Question for the folks in the UK

[yendi]

Did Squeeze's "853-5937" cause the same legal problems overseas that Tommy Tutone's "Jenny/867-5309" did here?

ETA: Wikipedia reports that this is the odd Squeeze song that charted here, but not in the UK. So maybe it was a non-issue?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I don't recall that one, but Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark had a song called Red Frame, White Light, which had a phone number in it and that caused some issues. (6323003, as I remember.)
852-5937 wouldn't have been a valid number here at the time, anyway. (Numbers were 4 or six figures if local, and had a 0 at the front if long-distance.)

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

When the B-52s wanted to incorporate a phone number into a song, they chose "6060-842", precisely because that wasn't a valid number (even locally) at the time.

Then area codes were allowed to have something besides '0' or '1' as their second digit, and those digits were allowed for local exchanges, but by then, the song was relegated to being a "deep cut".

And making phone numbers invalid didn't always work. In "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", AC/DC sang "Call 36-24-36. Hey!", which unfortunately prompted a number of fans to try calling 362-4638.

[wednesday]

853-5937 wouldn't have been a valid number at the time Squeeze was releasing anything. A few seven-digit numbers are coming into play, but Britain's had six digit numbers since forever.

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

It could have been a London number -- those were seven digits plus the 01 dialling code in the relevant era, but if you'd been dialling within London you'd have just dialled those seven. I don't recall hearing anything about it at the time, though.

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

(except in London)

[wednesday]

(really, they went that far back in London? Okay, cool. They seemed scarce when I lived out towards Reading.)

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

Yep -- I grew up in London in the 70s and our home phone number was seven digits plus the code. I suppose you could sort of parse it as three plus four if you had been around back in the days of the exchange codes being done as letters -- e.g. VIC 1234 for a number in Victoria -- but I'm pretty sure most people thought of the London ones in the Squeeze sort of era as seven.

[luis-mw.livejournal.com]

It could have been a London number (or Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester) number, all of which, at one time, had a 3-4 format, but only if dialling inside the area, where you could omit the 01, 0141 etc). Looking up old London codes, which would be the most likely, it may have been near Waterloo. One source claims it was Glenn Tilbrook's home number, but I couldn't find evidence of masses of people calling it.

We don't have a general equivalent of 555 here. Area code 01632 is one unassigned code that is often used, except where it would obviously be wrong (e.g. a show set in Manchester, where everyone knows the code is 0161). I believe that in those cases, there are reserved blocks of numbers that can be used. Dodgy telemarketeers also use made-up area codes, presumably because those with called ID are more likely to answer something that looks like a real number.

The measurement of probability that was also the phone number of a flat where Arthur failed to get off with anybody (Hitch-hikers' Guide to the Galaxy) really was the number of a flat where DNA once lived. Allegedly, the person who has it now would like people to stop calling it.

[jerel.livejournal.com]

I thought it was an 8 at the end there. Learn something new every day. :)

(But at least I knew it wasn't "Thirty Thieves and the Thunder Chief.")

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

I just loved reading all the comments here.