"Calling" is a song by British singer

Geri Halliwell Geraldine Estelle Horner (née Halliwell; born 6 August 1972) is an English singer, songwriter, author, and actress. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls. With over 100 million records ...

. It was written by Halliwell and

Peter-John Vettese Peter-John Vettese (born 15 August 1956 in Scotland), also known as Peter Vettese, is a Scottish keyboardist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. Vettese is perhaps best known for being the keyboardist for progressive rock band Jethro Tul ...

for her second album, ''

Scream If You Wanna Go Faster ''Scream If You Wanna Go Faster'' is the second studio album by British singer Geri Halliwell, released on 14 May 2001 by EMI Records. Following the commercial success of her solo debut album '' Schizophonic'' two years before, the singer began w ...

'' (2001), while production was helmed by

Stephen Lipson Stephen J. Lipson (born 16 March 1954) is an English record producer, audio engineer, guitarist and songwriter. As a record producer, he has worked with many artists including Annie Lennox, Propaganda, Act, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Will Youn ...

. The song was released as the third and final single from the album. Just like Halliwell's previous single, "

", the success for "Calling" was limited. In certain regions, the song was released in a French version, called "Au nom de l'amour". To promote the single, Halliwell performed the song on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

'', ''Top of the Pops Germany'', '' CD:UK'', '' Children in Need'' 2001, ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...

'', '' This Morning'' and the ''

Pepsi Chart The Pepsi Chart (previously known as "The Pepsi Network Chart Show") was a networked Sunday afternoon Top 40 countdown on UK radio that started life on 1 August 1993 with Neil 'Doctor' Fox hosting the show live from the Capital Radio studios ...

''.

Background

"Calling" was written by

along with

, while production was helmed by

. Halliwell called it her favorite song on the album. After she recorded a demo version of the song, she rushed over to singer and personal friend

George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling musici ...

in London and played it to him. She commented that Michael would only offer praise if he really thought it was deserved. As he was "brutally honest" and it could be hard to take, she was so confident about this song that she was willing to risk it. When the song ended, he said, "You know what, Geri, that's very good". According to Halliwell, "from George Michael that means something. I really believed I had a winner."

Chart performance

Released on 26 November 2001, "Calling" debuted and peaked at number seven on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

on 2 December 2001, lasting 10 weeks on the chart. Altogether, the song sold 70,515 copies and became the 192nd best selling single of 2001 in the United Kingdom. Elsewhere, "Calling" entered the majority of the charts it appeared on, peaking at six on the Hungarian Rádiós Top 40 and at number 11 in the

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

n region of Belgium. In her autobiography ''Just for the Record'', Halliwell revealed that the chart position upset her as "Calling" was her favourite song from the album, and she was certain that it was a sure-fire number one. Due to her disappointment with the chart position of the single, no further singles were released from ''Scream If You Wanna Go Faster'' and Halliwell moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

for several months and took a break from the music industry.

Music video

The

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

music video for "Calling" was directed by Pierluca DeCario and filmed in

Barcelona, Spain Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in October 2001. It shows Halliwell, dressed with a black sweater and barefoot, singing the song while lying in a meadow and standing and walking in front of concrete walls. The video was released on 1 November 2001.

Track listings

Personnel

Personnel are taken from the ''

'' album booklet. * Geri Halliwell – writing * Peter-John Vettese – writing, keyboards, original production, programming *

Nick Ingman Nicholas Ingman (born 29 April 1948) is an English arranger, composer and conductor in the commercial music field. His collaborators include Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Björk, and the British X-factor. Born and educated in London, Ingman moved ...

– string arrangement *

Gavyn Wright Gavyn Wright is a British violinist and orchestra leader with the London Session Orchestra and Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He is best known for his orchestral arrangements on pop productions (including Elton John, Simply Red, Bush, Mecano, Oasis, ...

–

concertmaster The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most signifi ...

* Steve Price – string engineering * Stephen Lipson – production, programming * Heff Moraes – mixing, engineering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Calling (Song) 2001 singles 2001 songs Geri Halliwell songs EMI Records singles Song recordings produced by Stephen Lipson Songs written by Geri Halliwell Songs written by Peter-John Vettese