Who wrote the Blondie song ‘Call Me’ with Debbie Harry?
When you think of Blondie, it’s not long before the instantly recognisable opening riff of ‘Call Me’ is ringing through your head. The 1980 track not only stands as one of the New York City band’s biggest tracks, but it’s undeniably one of the most beloved rock tunes of the whole era, enduring through to today as an absolutely timeless classic. But while the rest of Blondie’s tracks were written between Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, the answer of who wrote ‘Call Me’ isn’t quite as simple.
As is splashed across merch T-shirts everywhere, Blondie is a band. People often make the mistake of thinking that the band’s lead singer, Debbie Harry, with her signature blonde locks, is Blondie. It’s partly true as Harry sees her role within the band as a kind of character, as she stated, “My Blondie character was an inflatable doll but with a dark, provocative, aggressive side.” But when it comes to the music, she’s not messing around. It was never performative as Blondie came together as a fierce musical troupe, with Harry saying, “I was playing it up, yet I was very serious.”
But while Harry is the face of the operation to an extent, she and Chris Stein sit at the heart of it. Having previously been in the stilettos together, the pair quit and started their own band, with their shared creative vision acting as the blueprint and foundation for Blondie.
Together, they wrote the hits. Thry broke out of their New York City sphere and into mainstream success with ‘Heart Of Glass’ and went from strength to strength with ‘Hanging on the Telephone’. They proved themselves to be a powerful songwriting duo, positioning the band as one of the biggest success stories from their original scene, managing to go beyond cultish punk fame and become an enduringly beloved group that people still clamber to see live today. But when it comes to ‘Call Me’, the story of the song isn’t as simple as just being a Harry and Stein creation.
So, who wrote actually ‘Call Me’ by Blondie?
The lyrics to ‘Call Me’ were written by Debbie Harry. However, it wasn’t created like any other typical Blondie song because it wasn’t really for Blondie. Instead, the track was made for the film American Gigolo. Originally composed by Italian musician Giorgio Moroder, he wrote and produced the instrumental to be the theme tune to the 1980s movie.
Originally, Moroder wanted Stevie Nicks to write lyrics for the film and perform the track. But when Nicks couldn’t make it happen, he turned to Harry, who wrote the now iconic lyrics. When he first pitched the instrumental to Blondie, the track was called ‘Man Machine’. But only a few hours later, Harry came back with her lyrics, retitling the song as ‘Call Me’, writing the track from the perspective of the film’s protagonist.
Now, the popularity of the song way overshadows the movie it was made for. ‘Call Me’ took on a life of its own as it hit number one on the Billboard chart and stayed there for six weeks, enduring as the band’s most popular track.
