Songfacts®:

• If A Man Answers is an American comedy released in 1962. The uptempo title song was written and performed by Bobby Darin, who starred in the lead role opposite his wife Sandra Dee. Surprisingly, the soundtrack featured only two songs, the other "A True True Love", was also written by Darin.
• So what happens if a man answers? "...honey, I'm gone." Both songs were released on the Capitol label; "If A Man Answers" was the A Side. In an age when most people carry around telephones in their pockets, the phrase "party line" may not gel; it actually refers to two or more subscribers sharing the same line, something that is not quite imaginable in the 21^st Century. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2
• In Rich Podolsky's book Don Kirshner: The Man with the Golden Ear, we learn the story of how Darin made an early impression on Cashbox magazine writer Ira Howard: "We were at a poker game in a small office where Donnie [Don Kirshner] was making $45 a week writing lyrics for publisher Al Lewis. At that game was an upright piano against the wall. Every now and then Bobby would sit down and just make up new song after new song on the spot. I remember thinking to myself, What a fantastic talent!"
  
  Darin almost didn't make songs like this; he was originally signed to Decca Records, but they had him doing an older style of music that just didn't suit his talent. When Decca let him go, it actually turned out to be the best thing that had ever happened to him, because Herb Abramson at Atlantic Records picked him up right away. Soon after came "Splish Splash," when Darin was at last allowed to be his true self, and the rest is history.