Time once again for more musical niche retro-ness with this week’s instalment of Pop Essays. This week: a sorely forgotten moment of perfection from the first album of the Noughties by an actual pop icon…
- Artist: Janet Jackson
- Song: Someone To Call My Lover
- Released: 30/07/2001
- Writers / Producers: Janet Jackson / James Harris III / Terry Lewis / Dewey Bunnell
- Highest UK Chart Position: #11
- Chart Run: 11 – 22 – 35 – 43 – 60 – 99
With the release of All For You, her seventh studio album in 2001, Janet Jackson had sought to regain a more upbeat sound and lyrical vibe than that which had been on her previous album, 1997’s mega successful The Velvet Rope.
And it certainly seemed as if her audience was responding in kind, with the first two singles – “Doesn’t Really Matter” (recorded for the soundtrack of Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps, in which she starred as the love interest of Eddie Murphy’s titular character) and the title track – both topping the Billboard charts in the States whilst scaling the top 5 here in the UK.
The return to a more positive vibe to her music continued on into the third single, which, when you read about its origins, makes total sense as to why it came out sounding the way it did. Written and produced with her long time collaborators Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, it had started life from a looped guitar sample off of the song “Ventura Highway” by Transatlantic rockers America.
Layered on top of this was another sample, namely the melody from “Gymnopédie No. 1” by the French classical composer Erik Satie. Janet expressed her fondness for this after recognising the tune growing up from an advert break during The 3.30 Movie, an afternoon slot on public US TV where a film would be played, featuring the recognisable tune.
Fast forward seven years later, and she finally learnt what the tune was called after hearing it in a Ralph Lauren store, and took a copy if it on CD to Jimmy Jam who was able to work it into the song and capture a small bit of her childhood in the process. And indeed, it’s use as a sonic reference point in “Someone To Call My Lover” is what gives it a nostalgic, almost innocent feel to proceedings.
Lyrically, it’s about Janet deciding to bring romantic love into her life again, knowing what she wants and being mindful of what hasn’t worked before: “Back on the road again / Feeling kinda lonely and looking for the right guy to be mine / Friends say I’m crazy cause / Easily I fall in love / “You gotta do it different J, this time””.
The bridge and chorus however, keeps the vibrant hope and optimism open for what might be in her next relationship: “Maybe we’ll meet at a bar / He’ll drive a funky car / Maybe we’ll meet at a club / And fall so deeply in love / He’ll tell me I’m the one / And we’ll have so much fun / I’ll be the girl of his dreams, maybe / Alright, maybe gonna find him today / I gotta get someone to call my lover / Yeah, baby, come on / Alright, baby, come and pass my way / I gotta get someone to call my lover / Yeah, baby, come on”.
Its sun drenched, dreamy like backing was also perfectly reflected in the video. Shot on the Spahn Movie Ranch just outside Los Angeles, it’s basked in sepia, burnished lighting as Janet drives to and arrives at a bar like the one referenced in the song, where she sings and dances and eventually finds and hitches a ride with a handsome gent in his red car.
In short, it had all the ingredients of a huge summer hit. And in America, at least, that was the case; it became her third consecutive top 3 hit from the All For You album, peaking at #3. Over here in the UK, however, it was an oddly different story.
Overall single sales were starting to dip by 2001, that much was true, and that alone wasn’t something exclusive to just one artist; but with strong pre-release airplay, there was little to suggest that, even with Janet’s lack of promotional availability owing to being on her sold out Stateside tour, that it would be anything other than another huge hit.
So whilst it was the second highest new entry on the week it entered our chart that July, it landed on the cusp of the top 10 at #11, and was out of the top 40 altogether two weeks later. (For context, the highest new entry that week was the similarly underperforming “Scream If You Wanna Go Faster” from Geri Halliwell, which entered at #8 and ended her hitherto unbroken run of consecutive number ones as a solo artist.)
Just one more single – the Carly Simon sampling, Missy Elliott featuring “Son of a Gun (Betcha Think This Song Is About You)” – from the album followed that December, also stopping short of the top 10 at #13. In the US, that same single also broke her run of consecutive top 10s since “What Have You Done For Me Lately” in 1986, and stalled at #28, and that was that.
Considering she’d lifted no less than nine singles from previous albums, it was most unusual for Janet’s campaigns to be curtailed less than a year on from release. That said, her brother Michael Jackson, who had also released his comeback album Invincible around the same time, was similarly finding the going tough, with “You Rock My World” being its only notable hit of the magnitude he normally commanded.
Whatever the reasons were at the time for such a sharp reversal of commercial form – and we won’t even go into the can of worms that followed with her next album, Damita Jo, in 2004, because things didn’t get any easier for her there – for us, “Someone To Call My Lover” is still one of her most inspired singles. At time of writing, it’s now gaining a second wind on TikTok, so maybe now is the time for people to fall so deeply in love with this single nearly 25 years on.
Don’t forget to follow our Pop Essays playlist on Spotify, which includes this and all the songs we’ve written about. What are your memories of this week’s featured song or artist? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or message us on our Instagram.
The Niche Reference 