"You Can Call Me Al" is a song by American singer-songwriter
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...
. It was the
lead single
A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date.
Release s ...
from his seventh studio album, ''
Graceland
Graceland is a mansion on a estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, which was once owned by rock and roll icon Elvis Presley. His daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited Graceland after his death in 1977. Graceland is located at 3764 Elv ...
'' (1986), released on
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
. Written by Simon, its lyrics follow an individual seemingly experiencing a
midlife crisis
A midlife crisis is a transition of identity and self-confidence that can occur in middle age, middle-aged individuals, typically 40 to 60 years old. The phenomenon is described as a psychological crisis brought about by events that highlight a pe ...
. Its lyrics were partially inspired by Simon's trip to
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
and experience with its culture. Released in August 1986, "You Can Call Me Al" became one of Simon's biggest solo hits, reaching the top five in seven countries.
Background
The names in the song came from an incident at a party that Simon went to with his then-wife Peggy Harper. French composer and conductor
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music.
Born in Mont ...
, who was attending the same party, mistakenly referred to Paul as "Al" and to Peggy as "Betty", inspiring Simon to write a song.
Composition
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.midlife crisis
A midlife crisis is a transition of identity and self-confidence that can occur in middle age, middle-aged individuals, typically 40 to 60 years old. The phenomenon is described as a psychological crisis brought about by events that highlight a pe ...
("Where's my wife and family? What if I die here? Who'll be my role model?"); however, as Simon himself explained during the ''Graceland'' episode of the ''
Classic Albums
''Classic Albums'' is a British documentary series about pop, rock and heavy metal albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.
Format
The TV seri ...
'' documentary series, by the third verse the lyrics move from a generic portrait-like perspective to a personal and autobiographical one, as he describes his journey to
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
which inspired the entire album.
The song opens simply, with its protagonist wondering aloud why his
life is difficult, amid other questions. Simon structured the song's lyrics in a way that listeners would be given the simplest information first, before getting abstract with his imagery in the song's third verse: "Because there's been a structure,
..those abstract images, they will come down and fall into one of the slots that the mind has already made up about the structure of the song."
Recording and production
"You Can Call Me Al" was recorded entirely at
The Hit Factory
The Hit Factory is a recording studio in New York City owned and operated by Troy Germano.
History
On March 6, 1975, Edward Germano, a singer, record producer, and one of the principal owners of the Record Plant Studios New York, purchased the ...
in New York City in April 1986; it differs from much of ''Graceland'' in that regard, because most songs on the record were recorded in numerous locales worldwide.
Some of the saxophone textures heard on "You Can Call Me Al" were created by
Adrian Belew
Robert Steven "Adrian" Belew (born December 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, he is noted for his unusual and impressionistic approach to ...
on a
guitar synthesizer
A guitar synthesizer is any one of a number of musical instrument systems that allow a guitarist to access synthesizer capabilities.
Overview
Today's guitar synths are direct descendants of 1970s devices from manufacturers (often in partner ...
. "I had written a variety of saxophone emulations from baritone to alto which had a realistic yet unorthodox quality. He
imonspelled out each part exactly as he wanted them for the iconic beginning of the song. They may have added real saxophones later but my synthesized saxophones are definitely there as well. I’m sure very few people realize that."
Synthesizer player
Rob Mounsey
Rob Mounsey (born December 2, 1952) is an American musician, composer, and arranger.
Music career
Mounsey was born in Berea, Ohio, and grew up in Seattle, Washington, spending a few years each in Findlay and Granville, Ohio. At the age of 17, ...
arranged and conducted the horn section – eight brass and a bass saxophone – and contributed heavily to the track's arrangement and
groove
Groove or Grooves may refer to:
Music
* Groove (music)
* Groove (drumming)
* The Groove (band), an Australian rock/pop band of the 1960s
* The Groove (Sirius XM), a US radio station
* Groove 101.7FM, a former Perth, Australia, radio station
* ...
.
The song features a
bass run
Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, dub and electronic, traditional, or classical music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played (in jazz and some f ...
performed by
Bakithi Kumalo
Bakithi Kumalo (; born 10 May 1956) is a South African bassist, composer, and vocalist. Kumalo is most known for his fretless bass playing on Paul Simon's 1986 album ''Graceland'', in particular the bass run on "You Can Call Me Al".
