The Call (Backstreet Boys song)

"The Call"
Single by Backstreet Boys
from the album Black & Blue
Released February 6, 2001
Recorded July 1 – September 2000
Studio Polar (Stockholm, Sweden)
Genre Pop, dance-pop, R&B, hip hop
Length 3:24 (Radio Version)
3:57 (Video Version)
3:53 (Neptunes Remix)
Label Jive, Trans Continental
Songwriter(s) Max Martin, Rami
Producer(s) Max Martin, Rami
Backstreet Boys singles chronology
"Shape of My Heart"
(2000) 		"The Call"
(2001) 		"More than That"
(2001)
Music video
"The Call" on YouTube

"The Call" is a song by American boy band Backstreet Boys. It was released on February 6, 2001, as the second single from their album Black & Blue (2000).

Composition

According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Universal Music Publishing Group, the song has a BPM of 100 and is played in the key of B-flat minor (with a key change to C minor). The band's vocal range spans from the low note F4 to the high note of Ab5.

The song's bass sound is the sound of Howie Dorough's flatulence while recording the vocals, which producer Max Martin then turned into his signature bass sound. In 2017, Dorough said of the incident: "I got in the booth, was breathing in really heavily singing my part, and I guess some extra air kind of came out. It made everybody laugh, and Max decided to take that and sample it to turn it into the 'dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun.'"

Music video

Background

The music video for "The Call" was directed by Francis Lawrence. For the video version of the song was edited to extend the length of the song. Additional telephone rings were added at the start, and one measure was added to both the break following the second chorus, and the subsequent a cappella choral segment. A third repeat of the final chorus was also added.

There were two cuts of the video released. One featured the modified version, and the second featured the Neptunes Remix. The two versions were substantially the same, however the differing arrangements of the two song versions resulted in the video being slightly re-edited to match. The Neptunes video also adds flashes of early in the video as callbacks near the end of the video; there is also an unreleased remix video using the Thunderpuss Club Mix and the Thunderdub of the song. Band member AJ McLean later admitted on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in an episode discussing his recovery from depression and drug and alcohol abuse, that he tried cocaine for the first time on the set of this video. The music video won at the MTV Asia Awards in 2002 for Favorite Video. The song also received two nominations at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards.

Synopsis

Complementing the lyrics to the song, the video tells the story of a man who is unfaithful to his girlfriend. He meets another lady in a nightclub and leaves the club with her instead of going home to his girlfriend (whom he calls to make up an excuse for being late home). The cheating man is portrayed progressively by each of the five members of the Backstreet Boys.

Track listing

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the European maxi single's liner notes.

  • Max Martin – songwriter, producer, recording, mixer
  • Rami – songwriter, producer, recording, mixer
  • John Amatiello – assistant recording engineer, Pro Tools engineer
  • Henrik Janson – guitar
  • Stockholm Session Strings – strings
  • Tom Coyne – mastering

Charts

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) Platinum 8,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

See also