“Call Me” by Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin wrote "Call Me" after spotting a young couple deep in conversation on Park Avenue in New York and overhearing them swap declarations of love and a plea to phone before they parted. She turned the moment into a song, with Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin producing, and Atlantic issued it as a single from This Girl's in Love with You in January 1970.

She plays the piano herself; the rest of the backing comes from members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, with Barry Beckett on keyboards, Eddie Hinton and Jimmy Johnson on guitars, David Hood on bass and Roger Hawkins on drums, while Cissy Houston, Brenda Bryant and Pat Lewis sing behind her. It spent two weeks on top of the R&B singles chart and reached 13 on the pop side: one more hit.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.