 AllMusic's Donald A. Guarisco said its lyrics "use the scenario of a lovelorn narrator trying to talk a telephone operator into connecting him with a lover who won’t answer her phone, a scenario that has been used in songs as diverse as 'Memphis, Tennessee' and 'Operator'", adding that "it could have easily become an over-the-top exercise in camp but is saved by a gorgeous melody that contrasts verses full of yearning highs and aching lows with a descending-note chorus that clinches the song’s heartbroken feel".He concluded that arrangement transformed "Telephone Line" into a miniature symphony.AllMusic's Bruce Eder said that "Telephone Line" "might be the best Lennon-McCartney collaboration that never was, lyrical and soaring in a way that manages to echo elements of "Revolver" and the Beatles without ever mimicking them".