If you're even a ~casual~ Backstreet Boys fan, you've probably heard their song "The Call."
Well, I have some good (???) news for you: If you've ever heard this song, you've also heard beloved BSB member Howie D. rip a big fart. Congrats!!!
Apparently, while recording his vocals for the track, Howie farted so loudly that the microphones picked it up.
And then, rather than just having him re-record the parts of the song in which he was farting — which would seem like a reasonable idea to me — pop producer Max Martin just.......used the fart in the song.
The story was a long-held BSB secret, until fellow member AJ McLean fessed up in a recent interview with Billboard:
So when we were in the studio with Max making the song “The Call,” Howie 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.
Well, isn't that just lovely.
Billboard then asked Howie to confirm the fart story, and although he tried to "plead the fifth" at first, he eventually confessed to his flatulent crime:
I’m sure there were a lot of beverages consumed back in the day. ... Everybody at that age — especially Nick [Carter] — was constantly passing gas, just being young 20-year-old guys doing guy locker room kind of stuff. And coincidentally, I got in the booth, was breathing in really heavily singing my part, and I guess some extra air kind of came out. It made everybody laugh, and Max decided to take that and sample it to turn it into the "dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun."