Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: Pet Shop Boys, “Always on My Mind”

27 years ago today, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe – collectively known as Pet Shop Boys – took a song that had previously been identified as belonging to Elvis Presley or Willie Nelson and somehow managed to make it their own…like, to the point where, in October 2014, a BBC poll found it named as the best cover version of all time.

Written by Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson, “Always on My Mind” started life when Carson spent about 10 minutes on the song, set it aside for about a year, and then finally ended up asking Christopher and James to help him finish it when producer Chips Moman asked him about recording “that mind” song. Upon completion – which really only involved adding the bridge – the song was recorded by Gwen McRae and Brenda Lee in 1972, but it was Elvis’s version, recorded the same year, that put the track on the map. It was also a top-20 country hit in 1979 for John Wesley Ryles, but for the definitive country version, most folks tend to look to Willie’s take on the track in 1982.

And how did Pet Shop Boys come to record the song? The cover came about as a result of a 1987 ITV special called Love Me Tender, intended as a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Elvis’s death, but their version went down so well that they opted to record a proper version of the song, which went on to top the UK charts for weeks and hitting #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

By the way, if you find the decision to name Pet Shop Boys’ version the best cover of all time a bit questionable, you’re not the only one: although Tennant and Lowe were honored, Tennant told BBC DJ Ray Winstone, “I think I’d’ve gone with (‘All Along the Watchtower,’ by) Jimi Hendrix!”