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"Beechwood 4-5789"
Single by The Carpenters
from the album Made in America
A-side	"Beechwood 4-5789"
B-side	"Two Sides"
Released	1981
Format	7" single
Recorded	1980-1981
Genre	Pop
Length	03:06
Label	A&M 2344
Producer	Richard Carpenter
The Carpenters singles chronology
"Those Good Old Dreams" (1981) "Beechwood 4-5789" (1982) "Make Believe It's Your First Time" (1983)

"Beechwood 4-5789" is a 1962 single released by Motown girl group The Marvelettes on the Tamla record label.

[edit] Original version

Written by Marvin Gaye, William "Mickey" Stevenson and George Gordy, the lyrics are about the narrator wanting a man she just met to call her number in order to "have a date, any ol' time." Like all the Marvelette's singles during the first phase of the group's career, the lead vocal was by Gladys Horton. The song's co-writer Marvin Gaye played drums on the track, which William Stevenson produced.

The song's title is derived from the now defunct use of telephone exchange names in telephone numbers. In this case, the significant portions of the exchange name were the first two letters of "Beechwood" (BE), and the remainder of the number. In conventional modern use, this telephone number would be 234-5789.

"Beechwood 4-5789" has become a signature hit of Motown's early period but was not one of the label's biggest hits, reaching #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the autumn of 1962. The track did reach the R&B Top Ten where in fact the single enjoyed double A-side status with "Beechwood 4-5789" reaching #7 and the flip "Someday, Someway" #8; the latter track was a ballad from the writing-&-production team of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Fred Gorman and featured Berry Gordy Jr's wife Raynoma Liles as organist.

[edit] The Carpenters' version

A remake of "Beechwood 4-5789" was featured on Made in America, a 1981 album by the Carpenters whose 1975 remake of the Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman" had reached #1.

Although Richard Carpenter typically exercised control over the Carpenters' song choice, the idea to remake "Beechwood 4-5789" was evidently Karen Carpenter's. Mike Curb recalls Karen Carpenter playing him the original over the phone after telling him: "I've gotta play a song for you! You'll get a kick out of it! It is really fun! It'll bring back memories." When the record ended Karen Carpenter asked Curb; "So, what do you think of this as a single?" Although Curb saw no hit potential in a remake of "Beechwood 4-5789" he responded positively to Karen Carpenter's question, not having the heart to dampen her enthusiasm.

In fact "Beechwood 4-5789" would be issued as the fourth single from Made in America¹ on 2 March 1982, Karen Carpenter's thirty-second birthday. The track debuted on the A/C chart in Billboard dated 27 March 1982 and entered the Billboard Hot 100 dated 24 April 1982 at #83 becoming the twenty-seventh single by the Carpenters to reach the Hot 100, all the group's singles since their major label debut in 1969 having appeared on the chart.

A 1960s' nostalgia-themed video for the Carpenters' "Beechwood 4-5789" was shot on A&M's Chaplin Stage. The video's setting was divided between a soda shop and a young woman's bedroom with a pink Princess telephone prominently displayed.^[1]

The last single release by the Carpenters prior to Karen Carpenter's 4 February 1983 death, "Beechwood 4-5789" did not become a major hit rising no higher than #74 on the Hot 100; the track's A/C chart peak was #18. "Beechwood 4-5789" did reach #10 in New Zealand in March 1982 - the single having been released there that February prior to its US issue - making the track the last evident Top Ten hit by the Carpenters on a major national chart.

• ¹Made in America also included the track "I Believe You" which had been a 1978 single release.

[edit] Other versions

A cover of "Beechwood 4-5789" served as the debut single for Ian and the Zodiacs in September 1963.

Harpers Bizarre remade "Beechwood 4-5789" for their 1976 album As Time Goes By.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] The Marvelettes version

• Lead vocals by Gladys Horton
• Background vocals by Wanda Young, Georgeanna Tillman, Wyanetta ("Juanita") Cowart, and Katherine Anderson
• Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers

[edit] Carpenters version

• Vocals by Karen Carpenter and Richard Carpenter

[edit] Trivia

• In 1966, Wilson Pickett recorded the song 634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.) written by Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper. 'Beechwood' as dialed on a telephone would equal BE, or 23, making the number 234-5789..only one number difference from the Pickett song. Other than numbers, though, the songs have no similarities, musically or lyrically.

• The number is currently assigned to a restaurant in San Diego, California.^[2]

[edit] References