About The Song
“Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home)” is a song written by Marvin Gaye, Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield, and first recorded by Gaye in 1962. It was the B-side to his 1969 hit “Too Busy Thinking ‘Bout My Baby”. Paul Young’s version of the song was a UK No. 1 single for three weeks in July 1983.
The Paul Young version, from the album No Parlez, is stylistically notable for its use of fretless bass, played by Pino Palladino. Though a major UK hit that broke Young as a star, the song fared less well on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 70, but was later used in the 1986 film Ruthless People and its accompanying soundtrack album.
According to Young, when he was making the album No Parlez, the label sent him a number of songs that he thought were too complex. He said: “I just want a simple three-chord trick with a melody.” He remembered a B-side track by Marvin Gaye he heard when he was 14, found a recording, and decided to record the song. He slowed the song down, and added more melancholy to the vocal.
Palladino was then recruited from Jools Holland’s band, Jools Holland and His Millionaires. The song was produced by Laurie Latham, who asked for an intro for the song, and Palladino quoted the bassoon melody at the opening of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring for the opening bass line. Palladino however thought that the bass line in the recording was too loud and out of tune. The keyboard player Ian Kewley added a keyboard motif to the song, and it was then decided that the song should be released as a single.
In a retrospective review, AllMusic journalist Dave Thompson wrote that Young’s version of the song “left mouths hanging open in awe” and described it as “a beautifully impassioned take on what was, in all fairness, never one of Marvin Gaye’s greatest performances.”
Video
Lyrics
By the look in your eye
I can tell you’re gonna cry
Is it over me?
If it is, save your tears
For I’m not worth it, you seeFor I’m the type of boy who is always on the run
Wherever I lay my hat that’s my home
I’m telling you that’s my homeYou had romance
Did you break it by chance
Over me?
If it’s so I’d like for you to know
That I’m not worth it, you seeFor I’m the type of boy who is always on the roam
Wherever I lay my hat that’s my home
That’s my homeOh, you keep telling me
You keep telling me I’m your man
What do I have to do to make you understand?For I’m the type of guy
Who gives girl the eye
Everybody knows
But I love them and I leave them
Break their hearts and deceive them everywhere I goDon’t you know that I’m the type of man who is always on the roam,
Wherever I lay my hat that’s my home
Wherever I lay my hat that’s my homeThat’s my home
And I like it that way