About This Song
This song tells the story of a man who admits he didn’t always do the things he should have to show appreciation for his lady, but wants her to know he was always thinking about her.
Wayne Carson, who wrote The Box Tops’ 1967 #1 hit “The Letter,” came up with “Always On My Mind” when he was working at a recording studio in Memphis. He lived with his wife in Springfield, Missouri, and the trip to Memphis had gone 10 days longer than expected. When he called the missus to tell her he would be there even longer, she let him have it. He tried to assuage her by telling her that was thinking about her all the time – she was “always on my mind.”
“It just struck me like someone had hit me with a hammer,” he told the LA Times. “I told her real fast I had to hang up because I had to put that into a song.”
Over the next few days, he finished writing the song with two other writers at the studio: Johnny Christopher and Mark James.
“All that ‘Always’ was about was one long apology,” Carson added. “I guess there are a lot of people in the world who were looking for a way to say that in a song.”
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.”
Nelson figured he and Haggard would do the song together, but Haggard didn’t care for it. After they finished recording their album, Nelson stayed in the studio and recorded the ballad solo, just to see what it would sound like. Of course, it sounded like a hit, but Nelson wondered, “We’ll never know what would have happened if Merle had really heard the song right.”
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Lyric
Maybe I didn’t love youQuite as often as I could haveMaybe I didn’t treat youQuite as good as I should haveIf I made you feel second bestGirl I’m sorry I was blindYou were always on my mindYou were always on my mindMaybe I didn’t hold youAll those lonely, lonely timesAnd I guess I never told youI’m so happy that you’re mineLittle things I should have said and doneI just never took the timeYou were always on my mindTell meTell me that your sweet love hasn’t diedAnd give meGive me one more chance to keep you satisfiedI’ll keep you satisfiedLittle things I should have said and doneI just never took the timeYou were always on my mindYou were always on my mindYou were always on my mindYou were always on my mind
