Song Lyric Sunday/Song of the Day: Sugarloaf, “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You”

Song Lyric Sunday, Song of the Day 2 Minutes

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For Jim’s latest assignment, we go looking for songs about love (I think), or at least songs built around the theme “couple, together, us.” This week, I decided to go out to Spotify, which builds a number of playlists every day for my listening pleasure, vowing to use the first song I found that contained one of the prompt words, and found this one.

Sugarloaf is a band from Colorado that was fronted by keyboardist and singer Jerry Corbetta. Their first single, “Green-Eyed Lady,” was a huge hit, reaching #3 in the US and #1 in Canada, while their eponymous 1970 album from which it came reached #24 on the Hot 200 albums. From that point on, their songs failed to reach the Top 40, and they went through several label changes before finally latching on with Claridge Records, who released their fourth album, Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You, and the title track as a single, which went to #9 in the US and #5 in Canada. The song shows the frustration Sugarloaf had getting a record contract with CBS Records before “Green-Eyed Lady” (and, more than likely, after that).

The lyrics, from AZLyrics:

“Uh, long distance, directory-assistance, area code 212”
I said, “Hey mama, this is Mr. Rhythm-and-Blues”
He said hello and put me on hold
To say the least, the cat was cold
He said, “Don’t call us, child, we’ll call you”
I said, “You got my number?”
He said, “Yeah, I got it when you walked in the door”

Don’t call us… we’ll call you
Don’t call us… we’ll call you

“I got your name from a friend of a friend
Who said he used to work with you
Do you remember the all-night preacher from Stereo-92?”
I said, “Could you relate to our quarter-track tape?
You know the band performs in the nude”
He said, “Uh-uh, don’t call us, we’ll call you”

“Listen kid, you pay for the call
You ain’t bad, but we ‘ve heard it all before
Yeah, it sounds like John, Paul and George”

Anyway, we cut a hit and toured a bit
With the song he said he couldn’t use
And now he calls, and begs and crawls
It’s telephone Deja Vu
We got percentage points and lousy joints
And all the glitter we can use, mama
So, huh, don’t call us, we’ll call you!

You may have heard this one before, too:
“Listen kid, you pay for the call
Well, you ain’t bad but I’ve heard it all before”

Don’t call us… we’ll call you
Don’t call us… we’ll call you

And that’s Song Lyric Sunday and Song of the Day for May 10, 2020.

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Published by John Holton

I'm a writer and blogger who writes and blogs about things that interest me.

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32 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday/Song of the Day: Sugarloaf, “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You””

  1. Pingback: The Mid-May Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

  3. I grew up in a town that only had AM radio…and then only two stations! Back in the day, we could hear the hits 2-3 times an hour. Hard to forget those. 😊

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  4. I always liked this song better than Green Eyed Lady…in 1975 this was my favorite song on the radio.

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    1. I really liked “Green Eyed Lady,” largely because that was the first time I heard a guitar player play in octaves. I was mostly happy to hear this because it meant Sugarloaf was still together, though as it turns out not for long…

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      1. They had a good sense of humor puting that phone number in the touch tone.

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  5. I remember this song and didn’t realize Green Eyed Lady was by the same group. Seems like Sugarloaf didn’t get called much after these two…

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  6. I’m not old enough to remember this song when it released of course, but do remember roughly when I first heard it. It was either later Steve and Garry or maybe Kevin Matthews on The Loop who had a schtick the kicked off or ended with the chorus of the song. It wouldn’t be until the internet that I would learn who actually recorded it!

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    1. They really deserved more attention than they got. They had the misfortune of coming out when there were so many good bands doing great stuff. Kind of like The Box Tops, who had a couple more hits but who deserved more attention.

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    2. It’s early and I haven’t had enough coffee. You mean how I found it this time… worked pretty well, I’d say. Think I’ll do that again.

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