Eric Prydz is a Swedish DJ and producer best known for his 2004 hit single "Call On Me", which topped the UK singles charts for 5 weeks, stopping the Manic Street Preachers from reaching number one with The Love of Richard Nixon. Eric Prydz also releases music under several other aliases including Cirez D, Pryda and Sheridan. He is also a part of what is known as the Swedish House Maffia together with Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso and Axwell. The music he produces falls under the genre of Tech House which is a subgenre of Electronica.
The song "Call on Me" is a dance track based on a rerecorded sample of Steve
Winwood's song Valerie, originally released in the UK in 1982 to little success, and re-released in 1987, gaining more success by peaking at #19 that time around. Winwood collaborated with Prydz on the song by rerecording his vocals.
Until January 2005 Eric Prydz held the dubious honour of being the artist to sell the lowest number of singles for a #1 chart position in any particular week: "Call On Me" only sold 23,519 copies when it returned to the top of the charts on 17 October 2004. This record was broken once again by himself only a week later on 24 October 2004, with the song only selling 21,749 copies that week. Nevertheless, it has been one of the highest selling singles in the UK, with preorder sales of 100,000 including a DVD single with the uncut video and staying five weeks at number one on the UK singles chart, which is a rare feat today due to fickle record sales. Eric Prydz was influenced by the song 'So Much Love To Give' by Thomas Bangalter when producing 'Call On Me'. Call On Me has subsequently influenced recordings by artists Uniting Nations, Cabin Crew and the Sunset Strippers.
The song has also entered the German singles charts at number one in late October 2004, and also repeated this in the Republic of Ireland. It also debuted at #2 in Australia.
The music video for this song directed by Huse Monfaradi features an aerobics class of women performing sexually suggestive gym routines led by Australian dancer and choreographer Deanne Berry, much to the enjoyment of the sole man in the group, played by Juan Pablo Di Pace. It has been said to be inspired by the gym scene in the 1985 film Perfect starring John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis. The video was filmed in a dance studio in the suburb Deptford, London in the United Kingdom.
Some people considered this video to be as close as it gets to soft pornography. Many politicians and family groups have pushed for the video to be banned, but there are two videos--a censored one shown in daylight hours and a late night version which is uncut and features the dancers rubbing their breasts and one dancer slapping her own buttocks.
The video was the highest-downloaded music video of all time in Australia, downloaded over 35,000 times through '3 Mobile' mobile phones with 3G technology in association with the Rage music television show. Ministry of Sound presented the '3 Mobile' phone provider with the mobile equivalent of a gold record in April 2005.
Click here to watch the video
Due to the popularity and high demand for the video, a feature length aerobics DVD was later released titled 'Pump It Up - The Ultimate Dance Workout' which featured the dancers from the 'Call On Me' video performing aerobics routines to various popular dance music songs.
The video spun off a parody version called "Call On Me (Part 2)", featuring an aerobics class of men instead of women, and the main character being female instead of male. Midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy have also made a parody of the movie featuring male midshipmen (and a sole Army cadet) doing identical movements to "Call on Me." The movie was created as a spirit video to show at the annual Army-Navy game.
Prydz has produced other songs including "Prez Prydza Spooks", "Slammin" and "Woz Not Woz", and has remixed the Shapeshifters smash hit "Lola's Theme" and the Pet Shop Boys 2003 single "Miracles".
Aside from producing music he runs the record labels Pryda, Pryda Friends and Mouseville.
Bio Updated : 5th October 2006
