Call on Me (Eric Prydz song)

"Call on Me" is based on a replayed sample of the 1982 Steve Winwood song "Valerie".^[1][2] Prydz was inspired by a similar track created by the French duo Together, comprising Thomas Bangalter (of Daft Punk) and DJ Falcon. After Together declined to release their track, Prydz recreated it.^[1] Winwood rerecorded his vocals for "Call on Me".^[3] The "Valerie" instrumental was recreated by the company Replay Heaven, which recreates samples to simplify licensing.^[2]

"Call on Me" reached number one on the UK singles chart in September 2004. It returned to number one on 17 October, selling 23,519 copies. It was the lowest-selling UK number-one since records began, as singles were facing competition from downloads, which were not yet included in the chart.^[4]

In 2005, "Call on Me" won Dance Production of the Year at the Echo Music Prize.^[5] At the International Dance Music Awards, it was nominated for Best House/Garage Track and Best Pop Dance Track in 2005 and Best Underground Dance Track in 2006.^[6][7] In 2025, Billboard named "Call on Me" the 57th-greatest dance song, describing it as "a bright, bubbly and beloved anthem reminiscent of a sparklier time in dance music".^[1]

The "Call on Me" video was directed by Huse Monfaradi, who proposed a "throwaway idea about sexual aerobics".^[8] It features an aerobics instructor played by Deanne Berry and a class of female dancers.^[8]

In 2004, the British prime minister, Tony Blair, said: "The first time it came on, I nearly fell off my rowing machine."^[9] In 2005, it won Best Dance Video at the IDMA.^[6] In 2016, Vice wrote that "there's something so genuinely real about the video, something so almost tactile about it, so genuinely filled with priapic longing and lycra-encased lust that watching it now, feels like an act of genuine transgression ... 'Call on Me' definitely is a work of art. It is amazingly lurid, amazingly tacky, amazingly brash and amazingly bold."^[8] In 2011, NME named it the fifth-worst music video, citing its "lowest-common-denominator vibe".^[10]

Prydz refused to play "Call on Me" for years, calling it "super lazy". After he refused to play it at a show in Canada, some members of the audience threw bottles at him.^[11] On 15 March, 2025, Prydz played it at a show in Austin, Texas, for the first time in two decades.^[12]