Songfacts®:

• In this song, Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine plays the part of a guy who comes home to find his wife cheating on him with another man, so he takes out a gun and kills the guy. He feels no remorse for his actions, and seems quite relieved as his problem is solved and he has taught his girlfriend a lesson.
• A "Wake Up Call" is a phone call to make sure you are up in the morning - it's often requested by travelers in hotels. Since such calls are often startling and unpleasant, the term "Wake Up Call" has come to mean a revelation of some kind under adverse conditions. In the case of this song, finding his girl in bed with another was his wake up call.
• The video was edited in the style of a NC-17 movie trailer, with lead singer Adam Levine as the main character. At the end of the video, Levine is arrested and killed in the electric chair.
  
  Jonas Åkerlund directed the video, and the girl was played by Kim Smith, who also shows up in 'N Sync's videos for "Bye Bye Bye" and "It's Gonna Be Me."
• "Wake Up Call," written by Adam Levine and the band's guitarist, James Valentine, was the second single from their second album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long, following the #1 hit "Makes Me Wonder." Their debut album, Songs About Jane in 2002, was largely inspired by Levine's ex-girlfriend (that would be Jane). In "Wake Up Call" he goes in a different songwriting direction with this comic murder ballad. Because you can only write so many songs about an ex.
  
  A few years later, Maroon 5 got even further away from personal songs when they brought in outside writers for a string of hits that includes "Moves Like Jagger" and "Animals."