Pillowtalk

Album

Mind of Mine

Label

RCA Records

Genre

Contemporary R&B

Media Type

DD

Duration

3:27

Composer(s)

Zayn Malik;Levi Lennox;Anthony Hannides;Michael Hannides;Joe Garrett

Entered Chart

Feb 20, 2016

Peak Date

Feb 20, 2016

Released

29 January 2016

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

RCA

Zayn Malik's debut single following his departure from One Direction is a downtempo electronic R&B song containing adult imagery and plenty of F-bombs. It represents a break from the pop tunes he previously sung as a boyband member. Malik co-wrote the song with Anthony Hannides and Michael Hannides of MYKL and Levi Lennox, who also produced the track. Sex was clearly on Malik's mind when penning the track. He told The Sunday Times: "(The song is) pretty black and white. Everybody has sex, and it's something people want to hear about. It's part of everybody's life, a very big part of life! And you don't want to sweep it under the carpet. It has to be talked about." The song's steamy music video was directed by Bouha Kazmi and finds Malik navigating a sexual fantasy. It features his rumoured girlfriend, the model Gigi Hadid, who also showed up in Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" and Calvin Harris' "How Deep Is Your Love" clips. Zayn revealed the inspiration for the clip during a radio interview with L.A. radio show, Zach Sang and the Gang. "Mostly my idea," he said. "I wanted it to be representational of the art that I'm looking at the minute, even just a perspective level, on the surface of it I wanted it be arty, and different and out-there. That was the whole feel for the video, We wanted a dream-feel to it." Zayn penned the song not long after leaving One Direction. "Basically, I wrote that shortly after I left the band," he said. "Got in the studio with a couple of writers that go by the name of Mike and Anthony Hannides. We wrote that song around the time that I was feeling those emotions and I feel like that's why it came out the way it did. I feel like in the vocal you can get a sense that I'm meaning what I'm saying." Speaking on the Elvis Duran Morning Show, Zayn said the song is more than just being about sex. "The actual intent of the song is even though you have great times in a relationship, you have really bad times as well," he explained. "But that's what kind of makes it worthwhile, because you learn things and go through experiences that bring you closer together. That's the actual intent of the song." "Obviously you have sex, and sometimes you fight during your relationship, so I did mention that in the song," Zayn added. "But it's not solely about sex." The song spent its first week at #1 on the Hot 100. In doing so, Zayn became the first UK artist to enter the US charts at the top with a debut single. Zayn also eclipsed his former One Direction bandmates by charting higher than any other song 1D had released Stateside. Their highest rank had been achieved by the accurately titled "Best Song Ever," which peaked at #2. By topping the February 20, 2016 Hot 100, Zayn replaced Zager & Evans as the last artist alphabetically with a Hot 100 #1. Zager & Evans spent six weeks at the peak position in 1969 with "In the Year 2525." The title doesn't appear in the chorus and shows up just once in the lyric: The only time we hear Zayn say "Pillowtalk" is at the beginning of the second verse. Lil Wayne jumps on the song's remix. Both Weezy and Zayn add new verses continuing the between-the-sheets theme on the new version. Mind of Mine spent its first week on the US album chart at #1. This meant that Zayn joined Clay Aiken and Lauryn Hill as the only artists in history to have had a #1 debut single and debut album on the Hot 100 and the Billboard 200.

Climb on board
We'll go slow and high tempo
Light and dark
Hold me hard and mellow

I'm seeing the pain, seeing the pleasure
Nobody but you, 'body but me
'Body but us, bodies together
I love to hold you close, tonight and always
I love to wake up next to you
I love to hold you close, tonight and always
I love to wake up next to you

So we'll piss off the neighbors
In the place that feels the tears
The place to lose your fears
Yeah, reckless behavior
A place that is so pure, so dirty and raw
In the bed all day, bed all day, bed all day
Fucking and fighting on
It's our paradise and it's our war zone
It's our paradise and it's our war zone

Pillow talk
My enemy, my ally
Prisoners
Then we're free, it's a thin line

I'm seeing the pain, seeing the pleasure
Nobody but you, 'body but me
'Body but us, bodies together
I love to hold you close, tonight and always
I love to wake up next to you

So we'll piss off the neighbors
In the place that feels the tears
The place to lose your fears
Yeah, reckless behavior
A place that is so pure, so dirty and raw
In the bed all day, bed all day, bed all day
Fucking and fighting on
It's our paradise and it's our war zone
It's our paradise and it's our war zone

Paradise, paradise, paradise, paradise
War zone, war zone, war zone, war zone
Paradise, paradise, paradise, paradise
War zone, war zone, war zone, war zone

So we'll piss off the neighbors
In the place that feels the tears
The place to lose your fears
Yeah, reckless behavior
A place that is so pure, so dirty and raw
In the bed all day, bed all day, bed all day
Fucking and fighting on
It's our paradise and it's our war zone
It's our paradise and it's our war zone