Hanging on the Telephone
"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.
Background
The tune was the lead-off track on The Nerves's 1976 EP, the group's only release. New wave band Blondie later popularised "Hanging on the Telephone", when it released a cover of the song as the second single off Parallel Lines in both the US and UK. The tune eventually reached number 5 in the UK in November 1978, as well as inspired other cover versions.
Like one of Blondie's subsequent singles, "Sunday Girl", "Hanging on the Telephone" employs a double backbeat rhythm in its drumming pattern. This percussion style also appeared on other power pop singles from the period, like The Romantics' 1978 release "Tell It to Carrie".
Release history
Chart peak positions
Podcasts:
The Gallery
My building's full of little holes with heads in, staring at the street.
They sometimes topple forwards, then stick at one another, passing freaks.
They rarely speak and though I don't feed them--still they keep their double
(their quadruple) chins. Their garbage bins are emptied each day. By night
waiting with lights off, their cats out, their wives in-- they're PEEPING!
They're peeping at the methylated man who spits in a can, spreads his hands
for silver, pans for gutter gold. He mutters old forgotten songs his father
taught him, rolls on the floor. He rolls in alcoves, gets caught in
waterfalls down rotting walls. (He's bored.) My friends applaud, throw
pennies and wait . . . peeping from the gallery.