Put Your Head On My Shoulder

The Making of "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" by Leif Garrett

Leif Garrett, born Leif Per Nervik in Hollywood, California on November 8, 1961, recorded "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" as part of his first wave of commercial activity as a teen pop performer. Garrett had begun his entertainment career as a child actor, appearing in films and television before transitioning into pop music in 1977. His early pop recordings were produced to capture the teen market that had made acts like David Cassidy and Donny Osmond commercially dominant in the early 1970s, and Garrett's good looks and youthful image made him a natural fit for this commercial niche in the late 1970s.

The original "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" was written and recorded by Paul Anka in 1959. Anka's version reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the summer of 1959 and became one of the defining teen ballads of the early rock and roll era. The song's gentle, romantic lyric and soft melody had a timeless quality that made it appealing material for revival, and by the late 1970s it had been covered numerous times by various artists. Garrett's version was produced by Michael Lloyd, who was one of the key producers associated with the teen pop sound of the late 1970s and who produced several of Garrett's early recordings.

The production approach Lloyd took with the Garrett version updated the arrangement for late 1970s pop sensibilities while maintaining the ballad's essential character. The orchestration is fuller than Anka's original and reflects the lush production values that characterized mainstream pop production in the period. The recording was crafted to appeal to the teenage female audience that was the primary demographic for teen pop in this era, and the approach was consistent with the format conventions of Top 40 radio.

The single was released in early 1978 on Atlantic Records, the label that distributed Garrett's recordings during his commercial peak. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 4, 1978, entering at number 82, and climbed to a peak position of number 58 during the week of April 1, 1978. The single spent 7 weeks on the chart in total. While the chart performance was modest, the single contributed to Garrett's growing visibility in the teen market.

Garrett's commercial peak came in 1979, when covers of Doobie Brothers' "Runaround Sue" (originally by Dion) and other material brought him higher chart placements. His photograph appeared on the covers of teen magazines including Tiger Beat and 16 Magazine throughout 1978 and 1979, and his poster sales were reportedly among the highest of any teen celebrity of the period. The "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" single was part of the early phase of this commercial build rather than its peak.

The broader context of teen pop in the late 1970s was one in which the genre was regarded with considerable skepticism by rock critics but with genuine enthusiasm by its primary audience of pre-teen and teenage girls. The commercial machinery surrounding acts like Garrett, including coordinated appearances in teen press, television variety show spots, and targeted radio promotion, was highly efficient at converting mainstream media attention into record sales, and Atlantic Records managed Garrett's commercial rollout accordingly.

Paul Anka's original version of the song remained the definitive commercial recording, but Garrett's cover introduced the composition to a new generation of listeners who may have had limited exposure to the late-1950s pop landscape. This bridging function, connecting teenage audiences of the 1970s to earlier pop repertoire through contemporary productions, was characteristic of teen pop's relationship with older material throughout the decade. It allowed labels to release songs with proven structures while wrapping them in production styles current enough to secure radio play.