Meri Wilson

Meri Wilson (15 June 1949 — 28 December 2002) was an American popular music singer, specializing in double entendre novelty songs. She was born in Nagoya, Japan, at a U.S. military base, but raised in Marietta, Georgia. Wilson later gained a Masters Degree in Musical Education at Georgia State University. In the Summer of 1977, she achieved fame after she recorded a song titled "Telephone Man", which was filled with suggestive lyrics and her breathy squealing voice. The song became a surprise hit single, having climbed the UK singles chart to #6, spending fully ten weeks in the listings; as well as making it to #18 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song would become a favorite of Dr. Demento's radio show many years later. According to the liner notes in Rhino Records' collection of 1970s hit singles, Have A Nice Day, Wilson later recorded additional novelty songs, including "Dick The D.J." and "Peter, The Meter Reader". She died in 2002, aged 53, after she lost control of her car on Highway 377 in Americus, Georgia, during an ice storm.