True story: In high school — when I was a bit, um, festive — I once gave my parents a fake phone number about where I was going to be staying. I gave them 867-5309. But in the song, they stress four numbers then three — the opposite of normal phone numbers. I remember my parents being suspicious because I said the number is “8675…uh, 309.” Still, it worked. The beauty of it was that we knew the number was always busy (we’d tested it many times), so we could just say that someone was on the phone or it was accidentally off the hook, or something.

Update: From a reader:

The song may also be the only song which inspired federal legislation. After endless complaints from folks with that number, the government reserved the prefix “555” for entertainment use only. That is why, all phone numbers in TV, movies, etc. start with “555.”

Me: I didn’t know that was the reason we have 555 numbers. But I somehow doubt it’s the only song to inspire federal legislation. Explicit lyric warnings? I’m pretty sure they’re voluntary (designed to head off such legislation). But there must be some other example.