When the snow starts a-falling,
There's a man you should be calling.
That's K-L-five, four seven-nine-six! (Let it ring!)
There's a man you should be calling.
That's K-L-five, four seven-nine-six! (Let it ring!)
— Plow King Jingle, The Simpsons, "Mr. Plow"
A common advertising jingle, usually among local businesses, in which the phone number of the service is sung. This makes it much easier to remember than if it were simply spoken. These jingles tend to be quite catchy.
This may also be combined with a Spelling Song. Sub-trope to Telephone Song.
Advertising examples:
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Europe
Romania
- In 2018, Romanian TV had a commercial for a taxi service named Street Taxi, which used this jingle (translated into English): "9-4-6-5, Street Taxi is here".
Germany
- Directory Assistance hotline "11833" once set their number ("Elf-Acht-Drei-Drei") to the tune of YMCA.
United Kingdom
- Hastings Direct: "oh-eight-hundred-double-oh, ten-sixty-six!"
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- Not strictly an advertisement as it was shown on a BBC children's programme, but still... Oh-One, Eight-One, Eight-One-One... EIGHT-ONE, EIGHT ONE!
- Also from the UK, every Christmastime in the late 1980s and early 1990s, ITV regional station Yorkshire Television ran a Christmas Line service providing information on services open during the holidays, advertised with a phone number jingle: Ring YTV's Christmas Line on Leeds Double-Four-Eight-One-Nine-Nine!
- In the early '80s, BBC Radio One had one: "Call oh-one, five-eight-oh, double-four, double-one!"
- One-One-Eight-Twenty Four-Seven, give us a call, it's directory heaven...
- CITV in the late '90s-early '00s: "oh-nine-oh double-one ten fifty, ten".
- The podcast Answer Me This has a few.
North America
Canada
- Toronto, Ontario-based pizza chain "Pizza Pizza" has its immortal jingle: "nine-six-seven, eleven-eleven! Phone Pizza Pizza, hey-hey-hey!" Since it has different phone numbers in various Ontario locations, the first three jingles change accordingly to fit the region, but the "11-11" bit remains the same for all.
- Pizza Nova has a jingle that goes "Four-three-nine bumpa bumpa Pizza Nova!" In various cities, the rest is filled in with numbers.
- PEI Tourism ran an ad in the 1970s with a jingle by Stompin' Tom Connors that said to call "Eight double zero, five six five, seven four two one."
- Nova Scotia-based Pizza chain Greco Pizza had two different jingles for the same number, "three one oh three oh three oh", and the current and more faster paced "three ten thirty thirty". View here.
- The now-obscure 90's Canadian show Tell A Tale Town was possibly the earliest example of this trope being done for the show's official website. It can be heard at the beginning of this clip.
- Quebec-based movers Le Clan Panneton are notorious in the province for having a rather cheesy choir jingle based around their phone number, complete with DTMF tones:
Le Clan Panneton, pour déménager, faut signaler le 937-0707! Translation
USA
- The Trope Codifier is Empire Carpet (now Empire Today): "Five Eight Eight, Two Three Hundred, Empiiiiiire!" When the business went from local to national, "800" was tacked onto the beginning (though the building myriad of Chicagoland area codes in The '90s eventually did that to the local ads in any case). Once the name changed to "Empire Today," the spoken word "Today" was added at the end.
- "Eight oh oh, three two five, three five, three five" — a popular Sheraton Hotels number.
- Jenny Craig has a phone number jingle: "1-800-JENNY20".
- Or, for those who grew up in the '90s, "1-800-94JENNY".
- This actually changed every year up to 2000 (95JENNY, 96JENNY, etc.). And the number was actually sung as "Jenny 2000" in that year, though the number was technically the current JENNY20.
- "One Eight Seven Seven KARS FOR KIDS, K-A-R-S KARS FOR KIDS!" (Kars4Kids charity funding educational and recreational programs for Orthodox Jewish children)
- This one was so pervasive and, to many, abrasive, that The Good Place shows it to be the national anthem...of Hell.
- "Eight Six Six, Sixty Six FASTER, You've got the Green Light!" (Green Light Financial)
- If you get long term payments but you need cash now, call J. G. Wentworth, 877-CASH NOW! (J.G. Wentworth Financial, sung in Wagnerian opera style)
- While not exactly a commercial, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra's "Pennsylvania 6-5000" immortalized the phone number of the Hotel Pennsylvania, which was in continuous use from the 1930's until the hotel closed in 2020. Before its closure, the hotel claimed to have the oldest operating phone number in New York (in the sense of being assigned to the same individual or entity).
- 1-800-Collect gave us "C-O-L-L-E-C-T, save a buck or two or three!" This lasted only two commercials, most likely because the jingle was too similar to AT&T's advertising campaign for 1-800-CALL-ATT (which also spells out the letters of its phone number, only without a jingle).
