“Always on My Mind” – Single by Willie Nelson from the album Always on My Mind
B-side “The Party’s Over”
Released February 1982
Label Columbia
Songwriters Johnny Christopher, Wayne Carson Thompson, Mark James
Producer Chips Moman
Charted Mo.5 in US (Billboard HOT 100); No.1 in US (Billboard Hot Country Songs); No.49 in UK; No.10 in Canada; No.8 in Ireland; No.39 in Australia.
“Always on My Mind” is a ballad written by Wayne Carson, Johnny Christopher, and Mark James, first recorded by Brenda Lee and first released by Gwen McCrae (as “You Were Always on My Mind”) in March 1972.
Some sources claim B.J. Thomas was the first to record this song, but his version wasn’t released until it appeared on a compilation in 1996. Elvis Presley recorded it on March 29, 1972, but his version wasn’t released until that November. By then, versions by Brenda Lee and Gwen McCrae (titled “You Were Always On My Mind”) were already on the market; Lee’s rendition went to #45 on the Country chart September 2, 1972.
Elvis had recently separated from his wife, Priscilla, making the song apropos. But it was released as a single with a song that seemed more fitting: “Separate Ways,” about a divorced dad. “Always On My Mind” later became a key song in his canon, but it reached just #16 on the Country chart, as “Separate Ways” got most of the airplay.
Willie Nelson’s 1982 recording became the definitive version and the first to make the Hot 100 (#5; it was also a #1 Country hit). Nelson had never heard the song before the song’s co-writer, Johnny Christopher, brought it to him and Merle Haggard, who were busy recording the album Pancho & Lefty (Christopher was playing guitar on the session). “‘Always On My Mind,’ bowled me over the moment I heard it, which is one of the ways I pick songs to record,” Nelson recalled in his 1988 autobiography, Willie. “There are beautifully sad songs that bowl me over… haunting melodies you can’t get out of your mind, with lines that really stick.”
Willie Nelson recorded and released the song in early 1982. It raced to number one on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart that May, spending two weeks on top and a total of 21 weeks on the chart. The song also fared well on Top 40 radio, reaching number five on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and staying on that chart for 23 weeks. It was the best-performing single on the Hot Country Singles year-end chart of 1982. This version also charted in a number of other countries. The single was certified platinum by the RIAA on October 7, 1991.
Nelson’s version resulted in three wins at the 25th Grammy Awards in February 1983: songwriters Christopher, James, and Carson won Song of the Year and Best Country Song; in addition, Nelson won for Best Male Country Vocal Performance. This version also won Country Music Association Awards in two consecutive years: 1982 Song of the Year and 1983 Song of the Year for songwriters Christopher, James and Carson; 1982 Single of the Year for Nelson; and contributed to Nelson winning 1982 Album of the Year for the album Always on My Mind.
