Guadagnino selected the music for Call Me by Your Name himself.[32] He wanted to find an "emotional narrator to the film" through music, in a "less heavy, less present, and more enveloping" way than voice and text.[38] The films Barry Lyndon (1975), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and The Age of Innocence (1993) inspired him.[38] Guadagnino wanted the film's music to be connected to Elio, a young pianist who enjoys transcribing and adapting piano pieces and uses music to deepen his relationship with Oliver.[21] Music is used in the film to reflect the period setting, the characters' family life and their level of education, and "the kind of canon they would be a part of".[21] Guadagnino also researched which pop songs had been played frequently on local radio stations that summer.[21][111]
Impressed by the lyricism of American songwriter Sufjan Stevens,[22] Guadagnino asked him to record an original song for Call Me by Your Name and to narrate the film from the perspective of Elio at an older age.[22][97] Stevens declined the voiceover role[97] but contributed three songs to the soundtrack: "Mystery of Love", "Visions of Gideon", and a remix by Doveman of his song "Futile Devices" from The Age of Adz (2010).[21] Stevens was inspired by the film's script, the novel and conversations with Guadagnino about the characters.[22] He submitted the songs a few days before filming began. Surprised by the result, Guadagnino listened to them on-set with the actors and editor Walter Fasano.[32][78] Because it had been pre-recorded, Chalamet was able to listen to "Visions of Gideon" on an earpiece during filming of the movie's 4-minute final shot, a static closeup of his face. He said that "Sufjan's song was playing in my ear so I could mirror the structure."[112] The project marked the first time Stevens had written songs explicitly for a feature-film soundtrack.[113][114] Next to the music of Stevens, a number of classical music pieces and pop songs of the 1980s are included in the soundtrack.
A soundtrack album was released in digital formats by Madison Gate Records and Sony Classical on November 3, 2017,[115] and in physical formats on November 17, 2017.[116] It features songs by: Stevens, The Psychedelic Furs, Franco Battiato, Loredana Bertè, Bandolero, Giorgio Moroder, Joe Esposito, and F. R. David, as well as music by John Adams, Erik Satie, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bach, and Ravel.[117] As of February 1, 2018, the soundtrack has sold 9,000 copies and had 29 million on-demand audio streams of its tracks in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[118]
