Call Me Maybe

's vocalist Josh Ramsay co-wrote "Call Me Maybe". "Call Me Maybe" was initially written by Jepsen and Tavish Crowe as a folk song, while they were on tour. Jepsen explained that the writing process was easy, and that she wasn't "over-thinking it. We brought in Josh [Ramsay], and he helped us kind of pop-ify it." The following days, she recorded the track at the Umbrella Studios in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. "Call Me Maybe" had been first released in Canada only through 604 Records on September 20, 2011. In December 2011, singers Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were in Canada and heard the track on the radio. After they spoke about the song on their Twitter accounts, Jepsen instantly gained international attention, and got signed by Scooter Braun to his Schoolboy Records. Bieber's tweet said the song "is possibly the catchiest song I've ever heard..." ==Composition==

"Call Me Maybe" was written by Jepsen and Crowe, with additional writing and song production by Josh Ramsay. Lyrically, the song describes the "infatuation and inconvenience of a love at first sight," as described by Bill Lamb of About.com. During the pre-chorus, Jepsen states how she suddenly becomes attracted to a person, singing, "Your stare was holding, ripped jeans, skin was showing/Hot night, wind was blowing/Where you think you're going, baby?" Melody Lau of Rolling Stone wrote that "Call Me Maybe" is a "Taylor Swift meets Robyn" song. Jon O'Brien of AllMusic called it a teen pop song with "a chorus that just about straddles that fine line between sugary sweet and sickly." Tiffany Lee of Yahoo! Music deemed it as an instant summer hit, and added that "Call Me Maybe" has "a good beat, great melody and catchy lyrics; something you and your friends can belt out in the car while driving to the beach, a party, and pretty much anywhere." Jon Caramanica of The New York Times wrote that the song is "breezy and sweet, an eyelash-fluttering flirtation run hard through the Disney-pop model of digitized feelings and brusque, chipper arrangements." Kelsey McKinney and Scott Kellum of Vox described it as "catchy bubblegum pop" that is given depth by "the absolute height of Jepsen's vocal range". According to Musicnotes.com, "Call Me Maybe" is written in the key of G major with a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute (BPM). Jepsen's vocals span from G3 to C5, and the song follows a key progression of Cmaj7–G/D–Cmaj7–G/D. ==Critical reception==

The song received critical acclaim. Rolling Stone journalist Melody Lau considered "Call Me Maybe" "a sugary dance-pop tune about hoping for a call back from a crush," Emma Carmichael of Gawker did a long review on the track, which she described as the "new perfect pop song." Nicole James of MTV revealed that "Call Me Maybe" is probably the catchiest song she has ever heard, and added that "I don't even want to tell you what the play count is in my iTunes for that song, but the moment you press play you're sucked in." The Village Voices Maura Johnston deemed it as an "utterly earwormy" song. RedEyes Emily Van Zandt began her review of the track saying, "screw you, Internet. Thanks to a couple of posts on blogs that I refuse to own up to follow, my afternoon has been dedicated to Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call Me Maybe'." Jim Farber of the New York Daily News said, "In lyrical construction, melodic flourish and instrumental arrangement, 'Maybe' has the urgency and sweep of the greatest teen pop songs ever recorded." Pitchfork named "Call Me Maybe" the 29th best song of 2012, while Rolling Stone named it the 50th greatest single of that year. It was voted the best single of 2012 by The Village Voices 40th annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll. As of April 2017, Billboard ranked at number one on list "The Best Chorus of the 21st Century". In September 2021, Rolling Stone placed it at number 436 on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. In October 2022, Varietys Rachel Seo ranked it as Jepsen's 11th best song, writing: "The chronically catchy track evokes memories of 2012, which, among many things, was the year when Marvel's The Avengers debuted in theaters and former President Obama was reelected. Call it overplayed and outdated, but if there was a song that could be considered most likely to bring about world peace, 'Call Me Maybe' might rank second (after John Lennon's 'Imagine')." ==Commercial performance==

