Produced and composed by Italian musician Giorgio Moroder, with lyrics by Blondie singer Debbie Harry, the song appeared in the film and was released in the United States in early 1980 as a single.

[6][7] "Call Me" was composed by Italian disco producer Giorgio Moroder as the main theme song of the 1980 film American Gigolo.

[9] Moroder originally asked Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac to perform a song for the soundtrack, but she was prevented because of a recently signed contract with Modern Records.

[11] Harry said the lyrics were inspired by her visual impressions from watching the film and that "When I was writing it, I pictured the opening scene, driving on the coast of California.

The bridge of the original English-language version also includes Harry saying "call me" in two European languages: Italian: Amore, chiamami, lit.

Then the project moved to New York for the Blondie recording session, at which the band surprised Moroder by insisting they would play their own parts.

The band had difficulty locking to sync, so Moroder stopped the unfinished sessions to save time, and took the project back to Los Angeles to more quickly add the final parts with his own picked musicians, including a keyboard solo by Faltermeyer.

[15] Faltermeyer said the band was angry about being replaced by session players, but the song turned out to be very successful, so they took it in stride.

The compilation was part of a 2-disc set called Blondie 4(0) Ever which included their tenth studio album Ghosts of Download and marked the 40th anniversary of the forming of the band.

[18] Writing for Stereogum, Tom Breihan graded the song a 10/10, saying it was a "sleek and efficient [...] mechanistic marvel" that "whips you along into the sleazy neon future".

In 1981, the Village Voice ranked "Call Me" as the third-best song of the year 1980 on its annual year-end critics' poll, Pazz & Jop.