Emergency (911)

Album: Battlefield (2009)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this song, Jordin dials 911, as she's been stood up for a date and she's dying of "dance deprivation, emotional starvation." Sparks co-wrote the song with Toby Gad ("If I Were a Boy") and Lindy Robbins ("What's Left of Me"). The trio also penned "Faith" on the same album.
  • The first known experiment with a national emergency telephone number occurred in the UK in 1937, using the number 999. At first the buzzer which alerted switchboard operators to an emergency call was so loud that a number of girl operators fainted when they heard it. This problem was resolved by inserting a tennis ball in the mouth of the buzzer, which succeeded in reducing the noise to a more tolerable level. The 911 emergency number was introduced in the United States in 1968.

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