Canada . "Call Me Maybe" achieved commercial success in Canada, and later in the United States and around the world. The song is Jepsen's third single to enter the Canadian Hot 100, debuting at number 97 for the week of October 22, 2011. For the week of February 11, 2012, "Call Me Maybe" reached number one in its 17th week on the Canadian Hot 100. By doing so, Jepsen became the fifth Canadian artist ever to reach the top position on the new chart in her home country, after Avril Lavigne, Nelly Furtado, Nikki Yanofsky, and Young Artists for Haiti. Jepsen commented that she feels "ultimately honored to be mentioned among those names. These are all artists I look up to in a big way. I have their music, they've been on my records since I can remember. It's really hard to believe. It's cool because at the same time, it's all that I've all ever been working for." The song has since been certified Diamond by Music Canada (MC), for sales of 800,000 units of the track in the country. It spent a total of 74 weeks on the chart. United States of America In the United States, the song debuted at number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week of March 10, 2012 with 80,000 downloads. The song entered the top ten on the chart the week April 14, 2012 at number ten The song reached number one on the week ending June 23, 2012 and spent nine consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Jepsen is the first Canadian female artist to have a number one on Billboard Hot 100 since Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend", which reached number one the week of May 5, 2007, making her the first Canadian artist to have a number one in the 2010s. The song is only the fourth song to log seven weeks at number one by an artist from Canada, tied with "Sh-Boom" by the Crew-Cuts, "Informer" by Snow featuring MC Shan, and "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" by Bryan Adams. Three weeks earlier, it had reached number one on the Digital Songs component chart. The track also reached number one on the Mainstream Top 40 chart. The song is Jepsen's first entry on the Billboard charts in the country, which made her the first lead woman since Kesha with her single "Tik Tok" to have her debut single peak at such position. "Call Me Maybe" was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), becoming third female artist to achieve with her own single and first Canadian female artist to achieve, and as of August 2015, it has sold 7.6 million copies in the US, making it the country's twelfth all-time best-selling digital single. Other countries "Call Me Maybe" debuted at number 39 in Australia on the chart issue dated March 18, 2012, The song also made its debut on the country's chart for the week of March 5, 2012 at number 22, reaching the top position four weeks later. It remained at the top for five consecutive weeks, before falling to number two. "Call Me Maybe" became New Zealand's best selling single in 2012, placed at the top spot by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. "Call Me Maybe" performed well in Europe also, topping the charts in France, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. while attaining top three positions in Austria, Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Germany, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. The song became the third fastest-selling song of 2012 on the UK Singles Chart, behind DJ Fresh and Rita Ora's track "Hot Right Now" and Cheryl's "Call My Name". "Call Me Maybe" remained at number one for a second week on April 15, 2012 – for the week ending date April 21, 2012 – keeping Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" from reaching such position after outselling it by two to one. In its fourth week on the chart, the song stayed at number one with 99,569 copies sold after three consecutive weeks selling over 100,000 copies. The song became Britain's second best-selling single of 2012, with 1,143,000 copies sold. As of April 2017, "Call Me Maybe" has sold 1.35 million copies in the United Kingdom, making it the 11th biggest-selling song by a woman on the UK Singles Chart. ==Music video==

Background and release The music video for "Call Me Maybe" was written and directed by Ben Knechtel and filmed at 19841 48a Ave, Langley, British Columbia on October 30, 2011. According to Knechtel, the main idea behind the concept was to have a "twist at the end", trying to get away from the idea of the classic "boy meets a girl" story. The music video was released on December 9, 2011, before being re-uploaded on March 1, 2012. In a 2018 interview with iHeartRadio Canada, Holden Nowell said he had regrets about his participation in the video, claiming that he was paid $500 with a promise of additional residuals, but never received "a single penny in royalties". Synopsis and reception The video begins with Jepsen spying on her attractive tattooed neighbour (Holden Nowell) as he is mowing his lawn. As she comes to, the neighbor then helps her get up and watches the band rehearse the track again. After turning and writing down her telephone number, Jepsen sees her neighbor pass one of her male bandmates (Tavish Crowe) his own number, indicating he is gay, where the very end shows that Jepsen is taken aback by this. The video received three nominations on the 2012 MuchMusic Video Awards in the categories of UR Fave Video, Pop Video of the Year, and Video of the Year. ==Live performances==

