I spotted this a few days ago…
Tiggerlion: “My ringtone is Black Satin from On The Corner. At least it was until I got a new phone a few months ago.”
I currently have Peter Gabriel’s Intruder as a ringtone – those drums cut through traffic noise, crowded shop noise, etc – doesn’t seem to work if the tune is too bassy (I tried the bass solo from Quiet Sun’s rongwrong – couldn’t here the phone ringing above the cat snoring…).
Anybody else got an interesting / bizarre ringtone? When your phone rings in public, do people look askance at you as if to say “what the hell was that?”
Do share…
…that’s hear, not here…rongwrong again….
Peaches En Regalia is mine.
My phone alert is the little marimba passage and the throaty laugh at the beginning of Cosmic Debris, given as part of the crowdfunding rewards package for the Zappa Archive project.
I’ve had that as my ringtone but I edited the drum into (because I’m sad) to extend it, which I think works better (as a ringtone)
Currently using the intro from When The Levee Breaks – but also with the drums extended to give more time to answer before the rest kicks in.
I Believe in Miracles by The Jackson Sisters is also a great ringtone and doesn’t even need the drums intro extended!
On a previous phone I had the Avengers theme (the proper British, Steed and Peel one)…always sounded pretty cool.
You need something that starts with a bit of punch.
I used to have this and it worked well even in the noisiest (i.e. building site) environments.
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Previously I had this, which seemed to work OK too.
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Nowadays, a couple of phones later, I just have one of the manufacturer’s defaults.
I worked with a guy once, a good few years back, whose ringtone was a police car siren. You wouldn’t miss a call on that!
For a long time, I had the defuslt Nokia ringtone. After spending several years annoying my family with my luddite tendancies, I upgrade my phone.
My first choice was Another Girl Another Planet, but it starts so quietly I kept missing calls.
Now I alternate between Teenage Kicks and Cum On Feel The Noise.
Experience shows nothing quietens a public place quite like Noddy screaming “Baby, baby, baby …”
Oh. I like the idea of Cum On Feel The Noize. Gonna give it a try tomorrow.
Get Down and Get With It would make a great ringtone. Certainly wake folk up.
Mine’s currently the opening 30 seconds of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbZIiom9rDA
Woof!
At one point I used the abstract noise passage which links parts one and two of Saucerful of Secrets…worked surprisingly well but freaked out my co-workers….
Wow!
This is my ringtone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVUJN-6J-8E
Superb!
My current one is me playing the great Johnny Winter cyclical lead guitar lick – vulgar and flashy, not clever. Then people say “Who’s that” and I say “that’s….”. Pathetic really.
Included here for your enjoyment.
My next one will be “Country Home” by Neil Young. I’ll leave it to Neil next time.
Tasty….
Go on, admit it, everyone tells you to “turn that shit off” when your phone rings
I worked one place where one guy’s ring tone was his child saying “Daddy, answer the phone” repeatedly. That was much worse.
Until recently, I had Willie Williams as a ringtone. I also had the horn riff from Rudi, A Message to You for new texts. Can’t work out how to do it on my iPhone though, so have just stuck with the presets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmjx1r1omgY
This thread reminds me, I must update my ringtone.
I bet you don’t answer until it’s rung six times.
True dat. The temptation is just to let it keep ringing.
Paradise Circus by Massive Attack. Loud enough but also restrained enough for work.
I have Unfinished Sympathy, similarly low key but distinct. That and Paradise Circus are probably my two favourite Massive Attack songs.
Of course, people will recognise it as the Luther theme tune.
For my money, Teardrop just beats it as my favourite Massive track.
I have this:
Amusingly, it scares the piss out of people.
It may not be the ringtone that’s scaring them.
Bwa ha ha ha!
I have multiple ringtones:
My general tune is the Z-cars theme.
For my wife I have Jackson Browne’s Running On Empty (she’s a huge JB fan and I needed one of his few strident tunes).
For my friends I use Alejandro Escovedo’s Always A Friend.
For my family it’s Santana’s Incident At Neshabur (on the basis that when they phone it’s not for a chat but likely to be because something has happened).
Carolyns fingers by cocteau twins
And just changed it last week to right place wrong time by dr john
I like choons with a bit of intro before the drums kick in, seems less obtrusive to those around me
I am 47
Great theme. Fuzz guitar and blues harp. What’s not to like?
I generally use the default ringtone, with three exceptions ….
– for my Wife, I have the opening of Vivaldi / Four Seasons / Spring – her favourite piece of music
– for elder teenager boy (guitar playing rock fan) it’s the opening of Fleetwood Mac / Oh Well
– for younger teenage boy it’s the Dr Who theme.
I always have my phone on silent in meetings, but recently somehow the setting for younger boy had changed to allow sound when on do not disturb – cue Dr Who theme blasting out in an executive meeting (and this being in Singapore for an American company) – very much “what the f**k was that ?”……
Better still would be the Tardis. Cue everyone looking around in expectation of seeing Jodie Whittaker.
