Tears on My Pillow

Infobox Single
Name = Tears on My Pillow
Artist = Little Anthony & the Imperials
Released = 1958
Format = 7" single
Genre = Doo wop
Length = 2:19
Label = End
1027
Writer = Sylvester Bradford
Al Lewis
Last single =
This single = "Tears on My Pillow"
(1958)
Next single = "The Glory of Love"
(1958)Infobox Single
Name = Tears on My Pillow


Artist = Kylie Minogue
Released = January 8,1990
Format = 12" single
7" single
CD single
Cassette single
Genre = Pop Ballad
Length = 2:19
Label = PWL
Writer = Sylvester Bradford
Al Lewis
Producer = Stock Aitken Waterman
Last single = "Never Too Late"
(1989)
This single = "Tears on My Pillow"
(1990)
Next single = "Better the Devil You Know"
(1990):"A different song entitled "Tears on My Pillow" was a #1 British hit for Johnny Nash in 1975. Another different song entitled "Tears on My Pillow" was co-written and performed by Gene Autry in 1941."

"Tears on My Pillow" is a doo wop song, written by Sylvester Bradford and Al Lewis in 1958 (see 1958 in music). The composition was first recorded by Little Anthony & the Imperials on End Records, and was that group's debut recording under that name. Although it remains one of the Imperials' signature songs, "Tears on My Pillow" has been extensively covered, including a number-one version by Kylie Minogue in 1989 (see 1989 in music).

Original version

Early copies of the single were credited simply to "The Imperials", a group which had previously been known as "The Duponts" and "The Chesters". Brooklyn, New York deejay Alan Freed gave the group's lead singer, Anthony Gourdine, top billing while introducing the single over the air, and the moniker of "Little Anthony & the Imperials" stuck.

"Tears on My Pillow" was a #4 hit single in the United States, with its b-side, "Two People in the World", becoming a hit as well. Selling over a million copies, "Tears on My Pillow" was the most successful single of the Imperials' doo wop period. Its success would be matched only by the Imperials' 1964 single "Goin' Out of My Head".

Covers

A cover of "Tears on My Pillow" by Sha Na Na was featured on the soundtrack to "Grease". In 1986, New Edition released a Motown-covers album "Under the Blue Moon" that included a cover of "Tears on My Pillow." In the New Edition version, Little Anthony Gourdine himself appeared as a guest vocalist.

"Tears on My Pillow" reached #1 in the United Kingdom when Australian singer Kylie Minogue released it as a single from her second album, "Enjoy Yourself". The single was released in November 1989 in Australia, and on January 8, 1990 in Europe. Minogue's cover was also included on the soundtrack of the film "The Delinquents", which she also starred in. The song was the #1 single on the UK Singles Chart for one week in January 1990, and reached #35 in Canada. The B-side, "We Know the Meaning of Love", reached #1 in its own right in Sweden.

"Tears on My Pillow" has also been covered by Chuck Jackson, Bobby Vee, Lou Christie, Martha and the Vandellas, Bobby Vinton, Johnny Tillotson, Neil Sedaka, Reba McEntire, Jodeci, Clem Snide, S Club 8, Lorrie Morgan, Derrick Morgan with Lyn Tait & The Jets, Neils Children, and [http://www.discogs.com/release/1126200 The Parker Project] .

The song was also used in season one episode seven of Sliders entitled "The Weaker Sex," which originally aired as episode six. The character Rembrandt Brown (played by Cleavant Derricks) sings the song repeatedly on the street in an effort to raise money for a motel room.

Charts (Kylie Minogue version)