Greenville Avenue Pizza Company. (Photo by Danny Fulgencio.)
If you haven’t ordered pizza over the phone from the Greenville Avenue Pizza Company, you’re missing out. The neighborhood pizza joint just might have created the best original hold music in Texas.
Dallas Observer writer Nick Rallo certainly thinks so. He was ordering pizza via phone on a busy Friday night when he was put on hold. That’s when he heard the life-altering song “Pizza Man.”
He writes:
Let’s talk about how good the “Pizza Man” is at being “hold music.” It’s startling. My phone blasted the melody — a catchy, rolling head-bobbing thing. The singer hitting the letters “G-A-P-Co-yo” in beat sounded so richly produced that, for a split second, I thought I had accidentally flipped over to the radio. It was a busy night, so the entire song played. It marks the first time in the history of ordering pizza over the phone that I didn’t care how long the wait was — this song slaps.
GapCo owner Sammy Mandell commissioned the anthem in 2016 as a way to make people excited about the restaurant on social media. But the song was more than just clever marketing. Mandell, a Bryan Adams graduate, loves East Dallas and wanted his restaurant to reflect the quirky, fun nature of the neighborhood.
“I really want some sort of anthem, something to make the staff proud to be here,” Mandell told the Observer.
Mandell emailed a former Bryan Adams classmate, who must remain anonymous because of contractual obligations, and forwarded him some key words for inspiration. A month later, the “Pizza Man” was born.
Mandell played the song over the hold system at the Peavy Road location, then added it to the Greenville Avenue store as well. It’s now available on Spotify and Amazon.
Give it a listen, and buy some pizza while you’re at it.
