The telephone number immortalized in the enduring Tommy Tutone hit song 867-5309/Jenny has started connecting callers to a cancer support line – as one ad touting the news says it was time that music’s most famous digits “did some good”.
Cancer Support Community (CSC)’s Instagram page announced the campaign with a series of posts on Monday alluding to the song about a guy who nervously ponders calling the phone number of a woman named Jenny, which is scrawled on a bathroom wall.
“The number you and your friends sing at karaoke is now the number for cancer support,” one of the posts said, with the 1980s rock classic blaring in the background.
Meanwhile, at the website csc8675309.com, a prominently featured radio ad with a voice purporting to belong to the song’s protagonist explains: “Hey, it’s Jenny – yeah, that Jenny. People call my number all the time to see who picks up – they were dared, karaoke, bachelor parties, road trips. And I love that you all know my number better than your own mother’s. But it’s time this number did some good.
“That’s why I’m forwarding 867-5309 to the Cancer Support Community help line.”
The telephonic help line at 1-CSC-867-5309 provides free access to professionals with information about resources and education to patients and their caregivers, along with support for affected children, the ad explains.
Another ad on the site with the same voice riffs off the famed lyric, “Jenny, who can I turn to?”
“I’m just a girl in a song,” the voice continues. “But since you have my number memorized better than your social security one, I’m forwarding it to someone who actually wants to be called.”
CSC said it organized the line in collaboration with Gilda’s Club, a group founded in honor of the actor Gilda Radner, who died from ovarian cancer in 1989.
Meanwhile, in an interview with People published on Monday, Tommy Tutone singer Tommy Heath said one of the main reasons he supported pairing his band’s signature with CSC and Gilda’s Club’s campaign was because he had “some family members who are struggling with cancer”.
He told the outlet that he was grappling with “minor” skin cancer himself – and that the disease tends to attack unexpectedly.
“I’m out on tour with a lot of bands and suddenly somebody’s not there,” Heath was quoted as saying. Cancer “is affecting us all”, he added.
Heath suggested in his comments to People that it would please him if 867-5309/Jenny’s association with CSC and Gilda’s Club became as known as its prominence in US pop culture.
“I’d be happy if this … made people smile and [gave] them hope,” Heath said. “I’m pretty proud to be part of it.”
As the Guardian wrote in 2018, many US phone companies considered the number in the repetitive chorus of 867-5309/Jenny off-limits after it peaked at No 4 in the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1982 due to the excessive amount of cold calls it inevitably generated.
One radio station nonetheless did manage to acquire the number – and it reportedly received 22,000 calls in just four days.
