"You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon

Song#:  3070
Date:  03/28/1987
Debut:  92
Peak:  23
Weeks:  15
Genre:  Pop, Adult Contemporary, World



Pop Bits:  On the evening of February 24, 1987, Simon's Graceland won the Album of the Year honors at the Grammy awards ceremony. At that time, the third single from the album, "The Boy in the Bubble" was struggling at the bottom of the Pop chart. Luckily, this song, which had already been released as the LP's first single, started to regain some attention thanks to all the Grammy hoopla. It was enough to get the song back on the chart again. The single began a second run and boosted by the Grammy win and the popular video featuring Chevy Chase, it ended up doing better than its first run nearly cracking the Pop Top 20. The combined runs resulted in the song staying on the Pop chart for a total of twenty-nine weeks. The album rebounded to a new peak of #3 as well.

ReduxReview:  There's nothing I can add here that I didn't already cover in my original assessment of the song.

ReduxRating:  8/10

Trivia:  The song was considered a "Re-Entry" on the chart and not a new entry mainly because the original product was still available for sale. Therefore, most chart info sites/books will show a single stat for this song as twenty-nine weeks on the chart and peaking at #23. Had the single been reprinted with changes, say a new b-side or a new remixed version, then it would have been a different product and would have been considered a new entry. In this new digital age now, it is different. Most any song in its original charting version can re-enter the Pop chart since there is actually no physical singles available any longer. That's why you will see every December an influx of old holiday songs re-entering the chart. It also happens when a superstar artist passes away. A song can now come-n-go on the chart pretty much whenever its popularity soars via streaming and social media.

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