On March 26, 2012, Jepsen visited WBBM-FM's Morning Show and performed two tracks of her EP, "Call Me Maybe" and "Curiosity". Days later, the singer made her US television debut during The Ellen DeGeneres Show performing "Call Me Maybe". Emily Exton of Pop Dust summarized the performance, writing, "delivering fairly true-to-radio vocals that seemed to overcome any lingering nerves performing for millions of viewers (and your sorta boss?) might bring on, Carly left the security of the mike stand to move beneath the oversized dandelion lights during the final moments of her euphoric head-bobber." She also performed an acoustic version of the song on Kidd Kraddick in the Morning and KISS 92.5. On May 2, 2012, on a visit to Australia, she performed "Call Me Maybe" on the TV show Sunrise. On May 20, 2012, Jepsen performed the track on the 2012 Billboard Music Awards. On June 9, 2012, Jepsen performed the track with Justin Bieber on the Capital FM Summertime Ball at the Wembley Stadium, London. On June 17, 2012, Jepsen performed the song at 2012 MuchMusic Video Awards. On July 22, 2012, Jepsen performed the song at 2012 Teen Choice Awards. She also performed the song on CBBC show Friday Download on April 27, 2012, even though the show is pre-recorded. On August 26, 2012, Jepsen performed the song live at the US Open Arthur Ashe Kids' Day, in what began as a pro-am doubles tennis match (Mardy Fish and Jepsen vs. Novak Djokovic and Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin) but quickly became a musical performance initiated by Djokovic and Franklin, with chair umpire Matthew Morrison (of the TV show Glee) handing a microphone to the seemingly surprised Jepsen. During the number, the tennis court was filled with ball kids doing choreographed dance moves, a four-piece back-up band, a juggle, a marching band, Djokovic pushing a lawnmower as in the official video, and many other performers. Carly Rae Jepsen and Harvey Keitel performed "Call Me Maybe" alternating their own version of it during Comedy Central's Night of Too Many Stars autism benefit show on October 21, 2012. ==Cover versions and parodies==

