Call Up, Ring Once, Hang Up the Phone

Does the title sound like anything you've done over the years? The lyrics aren't too hard to understand that's for sure. Sporting the 'do that was later popularized by tennis pros Venus and Serena Williams, it's the great Stevie Wonder singing his #1 hit from 1985 about adultery - "Part-Time Lover"...




"Part-Time Lover"

Call up, ring once, hang up the phone
To let me know you made it home
Don't want nothing to be wrong with part-time lover

If she isn't with me I'll blink the lights
To let you know tonight's the night
For me and you my part-time lover

We are undercover passion on the run
Chasing love up against the sun
We are strangers by day, lovers by night
Knowing it's so wrong, but feeling so right

If I'm with friends and we should meet
Just pass me by, don't even speak
Know the word's "discreet" with part-time lovers

But if there's some emergency
Have a male friend to ask for me
So then she won't peek its really you my part-time lover

We are undercover passion on the run
Chasing love up against the sun
We are strangers by day, lovers by night
Knowing it's so wrong, but feeling so right

We are undercover passion on the run
Chasing love up against the sun
We are strangers by day, lovers by night
Knowing it's so wrong, but feeling so right

[Repeat]

I've got something that I must tell
Last night someone rang our doorbell
And it was not you my part-time lover

And then a man called our exchange
But didn't want to leave his name
I guess that two can play the game
Of part-time lovers
You and me, part-time lovers
But, she and he, part-time lovers


"Part-Time Lover"

Single by Stevie Wonder
from the album In Square Circle
Released September 1985
Recorded Summer 1985
Genre Pop, R&B, soul, synthpop
Length 7": 3:43
Album: 4:12
12": 8:20
Label Motown
Writer(s) Stevie Wonder
Producer Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder singles chronology
"Don't Drive Drunk"
(1984) "Part-Time Lover"
(1985) "That's What Friends Are For"
(1985)

U.S. Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1