"Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" is a hit song by the American rock band

Sugarloaf A sugarloaf was the usual form in which refined sugar was produced and sold until the late 19th century, when granulated and cube sugars were introduced. A tall cone with a rounded top was the end product of a process in which dark molasses, ...

. Co-written by lead vocalist

Jerry Corbetta Gerald Anthony James Corbetta (September 23, 1947 – September 16, 2016) was an American singer-songwriter, keyboardist and organist, record producer, best known as a frontman for the Colorado rock band Sugarloaf, best known for their classic ...

, the song was featured as the title track of the band's fourth and final album. It was their fourth single and was recorded at Applewood Studios in Golden, Colorado. Performing on the track, along with Jerry Corbetta, were session players Paul Humphries (drums), Max Bennett (bass), Ray Payne (guitar), and a group called the "Flying Saucers" (Jason Hickman, Mikkel Saks, and David Queen) on harmony vocals. The song peaked at number nine on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the winter of 1974-1975 and number 12 on the ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' Top 100. The song is their second greatest hit. It spent 21 weeks on the chart, four weeks longer than their bigger hit, " Green-Eyed Lady". In Canada, "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" was a bigger hit, where it reached number five for two weeks. "Green-Eyed Lady" had also charted better in Canada (number one versus number three in the U.S.). The song uses a guitar melody from

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

hit, "

I Feel Fine "I Feel Fine" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released in November 1964 as the A-side of their eighth single. It was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The recording includes one o ...

" (which is also alluded to in the lyric, "sounds like

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, and George") as well as a riff of

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

's hit, "

Superstition A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic (supernatural), magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly app ...

". An imitation of

Wolfman Jack Robert Weston Smith (January 21, 1938July 1, 1995), known as Wolfman Jack, was an American disc jockey active for over three decades. He was famous for his gravelly voice, and credited it with his success, saying, "It's kept meat and potatoes on ...

by disc jockey Ken Griffin also is featured briefly; the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

of a radio station is stated ("Stereo 92" in the nationwide release). Numerous tracks of this line were cut to match local markets. "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" was performed on the TV series, '' The Midnight Special'', with Wolfman Jack himself (the host and announcer of the program) making a

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

on the "Stereo 92" line.

Lyrical content

The song is a rather cynical view of the music industry, based on the band's real-life experience with what was then known as CBS Records but today is called

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. It describes the difficulty of breaking into the business and securing a contract from the record company, who claims that the band is good, but too derivative of other popular bands at the time. When the band finally breaks through with a hit (" Green-Eyed Lady") and completes a successful tour, the record company changes course and wants to offer the band their services, only to receive the same line they gave the band before their hit—"don't call us, we'll call you". The references are a practical joke at the expense of CBS Records, which had just turned them down for a recording contract. The song includes the sound of a

touch-tone telephone "Touch-Tone Telephone" is a song by Lemon Demon, a musical project created by American musician Neil Cicierega. It was released on February 29, 2016, as the second track of Lemon Demon's seventh studio album, ''Spirit Phone'', and as a wax cylin ...

number being dialed near the beginning and ending of the song. Those numbers were an unlisted phone number at CBS Records in Manhattan ("

area code 212 Area is the Measure (mathematics), measure of a Domain (mathematical analysis), region's size on a surface (mathematics), surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while ''surface are ...

" stated in the song), and the number of the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

switchboard (in the similar-sounding

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Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

Lyrics of this song
* {{authority control 1974 songs 1974 singles Satirical songs Songs about music Songs written by Jerry Corbetta Sugarloaf (band) songs American rock songs