Memphis soul and smooth soul. Widely regarded as Al Green's masterpiece, the album achieves a unique balance between original Green compositions and two reimagined country classics — Hank Williams's "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and Willie Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away" — entirely recast in the warm, introspective Hi Records sound, with "Jesus Is Waiting" foreshadowing the gospel devotion that would define Green's later career.
Release
Released in April 1973 by Hi Records, distributed by London Records. Recorded in 1972 at Royal Recording Studios, Memphis, Tennessee. The album was certified platinum by the RIAA.
Production
Produced by Willie Mitchell and Al Green. The Hi Rhythm Section provided the instrumental core.
Reception
Call Me peaked at number two on the Billboard Soul Albums chart and number ten on the Billboard 200. The album produced three top-ten hits: "You Ought to Be with Me" (Soul No. 1, Pop No. 3), "Call Me (Come Back Home)" (Soul No. 1, Pop No. 10), and "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" (Soul No. 2, Pop No. 10). AllMusic gave it a perfect score, describing it as the most inventive and assured album of Green's career. Rolling Stone called it a "dizzying peak." VH1 ranked it the 70th greatest album of all time in 2003. Rolling Stone ranked it number 156 in its 2023 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Al Green
Al Green (born Albert Leornes Greene, April 13, 1946, Forrest City, Arkansas) is an American soul singer, songwriter, and ordained pastor. Signed to Hi Records in 1969, he and producer Willie Mitchell forged between 1971 and 1974 one of the most celebrated partnerships in soul music history, producing a series of albums — Let's Stay Together (1972), I'm Still in Love with You (1972), Call Me (1973), and Livin' for You (1973) — that collectively define the Memphis soul sound of the era. Following a personal crisis in 1974, he gradually devoted himself to gospel, recording exclusively religious material through the 1980s. He returned to secular music in 1988 and has continued performing and recording. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and has won eleven Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016).
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