"(Lay Your Head on My) Pillow" is a song by American R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné!. It was released by

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and Polygram Records on January 11, 1994, as the third single from their 1993 album ''

Sons of Soul ''Sons of Soul'' is the third album by American R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné!, released on June 22, 1993, by Wing Records and Mercury Records. It follows the success of their 1990 album '' The Revival'', which had extended their popularity beyond R& ...

''. The midtempo love ballad was written and produced by the group and recorded at Paradise Recording Studio in

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. "(Lay Your Head on My) Pillow" charted at number 31 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and at number four on the

Hot R&B Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

. It was promoted with a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

wherein the group appeared nude; they conceived it as their response to criticism of male artists for sexually objectifying women in music videos

Music and lyrics

Tony! Toni! Toné! recorded the song for their third album ''

'', which was recorded and released in 1993. The song was produced and written by the group—drummer Timothy Christian Riley, guitarist D'wayne Wiggins, and bassist Raphael Wiggins. A midtempo love ballad, "(Lay Your Head on My) Pillow" features tender, seductive lyrics. The group incorporated

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-influenced

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in the song after a country band had used it at Paradise Recording Studio, where they recorded the song. Gil Griffin of ''

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'' writes that the song is informed by "the sensual moods of Barry White and

Isaac Hayes Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwri ...

Music video

A music video for the song was released in February 1994. It featured the group members, along with several supporting actors, appearing nude. Members of the video crew were reported to have "giggled a lot" during the 14-hour shoot. It was reshot after BET, MTV, and other cable outlets requested them to minimize the nudity for airplay. D'wayne Wiggins explained the concept as their response to criticism of male artists for sexually objectifying women in music videos, calling their video "sort of a role-reversal thing". He said in an interview for ''

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'' that he received the most "giggles ... because I went first, which I had to do because I was the one leading everybody on to do it nude. It's not like it's nudity just for nudity's sake, but we didn't want to do another la-de-da video. It's like 14 or 15 people are together in a room and different people are shown without clothes at different times."

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the single's 7-inch pressing (

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Gerry Brown Gerry “The Gov.” Brown is a recording engineer, mixer and music producer based in Los Angeles, best known for his work with artists including Whitney Houston, John Legend, Earth, Wind & Fire, Madonna, Sting, Prince, Phil Collins, Marcu ...

– mixing * Ed Eckstine – executive producer * Timothy Christian Riley – composer, drummer * Tony! Toni! Toné! – producer * D'wayne Wiggins – composer, guitarist * Raphael Wiggins – bassist, composer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lay Your Head on My Pillow 1994 singles Songs written by Raphael Saadiq Tony! Toni! Toné! songs 1993 songs Songs written by D'wayne Wiggins Mercury Records singles Contemporary R&B ballads 1990s ballads