Whenever You Call

Story of Song

A true romantic love song about two people in love but far away from each other. Mariah wrote this song in early stages of preparing the album. She talked about ‘Whenever You Call’ in an interview with Molly Meldrum, saying: “It’s more of a traditional style of ballad, more in a ‘Hero’ kind of feeling. I tried to keep that one as under-produced as I could for the type of song that it is. I didn’t want it to get too over-blown. I like it a lot.” Mariah then added: “It’s hard sequencing, because I have so many different types of records on this album [Butterfly], but I think it’s good because I maintained true to myself in every way, like staying who I am in terms of doing the ballads and doing the things I love to do, but being able to do the collaborations with ‘Bone Thugs’ and the other stuff.”

Mariah wrote this single with Walter Afanasieff. When asked about working with Walter, she said: “We wrote that one early on in the whole process of the album. I guess we have some sort of unique style.. The way we work together and the way we write. Because he’s so classically trained, he’ll sometimes play something when he’s following me that someone else wouldn’t do.  When we work together and do these ballads, I try to steer it into a direction that’s less predictable”

Release date

Released September 16, 1997

Songwriter/s

Mariah Carey – Walter Afanasieff

Label

Columbia

Chart Rankings

A great love song from the best-selling female artist of the Millennium in 2000. ‘Whenever You Call’ is the 9th track from the albumButterfly. In the US, the album topped the Billboard 200 charts and was certified 5 times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales over 3.8 million copies. In Canada and Australia, the album was certified Double Platinum, and in Japan, the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) certified it Million for sales over a million. The album was certified Platinum in Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Spain. In Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and the UK it was certified Gold, and in France it was Double Gold.  The single didn’t make it to the charts.

Artist’s age on release date

Mariah Carey was 27 years old when she released this song.

Cover Versions

Kelly Clarkson & Jason Farol (Duets 2012) – Jason Chen & Janice Yan  – Raisa & Afgan (Java Jazz festival) – Jonalyn Viray – Davichi & December (Code Analysis season 5 Korea) – K. will & Hyorin (Code Analysis season 3 Korea)

Video