Artist:Eric Prydz
Song:Call on Me
Album:Red Hot Hits
Here's a record that topped the charts across Europe including England. It was successful mainly because it samples the chorus of a popular oldie. They do that because it works. The guy behind it is Swedish DJ Eric Prydz. Call on Me was his first and still his biggest hit. He was born July 19, 1976 in Taby, Sweden which is a suburb of Stockholm. His parents bought him a keyboard so he could make music in his bedroom. In 1994, Prydz was drummer of the synth band Enemy Alliance. They were looking to be the next Kraftwerk. When that went nowhere, Prydz started making music with a couple of friends and worked locally as a DJ. He gave a cassette to a friend and it ended up in EMI's London office. They released a single in 2000 followed by an EP. This did well enough in clubs that it got him remix work which pays the bills. Then he got together with Ministry of Sound to produce Call on Me. The sample is the chorus of the 1982 Steve Winwood song Valerie. Winwood even recorded new vocals for the record. Remember he wrote the song so he's getting paid. The song was first sampled in 2002 by the French duo Together. It played in clubs. But when Ministry of Sound wanted to release it as a record, Together decided against it. And that's when Ministry of Sound took it to Prydz. The record was very successful. It topped the British Singles chart and was a hit across Europe. It was only released as a single so you you can only get it on various artists comps like this 2CD comp from BMG. The music video is notable because of how lousy it is. The British music paper NME ranked it #5 on their list of the 50 Worst Music Videos Ever. It's an erotic aerobics video that appears to be a tribute to the 1985 film Perfect starring John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis. Ministry of Sound produced it. Prydz has never had another hit that big. But he still releases singles on his Pryda label and DJs live shows. Here's the video for Call on Me by Eric Prydz.
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