- Boushelle upholstery cleaning: Hudson 3-2 700!
- An old ad for a 900 number that gave sports scores and whatnot: 900-976-1313! Done as a cheer.
- Next Day Floors, we come to you! Call eight hundred, nine one six, six one one two!
- In Northern Ohio, if you needed aluminum siding, it was "Garfield One, Two-Three-Two-Three; Garfield One, Two-Three-Two-Three!"
- In San Diego, ASI Heating and Air Conditioning uses the following jingle in its commercials:
Call ASI the White Glove Guys! 1-800-481 COOL!
- Another San Diego business, Corky's Pest Control, is known for their goofy TV ads and absolutely ubiquitous radio jingle:
Corky's Pest Control— we're here for you! Call 1-800, 9-oh-1, 1-1-oh-2! (Corky's!)
- 773-202 or 877-241...(beep boop beep boop)...LUNA! (bong)
- Up until the mid-2000s, a different jingle was used in Spanish-language ads: "Tres ochenta cuatro, sesenta y uno dieciseis!"
- Up until the mid-2000s, a different jingle was used in Spanish-language ads: "Tres ochenta cuatro, sesenta y uno dieciseis!"
- Buffalo, NY's Cellino and Barnes law firm. "Cellino and Barnes/The Injury Attorneys/Call eight-five-four twenty twenty!"
- Similar to the Trope Codifying Empire example above, when they expanded their business, the jingle became:
"Cellino and Barnes/Injury Attorneys/Eight-hundred six-two-one twenty twenty!"- And now it's "Call 888-8888" or "800-888-8888", with the slogan "Don't wait, call 8".
- Similarly, Dial 7 Car Service has the number 777-7777 and a variety of jingles in different musical styles. "Dial seven-seven-seven-seven-seven-seven times".
- Dial-a-Mattress: "One eight hundred, M-A-T-T-R-E-S!".
- Don't forget to leave off the last "S" for "savings"!
- The 1970s PBS children's show ZOOM provides an extremely rare example of this being done to a mailing address instead of a phone number. It starts with everyone rhythmically speaking "Write Zoom, Z-double-O-M, box three-five-oh, Boston, Mass..." then everyone singing the five-note Zip Code jingle "Oh-two-one-three-four!" The 1990's revival carried the torch for a while, before it was changed in the last couple of seasons to the PBS Kids email address.
- Another notable mailing address example that most '90s kids could probably still recite to this day: Scruff McGruff, Chicago, Illinois, six-oh-six-five-two!
- A commercial for Cablevision's Optimum Triple Play package had a reggaeton-style jingle, featuring women dressed as mermaids chanting the phone number: "Eight seven seven, three nine three, four... four... four... eight!"
- "One-five-nine, twenty-two, twenty-two... and get your Gatti's pizza delivered to you!" It was sung by a group of girls for a while, before becoming a simple guitar piece.
- "Call USA-1000! Jhoon Rhee Means Might for Right!" Almost any native of the Washington, DC metropolitan area who grew up in the '70s or '80s knows (what was) the number for the Jhoon Rhee Self-Defense Taekwondo schools, thanks to their long-running and memorable TV ads. The jingle for the ad, believe it or not, was written by Nils Lofgren, guitarist for the E Street Band. He wrote it in exchange for free lessons.
- "Call One-Eight Hundred Steemer! Stanley Steemer gets carpets cleaner!" (Current version: "Stanley Steemer gets your home cleaner!")
- A bit more local, but some in the Midwest U.S. may recognize this insurance jingle for United Auto. "773-202-5000 we've got you covered, Chicago"
- There's also "866-590-CASH, Cash Call *cha-ching*"
- Not quite a jingle but 0800 106 107 ''NOW!''
- In a weird overlap with Repurposed Pop Song, the Tommy Tutone hit "867-5309/Jenny" is sometimes used as a jingle by those businesses fortunate (or quick) enough to snag the number. Probably the best-known example of this is Benjamin Franklin plumbing services, which actually has a national 1-800 number.
"Benny's a punctual plumber, get me that Benny on the line. 866, that's his prefix, then 867-5309."
- 1-800-45-CLOSET, CLOSET WORLD!
- Anyone from Las Vegas, Nevada knows that Glen Lerner is the way to go. (Call 877-1500!)
- Alternatively, it's 222-2222 in the Chicagoland Area.
- In Phoenix Lerner and Rowe is the way to go, call 977-1900!
- Alternatively, it's 222-2222 in the Chicagoland Area.
- In North Alabama there's an attorney whose jingle is, "Charles Pitman is the way to go! Call five-three-three five-oh-oh- oh!"