Lip dubs A number of parody and lip dub videos have been released throughout the internet since the song's release. Big Time Rush, Ashley Tisdale, Justin Bieber, and Selena Gomez uploaded a parody video to YouTube on February 18, 2012; it instantly turned viral, Pop singer Katy Perry also released a viral video with her friends on April 19, 2012, while hosts and members of the E! TV series Fashion Police also released theirs on May 4, 2012. On May 23, 2012, a compilation from several fan videos was uploaded to Jepsen's Vevo page. The Harvard University baseball team uploaded a lip-sync video to the song on YouTube on May 6, 2012, which it had recorded on the way to a game over spring break. As of August 2019, it had been viewed over 19 million times. The Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders have also made a cover of the song that has garnered over 25 million views as of August 2019. On July 11, 2012, Crystal Palace F.C. released a cover version, in which the Crystal Palace cheerleaders squad, "the Crystals", sang and danced along to "Call Me Maybe". A promotional campaign to encourage the sale of season's tickets at the club, it was dubbed "Call Me Crystals". In July 2012, members of the United States Armed Forces stationed in Kandahar International Airport, Afghanistan had released another lip dub video with the idea to show troops in a more positive, light-hearted way. The Baracksdubs YouTube channel used Auto-Tune to produce a satire version from clips of Barack Obama. New York Mets infielder Justin Turner has also used the song as his at-bat music at home games. On July 3, 2012, Mabson Enterprises released a digital-only compilation on Bandcamp comprising 43 versions of the track remixed or covered including tracks by Dan Deacon, Ear Pwr, Poingly and Sean Carnage. On July 20, 2012, the cast of Hollywood Heights, Cody Longo, Brittany Underwood, Carlos Ponce, Melissa Ordway, Jama Williamson, Meredith Salenger, among others, made a cover version of them lip singing and dancing along to the song on set of the show. On July 26, 2012, the United States Olympic swimming team posted a video of them lip syncing to the song at practice and on the way to London for the Olympics. On July 30, 2012, a mashup video featuring NASA videos of the Mars Science Laboratory was posted on YouTube, just a week before the Curiosity rover landed on Mars. The video was then updated after the landing and played for the Mars Curiosity Rover team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the wake up video for Sol 18 on August 24, 2012. The cast of The Big Bang Theory made a flashmob of the song on October 23, 2012, during the live taping of an episode. Cover versions, mashups, and remixes A number of covers also emerged since the song's release. On March 24, 2012, Cimorelli performed a dance routine version of the song. The group returned in a sequel titled "Don't Call Me Baby", this time featuring MattyBRaps on May 9. On June 7, 2012, producer Chi Duly released "Call Me Calvin (Chi Duly Edit)", a mashup which replaced the original backing of "Call Me Maybe" with Calvin Harris' singles "I'm Not Alone", "Feel So Close", and "We Found Love". On July 10, 2012, Sesame Street released a parody of the song, called "Share it Maybe", which features "Cookie Monster-ified lyrics". A cover of the song released by Carly Rae Jepsen Tribute Team peaked at number 49 on the UK Singles Chart for one week and another version by Hit Masters spent the same amount of time on the chart but peaked 23 places lower, at number 72. American indie pop band Fun covered "Call Me Maybe" in an acoustic form at an in-studio session for Dutch radio 3FM. On May 8, 2012, folk artist Ben Howard covered the song for BBC Radio. Renditions from other notable people include James Franco and Colin Powell. On July 30, 2012, video game developer HeR Interactive, well known for the Nancy Drew computer games, added a new video parody of the song about Nancy Drew, titled "Call Me Nancy, Second Chance Me", a reference to the "Second Chance" feature in its games. On the fourth season of Glee premiere episode "The New Rachel", they covered "Call Me Maybe" as a way to decide who the "new Rachel" will be. During the Australian fourth season of The X Factor, the finalists recorded and performed a cover of "Call Me Maybe" as a charity single in aid of Sony Foundation's You Can program. Girls Aloud covered "Call Me Maybe" live during their Ten: The Hits Tour. Los Angeles comedy punk band Radioactive Chicken Heads recorded a punk rock version of the song in November 2012, also releasing a music video concurrently with their punk rock cover of Taylor Swifts "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". During the first episode of the eighth season of ''America's Got Talent'', aired on June 4, 2013, the 3 Penny Chorus and Orchestra directed by Arianne Abela did a cover of "Call Me Maybe", arranged by Colin Britt and Arianne Abela. "Weird Al" Yankovic briefly covered the song as part of his polka medley "NOW That's What I Call Polka!" for his 2014 album Mandatory Fun. For the thirtieth anniversary of MathWorks in 2014, a group of employees created a flashmob-style parody version called "Call Me Nerdy". Baltimore rapper JPEGMafia released his own cover for the song as well. On September 25, 2020, a short for the Disney Channel show Gravity Falls was released. In that short, one of the main characters, Mabel, sings "Call Me Mabel", a parody of the song. ==Track listings==

• Digital download • "Call Me Maybe"  – 3:13 • "Both Sides Now"  – 3:53 • "Talk to Me"  – 2:50 • "Call Me Maybe" (Instrumental)  – 3:13 • Digital download – DAISHI DANCE Remix • "Call Me Maybe" (Daishi Dance Remix)  – 4:40 • CD single • "Call Me Maybe"  – 3:13 • "Both Sides Now"  – 3:53 • Remix EP • "Call Me Maybe" (Manhattan Clique Remix)  – 5:56 • "Call Me Maybe" (Almighty Club Mix)  – 6:58 • "Call Me Maybe" (10 Kings.VS. Ollie Green Remix)  – 3:08 • "Call Me Maybe" (Coyote Kisses Remix)  – 4:46 ==Credits and personnel==

• Carly Rae Jepsen – vocals, songwriting • Tavish Crowe – songwriting, guitar, bass, drums, synthesizer, strings, backing vocals • Josh Ramsay – production, songwriting, guitars, bass, drums, synthesizer, strings, backing vocals • Max Martin – keyboards • Dave Ogilvie – mixing Credits adapted from: Curiosity and Kiss album liner notes, Apple Music. ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts All-time charts ==Certifications==