Pop Culture | 90s | Music
The Backstreet Boys Were So Talented They Turned A Fart Into A Hit Song
I think it's fair to say that the Backstreet Boys are absolute stars. They have been around for 20 years now, and each and every time they pop into the news it's for something pretty wonderful.
The backstreet boys have a whole bunch of hit songs, and countless hilariously amazing music videos but one of the most memorable is 'The Call'. The song came out as a single in February 2001 from the album Black & Blue, but only this year did we learn the true secrets behind it.
The music video is pretty intense, with all our favorite boys being attacked by the same woman who is trying to kill them. Little did she know there was a big secret about the song that would change how we all would look at it.
Billboard spoke with the Backstreet Boys about the 20th anniversary, but they couldn't help but bring up a hilarious anecdote that changes an entire song. They were supposed to be talking about the songs from their first album, but AJ McLean had to tell one story even though he said "I'm probably going to get in trouble."
The band were already super successful by the time Black & Blue came out in 2000. They were genuine popstars at this point and could really do no wrong. They proved this when The Call came out, because when you find out the truth behind that song you won't believe you never knew.
McLean decided it was time to come clean on the truth behind one of their hits even though he knew one of his band members may not love it.
The big Backstreet Boys secret? A fart made it onto their album!
AJ McLean explained, "So when we were in the studio with Max [producer] making the song “The Call,” Howie [Dorough] was in the booth and we were doing that vocal break down, [sings] 'dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun.' Max gave Howie his harmony, and I think he was just putting so much air into the vocal that as he was singing, he went 'dun, dun' and he farted -- but he farted not only on the beat, but in key."
Luckily, the producer was ready to make it work. McLean continued, "So Max tweaked it and made it sound like one of his patented bass sounds, and it stayed on the record."
With a laugh, McLean added that "Howie’s fart became an instrument and is on the record for the rest of our lives." He gave full praise to their producer Max saying that "[Max] could turn a fart into a bass sound, that's pretty damn genius if you ask me."
When asked to confirm or deny this Dorough jokingly said that "I plead the fifth to say anything," but then came clean by explaining "I’m sure there were a lot of beverages consumed back in the day. It’s one of those kind of things... Everybody at that age -- especially Nick [Carter] -- was constantly passing gas, just being young 20-year-old guys doing guy locker room kind of stuff. And coincidentally, I got in the booth, was breathing in really heavily singing my part, and I guess some extra air kind of came out. It made everybody laugh, and Max decided to take that and sample it to turn it into the 'dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun.'"
Obviously that's the big dramatic moment in the song, so Dorough laughed and said "If it was me, the guys can definitely thank me for that, and thank what was consumed the night before singing those songs."
The moment they are referring to is around the 2:34 mark, so check it out and see if you believe this or if you think this was all big joke!