Review
Genre and Mood
Blondie’s Call Me is where new wave, disco and rock meet in one record: Record World called it a stirring electronic dance cut, and its sources also file it under dance-rock and hard rock. It is energetic and intense, and glamorous in the way of the film it was written for, what Stereogum calls a ride into the sleazy neon future.
Song Summary
Giorgio Moroder composed Call Me as the main theme of American Gigolo, Paul Schrader’s 1980 film, and produced it. He had first asked Stevie Nicks, whose recent record contract stopped her, then gave Debbie Harry an instrumental called Man Machine. Harry wrote the lyrics in a few hours, from the point of view of the film’s hero, the male escort Julian Kay played by Richard Gere; she said she pictured the opening scene, driving on the coast of California. This page is the 3:32 seven-inch edit, as it appears on The Best of Blondie.
Musical Breakdown
Stereogum calls the track sleek and efficient, a mechanistic marvel; the parts below follow its account.
Intro
An ominous synthetic drone rings out, then an itchy drumroll launches the song.
Verse 1
Harry belts with what Stereogum calls a feverish sense of devotion, while Moroder weaves bittersweet synth melodies into the bombast.
Chorus
The men of the band yell the title phrase, with feverish guitar fuzz all around.
Verse 2
Harry asks a customer to call her in Italian and then in French, phrases Moroder coached her to add.
Keyboard Solo
Harold Faltermeyer plays the solo; Blondie’s Jimmy Destri disliked it and would have preferred his own.
Concepts in Focus
As a soundtrack song, Call Me was built for a picture: Moroder’s crew recorded the instrumental at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, locked to timecode so it would sync with the film. Blondie recorded in New York in August 1979, insisting on playing their own parts, but struggled to lock to the sync, and Moroder finished the track in Los Angeles with his musicians.
The radio edit is the version heard here. The soundtrack album on Polydor carries the long version of about eight minutes; the 3:32 edit went out on seven-inch on Chrysalis, Blondie’s label, and the video uses a version of 2:15.
The synthesizer drives the record: Faltermeyer engineered and arranged it and played keyboards, and Stereogum hears the synth melodies as bittersweet against Chris Stein’s guitar.
Artistic Context
Released in the US on 1 February 1980, Call Me fell between The Hardest Part and Atomic. A Spanish version, Llámame, went to Salsoul for Mexico and parts of South America. The Best of Blondie, released by Chrysalis on 16 October 1981, collected it. For Moroder in his own words, hear Daft Punk – Giorgio by Moroder.
Impact and Reception
Call Me spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 from 19 April 1980, Blondie’s biggest single, and became Billboard’s number one single of 1980; it also topped the charts in the UK and Canada. Stereogum gave it ten out of ten, and Rolling Stone placed it at number 289 of its 500 greatest songs. Turn it up.
