WACKY WEDNESDAY: Phoning it in

"A large pepperoni & mushrooms and a Diet Coke, please ..."

On this day in 1876, the U.S. Patent Office granted a patent to a guy named Alexander Graham Bell for an invention he called the "telephone"

Here are just a few songs that would have never been without Mr. Bell

Apparently an early user of this new invention was Jesus. You cold just call Him up and tell Him what you want. Here's a 1959 Alan Lomax field recording of James Shorty, Viola James and some church congregation singing "Jesus on the Mainline."



One of my earliest rock 'n' roll memories was being four or five years old and laughing at the line in Chuck Berry's "Memphis, Tennessee" where Chuck sang, "My uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall."



The Big Bopper couldn't have done it without a phone



On this Muddy Waters classic, somebody calls him long distance -- and that used to cost extra back then! -- just to tell him something about a mule.



"Hanging By the Telephone" by The Nerves, about a guy who won't stop calling his ex, shows why caller ID was inevitable.



But I think Meri Wilson would have been happy to take a call from The Nerves



Speaking of Caller ID, The Replacements tackled other new phone technology of their era



Ex-Byrd Roger McGuinn in 1991 sang of the rise of mobile phones. One thing I love about this song is the conversation segment, which features Stan Ridgway and Kimmy Robertson, (Lucy from Twin Peaks!)



But my favorite phone song of all time is this country weeper from Conway & Loretta