Song:Wherever You Will Go
Album:Love Actually: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
The 2001 top five hit Wherever You Will Go was the only chart single for The Calling. The song also topped the Adult Top 40 for 23 weeks. Though Wherever You Will Go is a one hit wonder, the song has had a long shelf life unlike The Calling who only released two albums before splitting up. The Calling are from Los Angeles. Lead singer Alex Band and guitarist Aaron Kamin started jamming together in 1996 while Kamin was dating Band's sister. They formed a band and called themselves Generation Gap. That didn't last long and they called themselves Next Door because one of their neighbors was veteran music exec Ron Fair. He got them a record deal with RCA. They renamed themselves The Calling. But they weren't a band. Fair brought in musicians and then he brought in producer Marc Tanner who worked previously with Nelson and Eddie Money. The album Camino Palmero was released in 2001. Wherever You Will Go was the first single. It reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. And it topped the Adult Top 40 for 23 weeks. The song was very popular with women. The album was certified Gold but it was panned by critics. The musicians hired to be in The Calling left in 2002 because they thought they were supposed to get royalties. The 2004 album Two was Band and Kamin with studio musicians. The album did poorly and after touring, The Calling split up. The main criticism of The Calling was they sounded too much like other bands like Third Eye Blind and Train. Wherever You Will Go stood out as a ballad. The song got new life when it appeared in the popular 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually. That was a very successful film and so was the soundtrack which may explain why women love Wherever You Will Go. The Love Actually soundtrack is available as a budget CD. Though it looks like Kamin left the music business, Band was featured on Santana's 2003 top ten hit Why Don't You & I. Fair signed Band to Geffen Records. Band recorded an album but Geffen kept delaying the release. So he left and started his own label with EMI distribution. Band released an album in 2010 that went nowhere. Band now leads a version of The Calling with plans to record new music. Here's the video for Wherever You Will Go by The Calling.
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