Tonight, we remember Gloria’s contribution to the glorious history of music.  No, not that one.  Or that one.  Or this one, that one, or even this one.  No, we remember…this one.

(Listen to it before reading on; it’ll be worth it.)

For the first few decades of their career, They Might Be Giants ran a service called Dial-A-Song.  Call the number, get their answering machine, and be treated to a song – maybe a demo, an oddity, or whatever struck the band’s fancy at the time.  As John Flansburgh wrote in a 1995 newsletter…

Back when very few people called Dial-A-Song the phone machine that played the songs took messages. I came home one day and found the message tape full, instead of the ten or twenty messages it usually had. I rewound the tape and found that most of it was taken up by a woman who had called on a conference call with her friend, listened to the song and then proceeded to have a private conversation unaware that the Dial-A-Song machine was recording them. The recording on track thirteen is just an excerpt of the first couple of minutes of their conversation. It actually got much stranger, but it was unrelated to the band, and too freaky to put on a record.

To this day, Gloria’s identity is still unknown.  There May Be Giants knows she must have been in New York’s 718 or 212 area codes because those were the only two that allowed three way calling at the time, and she read the May 29th, 1984 issue of The Village Voice.  Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess.

There Must Be Giants has never released the full recording, but have released more excerpts over the years.  “Gloria Says ‘Blast Her Out’ ” is also worth a listen, because it involves a quintessential problem of apartment living.

Wherever and whoever you are, Gloria, thank you for this gift.

Have fun posting!