Songoftheday 11/7/15 - Every time I called her I got the message, I listened to the voice coming down the line...

"853-5937" - Squeeze
from the album Babylon & On (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5

Today's song of the day comes from the British pop band Squeeze, who after years of cult-level fandom success in America finally scored their first top-40 hit with "Hourglass" at the close of 1987.  The second U.S. single from the album was "853-5937", a little ditty about being blown off by an answering machine...

"853-5937" became the band's second and final top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in February of 1988, while peaking at #37 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. While it didn't make the chart in their own country, it did pop in at #50 in Canada.

Two years later Squeeze would release another album, Frank, and the lead single "If It's Love" became a top-10 hit on the newly-minted Modern Rock radio chart in 1989. The band started the 90s with another set, Play, which nabbed them a #3 modern rock hit with "Satisfied" (which also made the mainstream list at #49). Former member Paul Carrack, who went on to a respectable solo career, returned in 1993, and the group returned to the British top-40 with "Third Rail". Another track from the album, "Everything In The World", was their most recent American chart appearance, going to #9 on the Modern Rock chart in 1993. Band leaders Difford and Tillbrook have sporadically assembled versions of Squeeze since then, most recently releasing an album in 2015...

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Here's the band appearing on TV in 1987...

Up tomorrow: A gone-gone girl is feeling a little wobbly.