5 Interesting Facts About ‘Call Me The Breeze’ By Lynyrd Skynyrd

“Call Me The Breeze” was featured on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s second studio album, Second Helping. It’s often overshadowed by the band’s most popular tracks but it has still achieved classic status. Here are five facts about it:

1. It was written and originally recorded by Oklahoma musician J.J. Cale.

It was the opening track on Cale’s debut album, Naturally, released in 1972. It has been covered numerous times, but Cale liked to keep things simple and he wanted to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible. In fact, his photo didn’t appear on the cover of his first seven LPs.

2. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s version was a hit.

And this helped finance Cale’s lifestyle. He was also able to record albums with little concern on landing a hit.

3. Lynyrd Skynyrd added their own flavor to it.

The original version is stripped down and Cale’s vocals were far lower. The band decided to amp things up, and it was guitarist Gary Rossington who came up with the riff that helped them make the song their own.

4. It’s one of the few songs they covered.

It was also the only song on Second Helping that wasn’t written by any of their members.

5. They recorded another song from Cale titled Same Old Blues which appeared on 1976’s Gimme Back My Bullets.

They actually intended to work with him, but it didn’t push through following the tragic plane crash that took the lives of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s three band members.