- Wichita, Kansas' Starlite Drive-in has a jingle to fit the feel of a drive in movie theater. "The Starlite Drive-In gives you more! Call 524-2424!"
- "tap tap tap Call one eight hundred, four, Mr. Roof! (Mr. Roof!)"
- There's actually regional and state variants of this one... That's just the Michigan version of it
- The General auto insurance had "Call now, call now! For the best car insurance rates in town, call 1-800-GENERAL now!" However, as the Internet became more popular, they switched to ads promoting the benefit of their website, with a new jingle sung to the same basic tune, "For a great low rate you can get online, go to The General and save some time!"
- Similarly, Safe Auto insurance once had the jingle "Pick up the phone, the call is free! 1-800-SAFE-AUTO! Play it safe, Safe Auto!" These days, they don't emphasize the phone number so much and the new slogan, which doesn't have a tune associated with it, is "Call, click and enjoy the road ahead."
- For a time in the '90s and early-2000s, California insurance company Cost-U-Less Insurance ran ads featuring the jingle "For the rate that's best, call Cost-U-Less! 800-390-SAVE!"
- Louisville, Kentucky plumber Tom Drexler actually uses his name as his business phone number... and has a jingle to match.
"Call the plumber whose name is his number! 1-TOM-DREXLER,note that's his number, yeah!"
- Another Louisville business with a phone number jingle destined to get stuck in your head: personal injury attorneys Hessig & Pohl. Many versions of the number (777-1111) were recorded, but perhaps the most notable version is the rap. Listen to it here.
- The main switchboard line for the Indy Star, Indianapolis's newspaper, is "four four four forty-four forty-four".
- Before they and Stricklands were just given mentions in Mount Airy Lodge commercials, the Poconos Gardens Lodge had an ad with "Two two six, o eight four one! The Poconos Gardens Lodge!" as the jingle.
- In the southwestern Ohio area, there's "4-4-4 4-4-4-4, call Blake Maislin!"note
- Parker Waichman, another injury attorney, had "1-800-JUST-CALL! Just call, that's all!"
- Anyone in the Carbondale, Illinois area is likely to know this jingle: "Call 549-5326, Quatro's Deep Pan Pizza!"
Oceania
Australia
- "Lube Mobile will come to you! Thirteen thirty thirty-two!"
- Australian example: the Reading Writing Hotline (one three double oh! six triple fiiive oh six). At a post on tumblr put it: "Every Australian knows three phone numbers off by heart: their home number, their mobile number, and the Reading Writing Hotline."
New Zealand
- In New Zealand, Pizza Hut is well known for a particularly catchy phone number jingle:
Ooooh-eight-hundred, 83, 83, 83! Pick up, Pizza Hut!
Other
Japan
- A mail-order service for Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō videos had a jingle that went "Go go go, Shimajiro!", a pun on the Japanese pronounciation of the last six digits of the phone number 0070-800-555-426.
- The Japanese learning system Tenjin had a jingle that was basically the Japanese pronunciation of 0120-019-828 set to music.
Russia
- 8-800-555-35-35 ("Domashniye den'gy", a microloan company) ad song has become a meme in Russia.
Fictional Examples:
- Not advertising, but on an episode of Cheers, Fraser's son Frederick is given a teddy bear that repeats a jingle with a former girlfriend of Fraser's phone number (ostensibly so Frederick can use a similar jingle to remember his own phone number). Lilith (Fraser's then-wife) rips off the bears head.
- Hilariously parodied in The IT Crowd: The new emergency number is 0118 999 881 999 119 725... 3
- In Red vs. Blue, Vic made one up for calling him, but it pretty much failed as it didn't rhyme and wasn't very catchy.
- Homestar Runner: "Senor Mortgage" ends with a comically long jingle for Senor Cardgage's financial services company.
Get a leg up on the pile, and refinance your dreams
Come along down and dial 555-55-55855-55-5-SENOR-MORT-GAGE-TODAY! - In I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC, Deadpool has one for ordering a "Team Wade" t-shirt. Unfortunately, Deadpool's name exceeds the seven number limit.
1-300-DEADPOO... Because "Deadpool" has one too many letters. Seriously, we're not trying to be juvenile, it just turned out that way! Boom.
- The intro song of Hanas Helpline sings Hana's phone number... Except that in this World of Funny Animals, phone numbers are replaced by animal noises, so her number is "Moo-Baa-Double-Quack-Double-Quack".
- The Simpsons: In "Mr. Plow", Barney Gumble starts competing as the "Plow King", and enlists Linda Ronstadt to sing this jingle:
When the snow starts a-falling,
There's a man you should be calling.
That's K-L-five, four seven-nine-six! (Let it ring!)
