| Product Code: | 883 956-1 |
| Artist: | Level 42 |
| Origin: | |
| Label: | |
| Format: | LP |
| Availability: | In Stock |
| Condition: | |
| Genre: | Pop U |
Good clean vinyl with a cover showing minor shelf wear small split on spine.
| Format | 12", | |||||||||||||
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| Genre | Synthpop, Euro disco | |||||||||||||
| Length | 3:56 (single mix) 8:10 (extended mix) 9:04 (album version) |
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| Label | Parlophone – 6171 | |||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Mark James, Johnny Christopher, Wayne Carson Thompson | |||||||||||||
| Producer(s) | Julian Mendelsohn, Pet Shop Boys | |||||||||||||
| Pet Shop Boys singles chronology | ||||||||||||||
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In 1987, Pet Shop Boys performed a synthpop version of "Always on My Mind" on Love Me Tender, an ITV network UK television special commemorating the tenth anniversary of Presley's death, in which various popular contemporary acts performed cover versions of his hits. Their performance was so well-received that the duo decided to record the song and release it as a single.
This version became the UK's Christmas number one single that year ironically keeping one of the best known Christmas songs of all time, Fairytale of New York by The Pogues & Kirsty McColl off the number 1 spot. It went on to top the charts for four weeks in total, and reached number four on the US Billboard Hot 100.[15][16]
The Pet Shop Boys version introduces a harmonic variation not present in the original version. In the original the ending phrase "always on my mind" is sung to a IV-V7-I cadence (C-D7-G). The Pet Shop Boys extend this cadence by adding two further chords: C-D7-Gm7/B♭-C-G (i.e. a progression of IV-V7-IIIb-IV-I).
In November 2004, The Daily Telegraph newspaper placed the version at number two in a list of the fifty greatest cover versions of all time.[17] In October 2014, a public poll compiled by the BBC saw the song voted the all-time best cover version.[18]
In the video for Pet Shop Boys' version of "Always on My Mind" (an excerpt from their surreal music film It Couldn't Happen Here), Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are seated in the front of a taxi cab, when an eccentric passenger gets in, played by notable British actor Joss Ackland. At the end of the song, he gets out of the car, which drives away. Standing alone, he mutters: "You went away. It should make me feel better. But I don't know how I'm going to get through", which is part of the lyrics for another Pet Shop Boys track, "What Have I Done to Deserve This?".
In 1988, the duo remixed the song for their third studio LP, Introspective, combining it with an acid-house track called "In My House".
