#william bell

Private Number - Judy Clay and William Bell (peaked at Number 8)

Well, this is a song with an admirably straightforward premise. William spells it out at the start, singing about how since I've been gone, you've had your number changed / But my love for you, girl, still remains the same. So, he loves a lady, he went away, she changed her number. Doesn't look promising. But then, the song's twist, if you can call it that, is Judy coming in to explain that the situation isn't as dire as it might seem, singing that I'm sorry you couldn't call me when you got home / But other fellows kept on calling while you were gone / So I had the number changed, but I'm not acting strange. You see? She's still faithful to him, she still loves him, all's good, here's her private number just to prove it.

I guess that does make this a song that you couldn't really record today. I mean, I guess there's a mobile version of it where she's blocked his number, or whatever. But it's harder to do that accidentally, I think in the modern version she probably did genuinely block him, and the song's her forgiving him and unblocking him? Which is a fundamentally different interaction to be singing about. Also much less romantic than giving somebody your private phone number, somehow. Ah well.

I joke around, because other than that I have very little to say about this one. It's almost three minutes long, but feels very nothing-y. It's not bad, it's a very laid-back, perfectly competent bit of soul. I like the guitar and piano at the beginning, and the strings and horns throughout are also welcome additions, there's just enough to keep things moving along. William and Judy's voices blend pleasantly together, too, they're both well suited to the song. It's just that it doesn't do very much with all of this. Well over half the song's just the line baby, baby, baby, here's my private number. Repeat to the fade-out, and you've got a song that's not objectionable, but that I also don't think I'll necessarily remember for that long.

I will say, there was a moment, the first time we hit the chorus, where I did briefly wonder if I knew the song. But I think the familiarity is actually because it sounds like pretty much every other soul song out there. Nothing wrong with this one, and I like the snapshot into the sort of concerns people had dating in the era of landline telephones, but overall, Private Number did leave me a little cold. Nice to have a duet, though. More duets, please!