"This Is a Call" is a song by American rock band Foo Fighters, released as the lead single from the band's 1995 self-titled debut album. Released in June 1995, it is one of many songs Dave Grohl wrote and performed on the album when Foo Fighters was a one-man band.
Origins
"This Is a Call" is one of the few songs on the Foo Fighters' debut album that does not date from Dave Grohl's days with Nirvana. It was a new song written in mid-1994, months after Kurt Cobain's death. Grohl married his long-time girlfriend Jennifer Youngblood and wrote the song while on honeymoon in Ireland, stating that "In that summer of 1994 I'd travelled a lot; I think I wrote 'This Is A Call' in Ireland. When I got back I booked five days in a recording studio, which seemed like an eternity, and I did the whole first Foo Fighters album in five days".
Lyrics
Dave Grohl said about the song: "The chorus says 'This is a call to all my past resignation'. It's just sort of like a little wave to all the people I ever played music with, people I've been friends with, all my relationships, my family. It's a hello, and in a way a thank you."
"'This Is A Call' just seemed like a nice way to open the album, y'know, 'This is a call to all my past resignations...' I felt like I had nothing to lose, and I didn't necessarily want to be the drummer of Nirvana for the rest of my life without Nirvana. I thought I should try something I'd never done before and I'd never stood up in front of a band and been the lead singer, which was fucking horrifying and still is!" The following month, the song debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and rose to a peak of number two the following month.
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!scope="row"|European Hot 100 Singles (Music & Media)
|14
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!scope="row"|European Hit Radio Top 40 (Music & Media)
|37
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!scope="row"|Iceland (Íslenski Listinn Topp 40)
|14
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Year-end charts
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
!Chart (1995)
!Position
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!scope="row"|Australia (ARIA)
|95
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!scope="row"|US Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard)
|24
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