An old Backstreet Boys single is built around a sample of Howie Dorough ripping ass
Before today, the Backstreet Boys’ “The Call” was best known as the first recorded song about ghosting. That’s all changed, however, as bad boy AJ McLean just dropped a bomb: The whole thing is built around a fart.
Not AJ’s fart, though. In an interview with Billboard, McLean outed his bandmate Howie Dorough for ripping a robust one during a recording session for the song. Producer Max Martin, the mind behind any number of this century’s biggest pop hits, proved his producing acumen once and for all that day by turning that toot into one of the song’s central beats.
So when we were in the studio with Max 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. So Max tweaked it and made it sound like one of his patented bass sounds, and it stayed on the record.