Always On My Mind - Ronny Leung, Style of Willie Nelson

Songwriter Reveals the Story Behind 'Always On My Mind' by Willie Nelson

You know the words, but do you know the story behind them? In the book, Nashville Songwriter, music biographer Jake Brown interviews elite country songwriters to get “the true stories behind country music’s biggest and most enduring hits,” he says. “What followed has been one of the most thrilling writing adventures of my life, and a bible of sorts for hopefully multiple generations of country music fans wanting to know more about where the soundtrack of their lives came from.”

We’ve been excerpting a series of passages from the book—concluding with the story behind the classic song, “Always On My Mind,” (made famous by Willie Nelson) a hit that won the Country Music Association’s 1982 Song of the Year and Single of the Year awards as well as the Grammy Awards for Best Male Country Vocal Performance, Best Country Song, and Song of the Year. Songwriter Wayne Carson explains how the beloved song came together, below.

“I wrote those two verses of ‘Always On My Mind’ living in Springfield, Missouri, and I usually write from the melody. I’ll think of the melody or the chord structure or something … If the melody is singable, the words are not far away. It’s only a story, you know.

In this case, ‘Always On My Mind’ happens to be one of those things that, universally, everybody on the planet has been there, you know. And it struck all at one time. Everybody touched base with that one. It was just magic that it was so simple and so right on the button.

I purposely didn’t write a bridge to ‘Always On My Mind’ because I didn’t think it needed one. We decided to cut that dude one night in Memphis, back when I was recording for United, I guess it was—or whatever label I was recording for at that time; and so, Tips Smallman, my producer and dear, lifelong friend, said, ‘Wayne, I think this thing needs a bridge.’

And so I said, ‘Well, how do you want me to do it?’ He said, ‘Why don’t you take it upstairs to my office; I’ve got a little piano up there, or a guitar—whatever you want to use.’ I said, ‘Well, actually, I used a piano so I’ll go up there and see what I come up with.’

In the meantime, Johnny Christopher comes wandering in and he said, ‘Do you need some help?’ And I said, ‘Well, it looks like I’m going to because I haven’t come up with anything as far as a bridge.’ And I said, ‘Johnny, I never thought it needed a bridge, so I never did give it a second thought.’ And we sat there and sat there and nothing happened.

Then pretty soon here comes Mark James just picking up his mail at the publishing company, which was right next door to the studio. He said, ‘What are you doing?’ and I said, ‘Tips wants a bridge for this song.’

Now Mark had never heard the song at that point. And we had a version of it cut already, without the bridge. That’s why there had been some talk that Mark had wrote the song and cut me in on it at one time. So we got that dispelled real quick.

Anyway, the three of us sat there and finally wrote those two lines—you know, the bridge. ‘Tell him that your sweet loving …’—that part. Hell, a hit’s a hit.

Anyway, I took it back downstairs and we cut it and all the guys in the band seemed to like it—that was kind of my gauge. When I did something new, I asked my pickers, my buddies I played all those records with, like the Box Tops and all that stuff—I did a lot of recording with that band as just a guitar player, you know. Myself and Bobby Womack and, of course, Reggie Young were the band. Anyway, we cut it. And a little session on it right there, and took it to Nashville. I was recording for Mongoose Records—that’s who I was with, Fred Foster. We couldn’t wait to get here and play that thing for him.

Tips and I were convinced that it was a No. 1 record. We were just like two school kids with a new invention, you know. I played it for Fred Foster and he said, ‘I don’t think the world’s ready for that.’ I said, ‘You’ve got to be … kidding me.’ And Tips, ditto. We left there—I mean, we were mad.

So we flew back to Memphis and I remember the last thing Tips said about it was, ‘He’s going to rue the day he ever turned that song down, I’m telling you right now Wayne. That song is a big, huge song.'”