A Million Miles Away”, but just about everything else was a revelation, including the Nerves’ original version of “Hanging on the Telephone” that became Blondie’s follow-up hit after their monster “Heart of Glass”. I quickly checked Wikipedia and determined that the Breakaways did not have an article, so I dashed off a UARB post on them, hoping to interest others in this amazing music.
(April 2012)
