Telephone talk: How ‘hello’ came into our vocabulary

Zany and baffling lyrics from The Beatles song “Hello, Goodbye” (1967) were written by Paul McCartney as “a playful exercise” using opposites (high/low, stop/go, left/right, yes/no) “to explore the duality of life and its contrasts.”

You say, “Goodbye” and I say, “Hello, hello, hello”

I don’t know why you say, “Goodbye,” I say, “Hello, hello, hello.”

 

Writers at Dictionary.com have done the research about the origin of “hello.”

 

They say: “We use ‘hello’ several times a day to greet people or attract attention. ‘Hello’ is considered a variant on a number of other similar words that were traditionally shouted to gain attention” – including “hallo,” “halloo,” “hola,” “hullo” and “ahoy.”

“We answer the phone with ‘hello.’” Why is that? To begin with, the telephone is a “Northern” invention, emerging from Alexander Graham Bell’s laboratory in Boston in 1876. He wanted people to use the word “ahoy” as a greeting.

 

That’s a familiar greeting with a nautical heritage. 

Bell was born in 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and immigrated in 1870 to Brantford, Ontario, Canada. He moved to Boston the following year and became a U.S. citizen in 1882.

Western Union Telegraph Company hired Bell’s rival, Thomas Alva Edison, to improve Bell’s initial telephone design. Edison responded by inventing the “carbon-button transmitter.”

 

Edison, a Midwesterner, was born in 1847 in Milan, Ohio (near Sandusky), and raised in Port Huron, Mich. He suggested the word “hello” as an appropriate telephone greeting.

 

(It caught on…but Alexander Graham Bell continued to say “ahoy” for all his days.)

Robert Louis Krulwich, retired science correspondent for NPR (National Public Radio), said the first telephone directories included authoritative “How To” sections on their first pages, and “hello” was listed frequently as “the officially sanctioned greeting.”

The central telephone exchange operators became known as “hello girls.” The term is attributed to Mark Twain, who used it as a reference to telephone switchboard workers in “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” (1889).

 

During World War I, the term “hello girls” applied to the 223 U.S. Army Signal Corps female switchboard operators who were deployed to France to serve under Gen. John J. Pershing. These military “hello girls” were essential, replacing the French switchboard operators who spoke no English. Hello?

 

The once formal face-to-face greeting “how do you do?” didn’t work too well over the telephone. 

Over time, it got shortened and deformalized to “howdy do?” and then just “howdy” (an exclamation rather than a question).

Usage of “Howdy” was especially prevalent in the American South, making its way west into Texas after the Civil War.

 

Vic Tiva, an English fluency trainer based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, said “hello” is the best choice when meeting strangers and in business situations, while “hi” is a more casual and friendly greeting that is appropriate for use in more informal gatherings.

A 1960s survey by the Dictionary of American Regional English found “hey” used as a standard greeting in the American South, particularly in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. 

“Hey” was often preferred over “hi” or “hello” as a warmer, more casual and versatile greeting.

For many years, outside of the South, “hey” was often considered too aggressive or solely for grabbing attention, often resulting in a reprimand from the schoolmarm: “Hay is for horses.”

 

“Hey” was deemed by many “edumacated people” to be too informal, too casual and lacking in sophistication or proper etiquette.

Today, in the South, about every conversation begins with the word “hey.”

Then, expect the question: “How’s your momma ‘n’ ‘em?”

 

It’s always thoughtful to inquire about the health of the entire family.

(Bell and Edison pen and ink illustrations by Adam Cole, a science editor at NPR.)

 

Profound ‘goodbye songs’ highlight 1970s music scene

Moving into the 1970s, “goodbye songs” by rock’n’roll and country artists began to take new twists and turns to explore the depths of human emotions in dealing with life’s journey.

Welcome singer-songwriter Don McLean to the stage. In 1971, he wrote and recorded “American Pie,” an epic anthem spanning 8 minutes and 36 seconds that revealed a “complicated parable” about the state of society at that time.

 

Journalist Tim Nudd (shown below), writing for PEOPLE magazine in 2016, termed “American Pie” as “one of the great, cryptic masterpieces in the history of American music.”

 

McLean once said: “Basically, in ‘American Pie,’ things are heading in the wrong direction…less ideal, less idyllic. I don’t know whether you consider that wrong or right, but it is a morality song in a sense.”

McLean said that “he felt an inexorable decline in American culture at the time he wrote the song,” Nudd wrote.

 

“The song was inspired, first and foremost,” Nudd said, “by the deaths of musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959 (near Clear Lake, Iowa), the “day the music died.”

McLean was a 13-year-old paperboy in his hometown of New Rochelle, N.Y., when the tragedy occurred, and he mourned the deaths of these early rock stars greatly, Nudd said.

 

“But the rest of the song is a maelstrom of social, cultural and political allusions,” Nudd wrote.

Now, at age 80, McLean continues to remain “quite cagey” when queried about the underlying meanings of his lyrics, causing the song to “remain a subject of continued intense fascination.”

 

What model year Chevy did Don McLean “drive to the levee?” The most popular choice would be a 1957 Bel Air. 

One of the most commercially successful “goodbye songs” in the 1970s belongs to Dolly Parton, who was born in the Locust Ridge area of Sevierville, Tenn.

