Remember AT&T Telephone Tunes?

When I call people nowadays, very rarely does anyone pick up the phone. People who know me will often text me back very quickly with an answer after listening to my message. We are living in a world that has shifted away from using voice to communicate, and I am fine with it. Still, I do miss a few relics of our more vocal near past. For example, the telephone message. I am not talking about the bland short messages you still occasionally here even now. When people decide to actually record a message. No, I am talking about the grand creative ones of people doing skits or even singing. Yes, this wasn’t all that easy for un-creative types. Luckily for them, things like AT&T Telephone Tunes existed.

AT&T Telephone Tunes was one of many products that promised to spice up your otherwise drab answering machine message. In this case of AT&T Telephone Tunes, that spiciness was added with clever music done in various styles. You could also buy funny voices or even tapes with celebrities on them. They were a fun addition to a then relatively new piece of technology. That unfortunately quickly got very tedious after you kept having to listen to the same message whenever you called your friend. You know, the one who was constantly screening the calls. Not sure what this was like? Let me illustrate.

These tapes were pretty simple to use, although you did need a tape player to do it properly. You simply popped the tape into your player, held it a few inches from your answering machine, and hit play on one and record on the other. I know many people would get frustrated trying to use the actual tape in their answering machine. Happily, it was just frustration and not a ruined tape. Because they often made these tapes with the safety piece that prevented overdubbing.

So, do you have a phone and want to spice up your outgoing message? Maybe just want to annoy some people with a crazy lengthy message? Then grab your phone now and put it about 6 inches away from your speakers. Then, after you find the AT&T Telephone Tunes song you like, just hit record. It is guaranteed to get a memorable reaction from anyone who might call you.

Listen to AT&T Telephone Tunes