"Put Your Head on My Shoulder" is a song written by Canadian-born singer-songwriter

Paul Anka Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his signature hit songs including " Diana", " Lonely Boy", "Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " (You're) Having My Baby". Anka also ...

. Anka's version was recorded in August 1958 at

Bell Sound Studios Bell Sound Studios was an independent recording studio in New York City from 1950 to 1976. At its height, the studio was the largest independent recording studio in the United States, and the site of recording sessions that produced seminal hits by ...

in New York City, three weeks before he recorded his no. 1 hit " Lonely Boy", and was released as a single on August 17, 1959, by

ABC-Paramount ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels bef ...

as catalog number 4510040. It was arranged and conducted by

Don Costa Dominick P. "Don" Costa (June 10, 1925 – January 19, 1983) was an American conductor and record producer. He discovered singer Paul Anka and worked on several hit albums by Frank Sinatra, including ''Sinatra and Strings'' and '' My Way''. ...

. The B-side was "Don't Ever Leave Me". "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" became very successful, reaching No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 (kept out of the No. 1 spot by

Bobby Darin Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American musician and actor. He performed jazz, Pop music, pop, rock and roll, Folk music, folk, Swing music, swing, and country music. He started his car ...

's recording of "

Mack the Knife "Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" (german: "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", italic=no, link=no) is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama ''The Threepenny Opera'' (german: Die Dreig ...

"). It was his third top five hit of 1959. In Canada the song reached No. 4 on the

CHUM Chart The CHUM Chart was a ranking of top 30 (and, until August 1968, the top 50) songs on Toronto, Ontario radio station CHUM AM, from 1957 to 1986, and was the longest-running Top 40 chart in the world produced by an individual radio station. On Janua ...

Cover and foreign language versions

The song was again popular when it was covered and released as a single by

The Lettermen The Lettermen are an American male pop vocal trio. The Lettermen's trademark is close-harmony pop songs with light arrangements. The group started in 1959. They have had two Top 10 singles (both No. 7), 16 Top 10 singles on the Adult Contempor ...

in 1968. This version peaked at No. 44 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100; it was more successful on the

Easy Listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

chart, where it peaked at No. 8. Mexican singer

Enrique Guzmán Enrique Guzmán (born February 1, 1943) is a Venezuelan-born Mexican singer and actor. He is one of the pioneers of Rock & Roll in Mexico, along with César Costa, Angélica María, Johnny Laboriel and Alberto Vasquez, among others. He is als ...

recorded a Spanish version in the 1960s titled "Tu cabeza en mi hombro". In Latin America, this cover is even more popular than the original one.

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an singer

Myriam Hernández Myriam Raquel Hernández Navarro (born 2 May 1967) is a Chilean singer, songwriter and television presenter. She has dabbled mainly in romantic ballad, which is why she is sometimes nicknamed "La baladista de América" ("America's balladeer"), al ...

recorded this version in a duet with

himself in its original version.

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n singer Derek Redfern covered the song, which peaked at number 71 on the Australian

Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July ...

in 1974. American singer

Leif Garrett Leif Garrett (born Leif Per Nervik; November 8, 1961) is an American singer, actor, and television personality. He worked as a child actor, then in the 1970s became famous as a teen idol in music. He later received much publicity for his drug ...

released a cover of the song in 1978, which eventually reached number 58 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. American rapper and singer

Doja Cat Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (born October 21, 1995), known professionally as Doja Cat ( ), is an American rapper and singer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she began making and releasing music on SoundCloud as a teenager. Her song ...

sampled it in her 2021 song "

Freak A freak is a person who is physically deformed or transformed due to an extraordinary medical condition or body modification. This definition was first attested with this meaning in the 1880s as a shorter form of the phrase " freak of nature ...

". The rhythm is similar between the two songs as well, heard throughout. Former- Menudo band Puerto Rican singer

Robby Rosa Draco Cornelius Rosa Suárez (; born Robert Edward Rosa Suárez, June 27, 1969), also known as Draco Rosa, Robi Draco Rosa or simply Robi or Draco, is a Puerto Rican singer, musician, songwriter and entrepreneur. Rosa originally garnered fame ...

and the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian duo "Gabriela e Tatiana" recorded

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

versions in the 1980s, Robby's version being "Com você nos meus sonhos" and Gabriela and Tatiana's version being "Essa mão no meu ombro".

In popular culture

A mashed up version of

's "

Streets Streets is the plural of street, a type of road. Streets or The Streets may also refer to: Music * Streets (band), a rock band fronted by Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh * ''Streets'' (punk album), a 1977 compilation album of various early UK punk ba ...

" containing the first 12 seconds of "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" became a

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

challenge known as the "Silhouette Challenge". The song is featured in the 2004 videogame Hitman: Contracts, playing from a Gramophone in one of the rooms during the 2nd mission of the game.

Charts

All-time charts

References

External links

Lyrics
at oldielyrics.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Put Your Head On My Shoulder 1959 songs 1959 singles 1968 singles 1978 singles Songs written by Paul Anka Paul Anka songs The Lettermen songs Leif Garrett songs Song recordings produced by Al De Lory ABC Records singles Capitol Records singles Atlantic Records singles 1950s ballads