She wrote and recorded “I Will Always Love You” as a farewell tribute to her business partner and mentor Porter Wagoner.

 

The Dolly Parton website shares the story: “Throughout Dolly’s seven-year stint on ‘The Porter Wagoner Show’ (from 1967-74), she and Porter reigned supreme as one of country music’s most popular duos. However, the little blonde with the powerhouse voice had set her sights on a solo career. As she set forth on her path to make her dreams come true, it would mean leaving the show – and her duet partner.”

“In 1974, Dolly wrote ‘I Will Always Love You’ as her own unique way of saying goodbye to Porter as their professional relationship came to an end. When Dolly first played the song for Porter, he began crying” and said it was “the prettiest song I ever heard.”

 

Wagoner produced the album for Dolly, and the song consequently went to No. 1 on the country charts.

Whitney Houston recorded a pop-ballad arrangement of the song for the 1992 film “The Bodyguard.” (It was her feature film acting debut, starring alongside Kevin Costner.)

 

Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” sold more than 25 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling single of all time by a female solo artist, according to Guinness World Records.

 

This Whitney Houston poster is a collector’s item, because of the error in the printing of the song title.

Also deserving mention as top “goodbye songs” during the decade are: “If you Leave Me Now” (1976) by Chicago, written Peter Cetera, the group’s bass player (shown agove), and “I Will Survive” (1978) by Gloria Gaynor, written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris (shown below).

 

Most folks can sing along with the tune written in 1977 by David Allan Crowe and performed by Johnny Paycheck:

 

Take this job and shove it,

I ain’t workin’ here no more.

A woman done left and took all the reasons

I was working for.

Here are more ‘goodbye songs’ to take for a spin

Surely, there are thousands of contemporary “goodbye songs” that invoke emotions of sadness and grief, running the full spectrum from teenage romance breakups to the tragic loss of a loved one.

One all-time favorite “goodbye song” that topped the hit parade more than 100 years ago was “Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo’ Bye!)” from 1922. 

The tune, first recorded by Al Jolson with Frank Crumit & His Orchestra, debuted in the Broadway musical “Bombo.” Tootsie’s songwriters included Gus Kahn, Ernie Erdman, Danny Russo, Ted Fio Rito and Robert A. King.

“See You Later, Alligator” came along in 1955, written by singer-songwriter Bobby Charles (shown above) and first recorded by Roy Hall (“Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”) (shown below).

 

However, the version of the song performed by Bill Haley & His Comets (“Rock Around the Clock”) was a chartbuster in 1956.

 

At some point, an adaptation of “See You Later, Alligator” became a standard rhyming song for American preschoolers.

 

It goes like this:

See you later alligator, after a while crocodile.

Blow a kiss jellyfish, give a hug ladybug.

See you soon, big baboon,

Out the door, dinosaur,

Take care, polar bear,

Wave goodbye, butterfly.

(A copyright on the sheet music was issued in 2020 to Megan Desmarais of teachpreschoolmusic.com in Tulsa, Okla.)

Interestingly, singer-songwriter Paul Simon said he was teaching his own son, Harper, how to make rhymes, in 1975, when the lyrics for “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” popped into his head.

Here’s a bit of it:

There must be 50 ways to leave your lover:

You just slip out the back, Jack

Make a new plan, Stan

You don’t need to be coy, Roy

Hop on the bus, Gus

You don’t need to discuss much

Just drop off the key, Lee

And get yourself free.

The 1960s may have been rock’n’roll music’s “golden era” for “goodbye songs,” starting off with “Hit the Road Jack” in 1960, written and recorded by rhythm and blues singer Percy Mayfield.

The song rocketed up the charts, though, in 1961, when it was covered by Ray Charles and Margie Hendrix, who was a member of the Raelettes, an all-girl vocal group.

 

A few other top “goodbye” songs from the 1960s that bring back memories are:

“I Fall to Pieces” (1961) by Patsy Cline, written by Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard.

 

“Sealed with a Kiss” (1962) by Brian Hyland, written by Peter Udell and Gary Geld. (The original recording was released by the Four Voices in 1960.)

 

“The End of the World” (1962) by Skeeter Davis , written by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee.

 

“It’s My Party” (1963) by Lesley Gore, written by Herb Weiner, John Gluck Jr., Wally Gold and Seymour Gottlieb.

 

“Hello Heartache, Goodbye Love” (1963) by Little Peggy March, written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore and George David Weiss.

 

“Dead Man’s Curve” (1964) by Jan & Dean, written by Brian Wilson, Jan Berry, Roger Christian and Artie Kornfeld.

 

“The Tracks of My Tears” (1965) by the Miracles, written by group members Smokey Robinson, Pete Moore and Marv Tarplin. (Rolling Stone magazine ranked the Miracles’ original recording as “The Greatest Motown Song of All Time.”)

 

“See You in September” (1966) by The Happenings, written by Sid Wayne and Sherman Edwards. (It was first recorded by The Tempos in 1959.)

 

“(I Know) I’m Losing You” (1966) by The Temptations, written by Cornelius Grant, Eddie Holland and Norman Whitfield.

 

(Other notable versions of the song were performed by Rare Earth in 1970 and Rod Stewart in 1971.)

Let the countdown continue….