Biography and ...
; the solo is
palindromic
A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panam ...
as only the first half was recorded, and was then played backwards for the second half. The decision to reverse the recording was made by Simon's long-time engineer
Roy Halee
Roy Decker Halee (born 1934) is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon & Garfunkel, both as a group and for their solo projects.
Early life
He grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy ...
, who noted in a later interview that this type of experimentation was common in order to make the songs more interesting.
The
penny whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...
solo was performed by jazz musician
Morris Goldberg
Morris Goldberg is a South African saxophonist who is recognised as one of the early pioneers of Cape Jazz, along with Dollar Brand and Chris McGregor.
Biography
Born in Cape Town, Goldberg grew up in Observatory, a suburb of Cape Town. He left ...
.
After the song's completion, it was mixed at The Hit Factory alongside the rest of ''Graceland'', at an average of two days per song.
Simon's vocals on the song are rather quick-paced, which made them difficult to mix over the numerous instruments in the backing track. After much work on the track, Halee used tape delays feeding separately into the two audio channels, which made the vocals clear.
Reception
''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' said it was one of Simon's most intricate verbal tour de forces, and said that "the melody moves along to beguiling Afro-Caribbean
polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...
s."
Chart performance
In the United States, "You Can Call Me Al" initially fared poorly, reaching number 44 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 in September 1986. As sales and acclaim for ''Graceland'' grew, culminating in a win for
Album of the Year Album of the Year, often abbreviated to AOTY, may refer to:
Awards
* ARIA Award for Album of the Year, Australia
* Brit Award for British Album of the Year, UK
* Grammy Award for Album of the Year, US
* Juno Award for Album of the Year, CA
* Lati ...
at the
29th Annual Grammy Awards
The 29th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 24, 1987, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.
Paul Simon won Album of the Year for ''Graceland'', and Burt Bacha ...
in February 1987, the single experienced a resurgence in sales and airplay. After making a second entry on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in March, the song rose to a peak of number 23 in May 1987.
The song reached the top 10 of several European charts. In the UK, it became his biggest solo hit, spending five weeks in the top 10 and peaking at number four in October 1986. It has since been certified double platinum in the UK.
Music videos
Simon did not like the original music video that was made, which was a performance of the song Simon gave during the monologue when he hosted ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
'' in the perspective of a
video monitor
A display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form (the latter used for example in tactile electronic displays for blind people). When the input information that is supplied has an electrical signal the ...
. A replacement video was conceived partly by
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels (born Lorne David Lipowitz; November 17, 1944) is a Canadian-American producer, screenwriter, and comedian. He is best known for creating and producing ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1980, 1985–present) and producing the '' La ...
and directed by
Gary Weis
Gary Weis (c. 1943) is an American filmmaker.
He is known for creating multiple short films that aired on ''Saturday Night Live'' in the late 1970s. He co-produced and provided visual effects for the documentary ''Jimi Hendrix'' (1973); he co- ...
, wherein ''Saturday Night Live'' alumnus
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He became a key cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'', where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment became a staple of the ...
lip-synced Simon's vocals, with gestures punctuating the lyrics as Simon lip-synced to the backing vocals and brought in various instruments to play when they respectively appear in the song. The Chase moving in unison with the Simon also provides an amusing juxtaposition.
Personnel
*
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...
– lead vocals, backing vocals, 6-string electric bass
*
Rob Mounsey
Rob Mounsey (born December 2, 1952) is an American musician, composer, and arranger.
Music career
Mounsey was born in Berea, Ohio, and grew up in Seattle, Washington, spending a few years each in Findlay and Granville, Ohio. At the age of 17, ...
– synthesizer, horn arrangements (uncredited on album)
*
Adrian Belew
Robert Steven "Adrian" Belew (born December 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, he is noted for his unusual and impressionistic approach to ...
–
guitar synthesizer
A guitar synthesizer is any one of a number of musical instrument systems that allow a guitarist to access synthesizer capabilities.
Overview
Today's guitar synths are direct descendants of 1970s devices from manufacturers (often in partner ...
