Call Me – Emotions come, I don’t know why. #MusicisLife #TedTocksCovers #Blondie #TheMuppets #AlvinandtheChipmunks #FranzFerdinand

I woke up this morning and found that Facebook was down worldwide. I panicked. How am I going to upload my daily post? I know. I will call Debbie Harry. I remember back in 1980 she said ‘Call Me’ anytime.

This endeavor turned out to be futile. I would just have to wait. While I wait I will write about ‘Call Me’ by Blondie. This song was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks becoming Blondie’s biggest selling single. It hit #1 39 years ago today. As much as the song’s popularity is interesting unto itself, it is how ‘Call Me’ came to be a Blondie song that is most intriguing.

‘Call Me’ was the theme song for the 1980 film American Gigolo. It was a co-writing project between Debbie Harry and Italian disco producer Giorgio Moroder. It is interesting to note that Harry was actually Moroder’s second choice to work with on ‘Call Me’. He had originally contacted Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac but she had just signed a solo deal with Modern Records and the details of the contract precluded her from working with Moroder. Turning to Harry and Blondie, Moroder gave the seductive singer a rough track of the music which had the working title of ‘Man Machine’. Within hours she came back with lyrics written from the perspective of the main character of the movie.

Once the lyrics were finalized Moroder and Harry brought in Blondie and completed the recording in the late summer of 1979. There were four versions recorded. A music video version, a slightly longer radio edit, an 8 minute album version and an 8 minute instrumental version that became a dance floor sensation in the era bridging disco and the beginning of New Wave. The original recording includes Debbie Harry provocatively asking the listener to “Call me my Darling” in Italian (“Amore, chiamami”) and (“Love, call me.”) and in French (“Appelle-moi, mon cheri) (Call me, my darling”).  In short Debbie Harry personified the sexiness of the rock, disco and new wave era during this time. The video brings it all back. Having said that there was certainly a fun loving and down to Earth side of Debbie Harry as witnessed in this video, where she performs an abbreviated version with the Muppets. This is great stuff.

In continuation of the fun side check out Alvin and the Chipmunks doing their own rendition.

Okay…back to reality here is a cool story. In 2009 a charity album, devoted to War Child Charity’s aid efforts in areas stricken by war and devastation, was recorded. The project is a fascinating source of covers because the mission is for a noteworthy band of the past to select one of their songs and then pass it on to an artist of the current generation. The symbolism here was to ‘place faith in the next generation’ in order to enact change. In this particular case, Blondie selected Scottish act Franz Ferdinand. Here is the energetic live recording that resulted. A great recording for a great cause. I love the way they bring artists together in such a powerful way.