Some might argue whether this can be considered a novelty song. Someone on this site said, "...it's really just a step above a novelty song." This was the lone hit single by the Five Americans in 1967. The title refers to Western Union, the money-transferring service, and the song's lyrics are about sending out telegrams. For those not in the know, here is an explanation of telegrams (from this link):
If you were born after, say, 1980, you may not have any idea what a telegram is. If you’ve even heard of the company Western Union, it is most likely for its financial services division and not for the telegraphy business that it dominated for a century.
For the uninitiated, a telegram was the most efficient way, pre-texting and email, to get a message quickly to its intended recipient. At its peak, all the way back in 1929, it’s said that 200 million telegrams were sent. To put that in perspective, one estimate indicates that in America alone, six billion texts are sent every day. ...
The song's opening notes attempt to imitate the sounds of a telegram being sent, and the lyrics "Dit-Da-Dit-Da-Dit" (in the song's refrain) are also an attempt to imitate the sounds of the message being sent, using Morse Code (from this link). The man in the song is receiving a telegram from his girlfriend who's breaking up with him (lyrics).
8 comments:
I'm old enough to remember this song, particularly the chorus.
I remember this song and telegrams...I've sent a telegram even! Imagine if texts or emails cost what it did to send telegrams and maybe kept up with the cost of living. They weren't cheap!
I sang this yesterday at work (I have no clue why)!
Western Union....doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.
Cool song.
I didn't remember this one until I heard this. Funny how telegrams have gone the way of 8 track tapes and a few other things.
This is my favorite you've posted. That's cold though, breaking up via telegram.
It does sound like the telegram coming in. This is a song I never heard of
It does sound very '60s.
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