Lay Your Hands on Me

"Lay Your Hands on Me"
Single by Bon Jovi
from the album New Jersey
Released	August 1, 1989
Format	CD single
Recorded	1988
Genre	Heavy metal, glam metal
Length	5:59 (album version) 3:49 (radio edit)
Label	Mercury
Writer(s)	Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora
Producer(s)	Bruce Fairbairn
Bon Jovi singles chronology
"I'll Be There for You" (1989) "Lay Your Hands on Me" (1989) "Living in Sin" (1989)
Music video Lay Your Hands on Me on YouTube

A 30-second sample of "Lay Your Hands on Me."

"Lay Your Hands on Me" is a song written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and recorded by the American rock band Bon Jovi. It was released in August 1989 as the fourth single from the band's 1988 album New Jersey. It peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's fourth single from New Jersey to chart in the Top 10 and it also charted at #20 on the Mainstream rock charts.^[1]

Song structure

The song runs 6 minutes, with a long intro focused on the drum beats of Tico Torres and keyboard playing of David Bryan as well as the chants of the crowd: "hey!", before going into an extremely hard rock song, filled with loud guitar riffs by Richie Sambora and the husky delivery of lyrics by Jon Bon Jovi. By Jon's own admission, this is one of the few Bon Jovi songs that was written from a guitar riff (Jon Bon Jovi's usual style is to begin writing a song with the title). It was written in the studio while they were recording the New Jersey album.

Music video

The video for this song was culled from performances at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, WA and the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, OR during The Jersey Syndicate Tour. It was also released to home video on New Jersey: The Videos and Cross Road: The Videos. The MTV video for "Lay Your Hands On Me" was shot in Salt Lake in May 1989.^[2]

In concert

For live performances through the 80s and 90s, Sambora would use a double neck guitar with one neck tuned to drop D and the other tuned to Standard tuning. Examples of this can be seen in the official video clip, as well as in the Live From London DVD. During the 2000s he began using a single-necked guitar, as can be seen in The Crush Tour DVD. The song was performed a few times on the Lost Highway Tour. During recent performances on The Circle Tour, the song has been performed with Sambora on lead vocals.

This Left Feels Right version

"Lay Your Hands on Me" was re-recorded for 2003's This Left Feels Right album. The new version is in a laid-back acoustic style, featuring Sambora playing the Mandocello as the primary instrument. This version was performed at several concerts on the Have a Nice Day Tour.

Cover versions

After hearing the song and thinking it would be a good Gospel song, Country Legend, Dolly Parton, called Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and got permission to turn the song into a Gospel tune for her 2014 album, Blue Smoke. Dolly and Richie performed this cover at Glastonbury on 29 June 2014. Richie Sambora also toured with Dolly on her new tour to perform the song with her. Shows including Her London show on 27/06/2014 at the O2 Arena.

Charts

Chart (1989)	Peak position
Australia (ARIA)[3]	23
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[4]	47
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[5]	8
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[6]	16
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[7]	18
US Billboard Hot 100[8]	7
US Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks[9]	20

References

1. "Allmusic (Bon Jovi charts & awards) Billboard singles".
2. Johnston, Jerry (May 3, 1989). "HIGH ENERGY HIGHLY PLEASING TO BON JOVI FANS". Deseret News. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
3. "Australian-charts.com – Bon Jovi – Lay Your Hands on Me". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
4. "Dutchcharts.nl – Bon Jovi – Lay Your Hands on Me" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
5. "Charts.org.nz – Bon Jovi – Lay Your Hands on Me". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
6. "Swisscharts.com – Bon Jovi – Lay Your Hands on Me". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
7. "Archive Chart: 1989-09-09" UK Singles Chart. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
8. "Bon Jovi – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for Bon Jovi. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
9. "Chart Search Results - Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks 1989-06-17". Billboard.biz. Retrieved November 1, 2012.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics