Technological progress has rendered some old songs obsolete — “Please Mr. Postman” and “The Letter,” for example, are set in an era when people still used snail mail to communicate with each other. Or consider telephone songs, especially ones in which the singer talks to an operator, like “Memphis, Tennessee” — most people haven’t spoken to an operator in at least 30 years. But this song might take the obsolescence crown. Released in early 1967, it tells the story of a girl who breaks up with the singer via telegram, which was as close to an instant message as you could get 50 years ago. The song came about when guitarist Mike Rabon was fiddling around and the band thought it sounded like a telegraph key.
The band had a string of communication-themed hits (one the follow-ups to this one was “Zip Code”), with this one charting highest, reaching No. 5. The band broke up in 1969, victims of a controlling manager who took most of the profits, but also undone by the psychedelic music and hard blues-based rock that followed the Summer of Love. Here they are performing “Western Union” on the Steve Allen Show.
