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Call Me

Three top-10 singles, covers of Hank Williams and Willie Nelson, and an album Pitchfork found as intimate as a bedside table drawer.
Al Green, 1973

Released
1973
Studio
Royal Recording Studios, Memphis
Label
Hi Records
Producer
Willie Mitchell

The sixth album reached number 10 on the Billboard pop albums chart and was Green's third number one on the soul albums chart. It produced three top-10 singles on the Hot 100. You Ought to Be with Me reached number three, while Call Me (Come Back Home) and Here I Am (Come and Take Me) both reached number 10 and number two on the black singles chart. The album mixes in country influences, with Green covering both Hank Williams and Willie Nelson.

Mark Richardson put it at number 47 on Pitchfork's 2004 list of the top 100 albums of the 1970s. He wrote that the presence on the record is as intimate as the contents of a bedside table drawer, and that it is about sex and the Bible. He heard Green and Mitchell finding R&B perfection and trying to pour the rest of pop music into their pristine mold, with the covers all sounding like Green originals by the time he was through. Rolling Stone ranked it at number 289 in 2003 and 290 in 2012, and in 2003 VH1 named it the 70th greatest album in any genre.

Track listing

  1. Call Me (Come Back Home)3:03
  2. Have You Been Making Out O.K.3:42
  3. Stand Up3:25
  4. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry3:10
  5. Your Love Is Like the Morning Sun3:09
  6. Here I Am (Come and Take Me)4:14
  7. Funny How Time Slips Away5:33
  8. You Ought to Be with Me3:15
  9. Jesus Is Waiting5:36

Personnel

More from Al Green

Al Green Gets Next to You (1971), Let's Stay Together (1972), I'm Still in Love with You (1972), The Belle Album (1977)

Sources

  1. Call Me (Al Green album), Wikipedia
  2. Top 100 albums of the 1970s, Pitchfork (2004-06-23)
  3. Here I Am (Come and Take Me), Wikipedia