Are You One of those People who painstakingly pick out music to be playing in the background of your outgoing answering machine message? And if so, what did you pick?

This should really be on ILM, I suppose.

the last time i used my answering machine the music was belle and sebastian. this was in 2001.

my cellie message has no werds, just a repeating loop of goldfrapp's "utopia" - and everyone hates it and tells me i'm lame. maybe this also had to do with jobs i applied to not leaving messages when they call3d me back

"Major Tom" by Peter Schilling. That was a while ago, though.

A long time back, at UCLA, when all four people in the apartment were confirmed Bowie freaks, I used the opening bit from "Suffragette City" ("...won't you get off the phone...").

I have snippets from Alice Coltrane's Journey Into Satchidananda ("Isis and Osiris" if I'm not mistaken) accompanying the message "Hi, you've reached Sundar's ashram of enlightenment. Please tune in, turn on, and leave a message after the tone." Previously I had something from Theorem's microhouse mix THX: Experiments In Synchronicity with the message "Hi, you've reached Sundar's party pad."

How do you guys 'mix' the background music? I've just been doing the standard 'open with track, turn it down as voice comes in, close with later part of track' thing.

"d-d-d-d, d-d-d-d, ptschk - We're so sorry, Uncle Albert, but we haven't done a bloody thing all day...

Placed the ans. machine in front of the stereo speaker and throttled the volume.

Watashi Dake by Keiji Haino.

Not really. I did used to have that bit from South Park where Ronnie James Dio shouts 'I'm glad y'all learned something t'day kids - now let's DANCE!' and starts playing Holy Diver, but once my parents got mobiles it just seemed cruel.

de la soul - ring ring ring (ha ha hey)

I think the last time I did this was about 10 years ago. I used the intro to some song off "Last Splash," and everyone complained that it was obnoxious and creepy. ("everyone" = my wife, my boss, my sister, a triumverate you never wanna cross)

it used to be carl stalling pieces, or just geek by lisa germano (if that's the little dancy instrumental puppet music that pops up on geek the girl from time to time). but now it's the default robot voice because we can't remember how to program the machine.

No, I'm not one of those people. So I have nothing to contribute to this thread.

A downy lad I was and twee...
I was in college when I had a message on the machine (no voicemail then--weird) that was the entire recording of Orange Claw Hammer by Beefheart:
Uh thick cloud caught uh piper clubs tail
The match struck blue on uh railroad rail
The old puff horse was just pullin' thru
'n uh man wore uh peg leg forever
I'm on the bum where the hoboes run
The air breaks with filthy chatter
Oh I don't care there's no place there
I don't think it matters
My skin's blazin' thru
'n my clothes in tatters
'n the railroad looked
Like uh "Y" up the hill of ladders
Ohe shoe fell on the gravel
One stick poked down
Gray of age fell down on uh pair of ears
An eagle shined thru my hole watch pocket
Uh gingham girl baby girl
Passed me by in tears
Uh jack rabbit raised his folded ears
Uh beautiful sagebrush jack rabbit
'n an oriole sang like an orange
His breast full uh worms
'n his tail clawed the evenin' like uh hammer
His wings took t' air like uh bomber
'n my rain can caught me uh cup uh water
When I got into town
Odd jobs mam ah yer horse I'll fodder
I'm the round house man
I once was yer father
Uh little up the road uh wooden
Candy stripe barber pole
'n above it read uh sign "painless parker"
Lic-licorice twisted around under uh fly
'n uh youngster cocked 'er eye
God before me if I'm not crazy
Is my daughter
Come little one with yer little dimpled fingers
Gimme one 'n I'll buy you uh cherry phosphate
Take you down t' the foamin' brine 'n water
'n show you the wooden tits
On the Goddess with the pole out s'full sail
That tempted away yer peg legged father
I was shanghied by uh high hat beaver moustache man
'n his pirate friend
I woke up in vomit 'n beer in uh banana bin
'n uh soft lass with brown skin
Bore me seven babies with snappin' black eyes
'n beautiful ebony skin
'n here it is I'm with you my daughter
Thirty years away can make uh seaman's eyes
Uh round house man's eyes flow out water
Salt water

sophomore year of college was the only time i did this and the track was "sake rock" by martin denny.

i once called a semi-famous techno dj and his anwering machine was just him reading his phone number through a vocoder which was cool.

"...once my parents got mobiles it just seemed cruel."

yeah i once had something off chrome-half machine lip moves in the background when i got my first real apt., and then i heard my dad leave a message, sounding terrified, so i haven't done any music again.

In my last shared house we had, tragically, Staying Out For The Summer by Dodgy (during the summer months) and Hanging On The Telephone by Blondie the rest of the time. Then I started working from home a bit and so we stopped.

the beatles, 'i'm only sleeping'

i think the only time i've ever done this was in middle school when my friend noah (fellow member of the fashion police) and i sang over 'faith' by george michael.

oh, i guess it would be nice
if you would leave a message
you know not every message
is as important as yours.

but you've gotta think twice
about whatcha gonna say
i know not every single day
i get a message from you

baaaaabaaaay

people were annoyed to no end. we loved it. i think i still have the tape somewhere.

I used to do it all the time. People would actually just ring me up to listen to my ansaphone message of the week. Sometimes the songs would be special messages for specific people ("Bellboy" by The Who was one of those) and sometimes they would just be funny, like the time we put on "Transformer Man" by Neil Young but sung "Price Chopper Bag" over the top of it.

I stopped the time that I put on "She was into S&M and bible studies, not everyone's cup of tea she would admit to me..." and MY MUM rang and got it. I was so embarrassed. Even moreso, because she thought it was *me* singing it.

I used to write & perform little ditties on my answering machine. At my peak output, I changed it once a week.