Hope springs eternal…
In my office when the familiar iPhone marimba tune sounds there are invariably a whole clutch of people going “Oh is that mine?”.
So that I don’t feel sheep-like in my choice of ringtone, I always use recordings of my own guitar riffs or synth sounds so that it’s unique.
As a bedside alarm for which I use my phone I have Gong’s “Fohat digs holes in space” or Deep Purple’s “Highway Star”.
You need a riff to cut through noise. I veer between Talk Talk’s Life’s What You Make It and Bowie’s Stay.
My wife has the sax break from Pyjamarama. No civilians in our house 🙂
Pyjamara is a great choice.
Generally I have The Associates Party Fears Two intro, although just now it’s the Who’s Can’t Explain.
My partner has the theme tune to Better Off Ted. Possibly the best comedy no one’s ever heard of.
Re: a phone with the The Associates’ “Party Fears Two” as a ringtone.
That could be pretty useful if you want to “phone your brother up”. Arf!
Like all civilised people, my phone is on silent (it vibrates). There is enough noise pollution without adding to it.
Jazz-rock fusion ain’t noise pollution!
The opening few bars of ‘Watcher of the Skies’; love me that bit of Mellotron.
The chorus of XTC’s ‘Senses Working Overtime’, starting as it goes ‘One, two, three, four, five’.
The ‘Peg’ guitar solo, and that from ‘Kid Charlemagne’.
Mostly, oi are having the phone on silent. . .
Baba O’Riley – just the first one that came to me. I should put more thought into some alternatives, really.
Don’t see why. That’s a great choice for a ringtone.
Agreed, though if I used it I might edit it so that there is less synth and the band intro is part of it.
Mine goes:
De-Dum. De dum dum de dum-dum (tish a-tish a-tish a-tish a)
De-Dum. De dum dum de dum-dum (tish a-tish a-tish a-tish a)
A-wee, wee, wee, wee-wee de dum-dum
– Anyone?
Beethoven’s 9th – An Ode To Joy ?
Or
Especially For You – Kylie & Jason
There’s gonna be a borstal breakout!!
This is both my answer and a prophecy… right, commuters?
For The Chairman in an old job, I had this which amused me every time
…a fit of realous jage!
For a while I had The Pink Panther theme but that’s so much better.
Otherwise for some reason or other it’s
Funnily enough I was singing this to myself earlier today.
I usually have my phone on silent but if I’m somewhere noisy and expecting a call then the ringtone that cuts through it all for me is this:
Some years ago, I was delivering a systems upgrade project which was quite difficult, and stressful – and I ended up being the chap who people phoned to say “THESE NITWITS HAVE NOT DELIVERED THE THING I NEED – WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?”. This was a frequent occurrence, in addition to many many other incoming calls.
A couple of times I noticed that I was getting grumpy when my phone rang – so to help lift the mood, I changed the ringtone to this, which always makes me smile :
Mine is a loop of the opening ten seconds of Temple Of Love (1983 version, OBVIOUSLY)
also I cannot tell you how much it irks me that the picture on that clip is of an almost completely different line up of the band to the one on the recording
Blondie – Hanging On The Telephone.
Starts with a phone ringing, then cue Debbie “I’m in a phone booth, it’s the one across the hall.” Perfect.
Mine used to be all sex related (I finally realised), Third Eye Blind Semi Charmed Kind of Life, Madness House of Fun and Vapours Turning Japanese. Now it’s XTCs Stupidly Happy, and Hold Steady’s How A Resurrection Really Feels for work. Now when any of these turn up on the stereo I reach for the phone. In 3 or 4 years, only one person has ever picked out Stupidly Happy and mentioned it.
I find the really bassy ones can’t be heard on the tinny little speakers I have access to. Otherwise it would be Hold Steady’s Massive Nights
Is this the place to say that the Skype ringtone has always reminded me of Tunes Splits the Atom?
Callers are mystified to find me starting every convo singing Mani’s bass break from I Am The Resurrection.
My ringtone is a recording of my cat snoring. Couldn’t hear it above my wife snoring.
Har!
The opening bars to this:
You need some top end to cut through the background hubbub. Kraftwerk is ideal – I’ve cropped various beeps and bleeps from The Robots for my ringtone, but any of their riffs would do the job.
Carmen
1812 overture
Miserlou
I set up a few before iTunes took away the ability to make your own, so I cycle between these
Beat Dis – Bomb The Bass
Blue Monday (default option)
Fool’s Gold (starts low, good for quiet environments)
Kerosene – Big Black (have been banned from using this as alarm in the morning)
Liberator – Spear of Destiny
Trans Europe Express
or “The Post Horn Gallop” (as that’s what Leicester City run onto the pitch too)
My text tone is the noise that the phones made in “24”
Blue Monday would for a split second make people think that you have a Geiger counter in your pocket.
And then they’d realise that I was just pleased to see them.
Dude’s packing a carbon rod.