She Calls Me Back

Album: Stick Season (2022)
Charted: 95 76
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Noah Kahan finds himself tangled in a web of emotions, unable to break free from his infatuation with his love interest. His attachment to her is tinged with anxiety, and he only truly feels at ease when they connect.

    Kahan is smitten by the "heaven in her eyes" but realizes that they are "two parallel lines" who will never be together. This realization causes him great pain, but he still finds solace in the moments when she calls him back.
  • Your page was blank, but I read it
    I still dial 822-993-167


    822-993-167 is not a real phone number; 822 isn't even a valid area code in the United States. Unlike Tommy Tutone's famous 1982 hit, "Jenny (867-5309)," where a real number took center stage, Kahan opted for a fictional phone number to shield someone from an onslaught of unwanted calls.
  • Kahan recorded "She Calls Me Back" for his third studio album, Stick Season. Kahan co-produced the entire album with Gabe Simon. Simon is a record producer, songwriter, and musician who has worked with a variety of artists, including Lana Del Rey ("Blue Banisters"), James Bay ("Give Me The Reason") and Jessie Murph ("Pray").

    Simon also played all the instruments on the track (percussion, drums, organ, guitar (with Kahan), electric guitar, baritone guitar, acoustic guitar, bass).
  • Noah Kahan released a duet version on October 6, 2023, with Kacey Musgraves. In this new interpretation, Kahan's initial verse, chorus, and pre-chorus remain unchanged, but Musgraves introduces a new second verse, turning the song into a conversation rather than a solitary soul's turmoil. She responds to Kahan's navel-gazing with a nonchalant and straightforward reply:

    If you think that you could wake me up
    Then you don't know how well I sleep
    You love me and I don't know why
    I only call you once a week


    After a pre-chorus led by Musgraves, the two artists join voices for the final lines of the song.
  • The musical arrangement doesn't change in either version. Kahan is the sole songwriter for both compositions.

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