*
Ray Phiri
Raymond Chikapa Enock Phiri (23 March 1947 – 12 July 2017) was a South African jazz, fusion and mbaqanga musician born in Mpumalanga to Thabethe Phiri, a Malawian immigrant worker, and South African guitarist nicknamed "Just Now" Phiri. He was ...
– guitar
*
Bakithi Kumalo
Bakithi Kumalo (; born 10 May 1956) is a South African bassist, composer, and vocalist. Kumalo is most known for his fretless bass playing on Paul Simon's 1986 album ''Graceland'', in particular the bass run on "You Can Call Me Al".
Biography and ...
– bass
* Isaac Mtshali – drums
*
Ralph MacDonald
Ralph Anthony MacDonald (March 15, 1944 – December 18, 2011) was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian American, Trinbagonian-American percussionist, songwriter, musical arranger, record producer, steelpan virtuoso and philanthropist.
His compositions ...
– percussion
* James Guyatt – percussion
*
Ronnie Cuber
Ronald Edward Cuber (December 25, 1941 – October 7, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. He also played in Latin, pop, rock, and blues sessions. In addition to his primary instrument, baritone sax, he played tenor sax, soprano sax, clarinet ...
–
baritone saxophone
The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...
,
bass saxophone
The bass saxophone is one of the lowest-pitched members of the saxophone family—larger and lower than the more common baritone saxophone. It was likely the first type of saxophone built by Adolphe Sax, as first observed by Berlioz in 1842. It ...
*
Dave Bargeron
David W. Bargeron (born September 6, 1942) is an American trombonist and tuba player who was a member of the jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Career
Bargeron was lead trombonist with Clark Terry's Big Band and played bass trombone and tub ...
–
trombone
The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...
* Kim Allan Cissel – trombone
*
Randy Brecker
Randal Edward Brecker (born November 27, 1945) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, and composer. His versatility has made him a popular studio musician who has recorded with acts in jazz, rock, and R&B.
Early life
Brecker was born on Nov ...
–
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
*
Jon Faddis
Jon Faddis (born July 24, 1953) is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator, renowned for both his playing and for his expertise in the field of music education. Upon his first appearance on the scene, he became known ...
– trumpet
*
Alan Rubin
Alan Rubin (February 11, 1943 – June 8, 2011), also known as Mr. Fabulous, was an American musician. He played trumpet, flugelhorn, and piccolo trumpet.
Early life and education
Rubin was born in Brooklyn. He began attending Juilliard Sc ...
– trumpet
*
Lew Soloff
Lewis Michael Soloff (February 20, 1944–March 8, 2015) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and actor.
Biography
From his birth place of New York City, United States, he studied trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard Sc ...
– trumpet
*
Morris Goldberg
Morris Goldberg is a South African saxophonist who is recognised as one of the early pioneers of Cape Jazz, along with Dollar Brand and Chris McGregor.
Biography
Born in Cape Town, Goldberg grew up in Observatory, a suburb of Cape Town. He left ...
–
penny whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...
*
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Ladysmith Black Mambazo are a South African male choral group singing in the local vocal styles of ''isicathamiya'' and '' mbube''. They became known internationally after singing with Paul Simon on his 1986 album ''Graceland'', and have won m ...
– backing vocals (uncredited)
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
In popular culture
* The song is performed in a 2015 episode of ''
Portlandia
''Portlandia'' is an American sketch comedy television series starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, set in and around Portland, Oregon, and spoofing the city's reputation as a haven for eccentric hipsters. The show was produced by Broa ...
'', Season 5, Episode 9, "You Can Call Me Al". The performance features an appearance by Simon himself.
* The music video is parodied in
Mikal Cronin
Michael "Mikal" Patrick Cronin (born 1985) is an American musician and songwriter. He has released four solo albums and several singles. Cronin was a member of the bands Okie Dokie, Epsilons, Party Fowl and Moonhearts, and is a regular and long ...
's 2015 music video, "Say".
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
External links
*
{{Authority control
Paul Simon songs
1986 singles
1986 songs
Songs written by Paul Simon
Song recordings produced by Paul Simon
Warner Records singles
Music videos directed by Gary Weis