Mr. Telephone Man
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"Mr. Telephone Man" is a single released by R&B group New Edition in 1985 on the MCA label.
Released as the second single off their second self-titled album after finding success with the danceable "Cool It Now", "Mr. Telephone Man" included lead vocals from Ralph Tresvant, Ricky Bell and Bobby Brown with a rap by Michael Bivins and was written for the group by smooth R&B singer-songwriter Ray Parker, Jr.
The song discusses how the narrator tries reaching for his girlfriend by phone but no one answers or "I get a click every time" and tries in vain to ask the telephone operator to help him out "Please operator, see what you can do, I dailed the right number, but I still couldn't get through, could you check the wall one more time if you can, I'm pretty sure her phone won't be answered by no man!" The single reached number twelve on the pop singles chart and was the group's third number-one single on the R&B charts.
The song is still one of the group's most endurable singles and the song that during recent performances bring out Brown to perform after a period where Brown had split from his band mates. Brown returned to perform with the group to this song publicly first at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards and then at the BET 25th anniversary in 2005.
