Hanging on the Telephone
A Nerves song from 1976 that Blondie made their own and put first on Parallel Lines.
Blondie, from Parallel Lines (1978)
- Written by
- Jack Lee
- Released
- 1978
- Length
- 2:17
- Album
- Parallel Lines
Jack Lee wrote it for his band the Nerves, who put it on a 1976 EP. Jeffrey Lee Pierce sent Blondie a cassette of it, and Harry later phoned Lee to ask if she could record it. Lee said the call came on a day his electricity was about to be cut off. Chapman suggested the opening telephone ring, which the band thought was gimmicky. It is a British ring, recorded when engineer Peter Coleman phoned someone in the UK.
As the second single from Parallel Lines it reached number five in the UK in November 1978 and did not chart in the US. The Guardian's Alexis Petridis wrote that Harry's performance owns the song and ranked it fifth among their best, and Caroline Sullivan wrote that Blondie's version is far superior to the original. Covers include L7 (1995), Def Leppard (2006) and Jimmy Somerville (2009).
Covers and versions
- L7 (1995)
- Def Leppard (2006) On the album Yeah!
- Jimmy Somerville (2009) On Suddenly Last Summer.
More songs by Blondie
Heart of Glass, Sunday Girl, One Way or Another, Rapture
Sources
- Hanging on the Telephone, Wikipedia
- Story of the Song: Hanging on the Telephone, Blondie (1978), The Independent
- Classic Tracks: Blondie 'Hanging On The Telephone', Sound On Sound (2008-06)
- Blondie: 10 of the best, The Guardian (2015-09-16)
- Blondie's 20 greatest songs, ranked, The Guardian (2021-10-14)