Background The music video for "The Call" was directed by
Francis Lawrence. For the video version of the song was edited to extend the length of the song. Additional telephone rings were added at the start, and one measure was added to both the
break following the second chorus and the subsequent
a cappella choral segment. A third repeat of the final chorus was also added. Two cuts of the video were released. One featured the modified version, and the second featured
the Neptunes remix. The two versions were substantially the same; however, the differing arrangements of the two song versions resulted in the video being slightly re-edited to match. The Neptunes video also adds flashes of early in the video as callbacks near the end of the video; there is also an unreleased remix video using the
Thunderpuss Club Mix and the Thunderdub of the song. Band member
AJ McLean later admitted on
The Oprah Winfrey Show, in an episode discussing his recovery from depression and drug and alcohol abuse, that he tried cocaine for the first time on the set of this video. The music video won at the
MTV Asia Awards 2002 for
Favorite Video. The song also received two nominations for
Best Pop Video and
Viewer's Choice at the
2001 MTV Video Music Awards.
Synopsis Complementing the lyrics to the song, the video tells the story of a man who is unfaithful to his girlfriend. He meets another lady in a
nightclub and leaves the club with her instead of going home to his girlfriend (whom he calls to make up an excuse for being late home). Each member of the Backstreet Boys serve as the cheating man progressively. At the end, they are caught by the girlfriend and her friends of friends. ==Track listing==