SOMEONE TO CALL MY LOVER

I am still amazed about the power of Tik Tok and the short-form, video platform's ability to breathe new life into older or more obscure music. The latest is the resurgence of Janet Jackson's 2001 pop hit, "Someone To Call My Lover" which has seen a streaming surge once again by going viral on the app. There is usually a current dance craze that helps propel a song's popularly but that isn't clear here with Jackson's twenty-four year old song gaining traction through remixes by her fans and the use as background music on various Tik Toks.

"Someone To Call My Lover" was a track from Jackson's seventh studio album, "All for You" and was the second single released from the record. Jackson and her producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis crafted this song during the difficult demise of her over ten year marriage to dancer and producer, René Elizondo Jr. Feeling lonely and wishing she had a companion so she could do things differently in a new relationship, the song was inspired by these emotions. With a sample of the guitar riff from the rock band, America's 1972 top-ten hit, "Ventura Highway" driving the song, "Someone To Call My Lover" reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the top-twenty in several other countries.

But this sadly would become Jackson's final top-ten hit in the US and the last time Jam and Lewis would produce her music for ten years. Following her appearance on the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in 2004 and the infamous "wardrobe malfunction", Jackson became vilified in the press, losing work and her new music would suffer the consequences from this incident. Thankfully, Jackson's career recovered from this controversy, enjoying a renewed, surge in popularity with her Together Again World Tour which began in 2023 and has continued with a Las Vegas residency. And it's been ten years since her last studio album, "Unbreakable", so let's hope this viral hit will help inspire Jackson to get back in the studio to make some new music.