Payphone (song)
April 16, 2012
Payphone (German phone) is a song by American pop rock band Maroon 5, along with rapper Wiz Khalifa. The title was released as the lead single from the fourth studio album Overexposed.
In the United States, the song sold in the first week over 493,000 times and debuted at # 3 on the Billboard Hot 100
- 6.1 chart positions
Background and publication
After the album Hands All Over (2010), which was produced by Robert Lange, the band turned now more in the pop genre with the producers Shellback and Benny Blanco, already the worldwide hit single Moves like Jagger (2011), with Christina Aguilera, have produced. After the song, the band started on their last tour so to record a new album, which is titled Overexposed and was released on 26 June 2012.
Composition
Payphone was written by Adam Levine, Benny Blanco, Ammar Malik, Shellback, Dan Omelio and Cameron Thomaz, and produced by Shellback and Benny Blanco. The song is a pop ballad with medium tempo, with a rap verse from Wiz Khalifa in the middle of the song. Commented Thomas Chau from AOL Radio Blog that the title is one of the songs, which is rather quiet, much like the song She Will Be Loved and Will not Go Home Without You. The song starts with the vocals of Adam Levine, who is accompanied by a simple piano.
Critical reception
The song received mostly positive reviews. Bill Lamb of About.com gave the song 4 out of 5 stars and praised the entire band in the chorus, Adam Levine's soulful voice and melodic Popgefühl, but he called Wiz Khalifa Rap unnecessary. Crystal Bell of The Huffington Post said that the song is currently one of the poppigsten singles of the band. Commented on Amy Sciarretto of Pop Crush, that the song "lively, casual and catchy " is.
Live performances
On April 16, 2012, the song during the talent show The Voice was played, is in Adam Levine judge and coach. Maroon 5 played the song also on April 21, 2012 opening of the new Microsoft Store in Palo Alto, California. For the rap verses from Wiz Khalifa Adam Levine sang instead: " Now, baby, do not hang up / So I can tell you what you need to know / Baby, I'm begging you, please, do not go / so I can tell you what you need to know. "
Music Video
Poetry Video
On April 17, 2012 appeared on YouTube the lyric video for the song. It's an animated video in which Adam Levine is shown as a cartoon. At the beginning of the video Levine is sitting in on a phone booth, where he longingly looks at a photo in which his former love is to see. In the video, Levine makes himself a hero by fighting against monsters and an elderly lady protected from a pickpocket. In addition, you can see in the video Levine with his great love, as they stand in front of the Eiffel Tower and kiss.
Official Music Video
On 10 May 2012, the official music video was released for the song on the Internet platform YouTube. At the beginning it shows Adam Levine after a fast-paced chase with the police, who initially stands next to his burning getaway car and then goes to a nearby phone booth. As soon as someone seems to have accepted his call, Levine begins the song with the words " I'm at a payphone ... " to sing.
After this scene tells the history of the video, which in turn shows Levine as a worker in an office building. This is immediately attacked by masked criminals, but Levine succeeds in a daring attempt to bring yourself and a colleague from the building and to safety. However, since the police hold him for an accomplice of criminals, Levine steals a car and flees without further ado.
The other video shows Levine in a car chase through a barren, desert -like landscape with a growing police Armada, consisting of numerous vehicles and two helicopters. Levine manages a number of times with deft maneuvers to distract the police car behind him, so they turn to each other at the end. He continues with the half-destroyed car to a secluded gas station where this eventually rises and explodes into flames. Levine goes to the phone booth, the narrative circle thus closes.
The official music video was until now (as of November 2, 2013 ) called 122 million times, but twelve million clicks more than the lyric video with about 110 million views.
Commercial success
In the Billboard Hot 100, the song debuted at position 3, as well as in Switzerland at number 52 in Australia and Denmark, the title reached the position 7 in Canada and New Zealand gave it even for the placements 2 and 3 in Ireland and Spain the song reached the positions 8 and 29