Slightly more than ten years ago, while I lived in St. Louis, I composed a number of short musical sketches that eventually became my first CD: “Girl Songs and Other Sketches.” One of the songs on that CD was a perky little tune that I named as a pun: “Carryin’ a Bean (Caribbean)”.
Imagine my surprise in December 2007 when from somewhere several offices from mine, I heard the (quite familiar to me) introductory “Da, da, dum, dum, Da, dum, dum, Da” of “Carryin’ a Bean (Caribbean)!” I hurried to discover the origin of the sound and found that it emanated from the (ringing) cell-phone of our organization’s administrative-assistant. By the time I arrived, she was engaged in the conversation that rang her phone. I signaled to her that I wished to talk to her when she finished her conversation. I was very anxious and walked back-and-forth from my office several times before she finished her conversion. When she finished I was able to ask her about her phone’s ring-tone and I exclaimed: “You won’t believe this, but I am the composer of the song that is your phone’s ring-tone!”
She told me that the ring-tone had been pre-installed on her phone. I tried but was never able to find any record that Verizon distributed my song: “Carryin’ a Bean (Caribbean)” as a ring-tone. This whole episode is still a mystery to me… How did my song get onto her phone? If you have an idea how, please contact me. 🙂
I now wonder whether I should focus more on composing custom, for-sale ring-tones. I hope you enjoy both the song and its story.
I love this story! I have gotten alot of mileage recounting this unique tale of familiar sounds emanating from a ringing cell phone!
This story has always made me sad, but believe it sums up how enjoyable your music is and how extremely gifted an artist you are. BTW, I like you great art work above and think maybe it’s time for you to take a trip to the Carryn’ a Bean!