Always On My Mind by Pet Shop Boys

[Icehaven]

I asked my sister for the album that this came from (can't remember the title or even if it was on an album, I was 7 years old so I just wanted more than one song by them) and I was so upset to find c-60 copies of Bad and Popped In, Souled Out under the tree instead. And to make matters worse, she'd borrowed them off her mate and I had to give them back after a fortnight. Christ.

I'm not a massive PSB fan but I love this one, fucking brilliant.

No it wasn't on an album. Would have been on Please or Actually if it was (all the other choons in It Couldn't Happen Here are from those) but it wasn't. Was on their Best Of a few years later though.

Edit; I tell a lie (sort of anyway) it was on Introspective, but a different version.

[MidnightShambler]

"Always" by Erasure

Ha! Brings back memories, I remember trying to declare my love for my girlfriend at the school disco in 1994 by singing this to her. What a cretin I was now I think about it. 28 I was etc..

[MidnightShambler]

No it wasn't on an album. Would have been on Please or Actually if it was (all the other choons in It Couldn't Happen Here are from those) but it wasn't. Was on their Best Of a few years later though.

Edit; I tell a lie (sort of anyway) it was on Introspective, but a different version.

Yeah I don't think 7yr old me had grasped the concept of the Christmas single at that stage or probably even what an album was, I just wanted lots of PSB music. My sister should have known though, she was 17. And she should certainly have known not to fob me off with music by nonces and smackheads instead.

Although to be fair, if I genuinely followed that rule I'd have to throw away nearly every record I own.

[Twed]

Stone cold synthpop banger. Fact. Don't like it, leave CaB.

I hear rainbows when I hear this song. It used to make me really happy as a kid, and I saw the video and thought "wow that looks like everywhere I know!". Later discovered it was, due to being filmed in Clacton, and the airfield bit was done so close to me there's a good chance my house is in it.

[jobotic]

Don't know anything about this video you're all on about but it's a great song.

[Twed]

Don't know anything about this video you're all on about but it's a great song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDe60CbIagg

A lot of the footage crosses over with the Pet Shop Boys movie (yes) "It Couldn't Happen Here".

[buzby]

No it wasn't on an album. Would have been on Please or Actually if it was (all the other choons in It Couldn't Happen Here are from those) but it wasn't. Was on their Best Of a few years later though.

Edit; I tell a lie (sort of anyway) it was on Introspective, but a different version.

There was a promo soundtrack cassette issued by Parlophone at the time of the film's release - it was possibly going to be issued as an album, but the film bombing put paid to that.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The PSB version of Always on My Mind is utterly magnificent, obviously.

[northernrebel]

The Pet Shop Boys had the Midas touch in the 80s. I remember ma hating 'Always On My Mind' back at Christmas 1987, as she still loved the Elvis version. But I knew the Pet Shop Boys were a class act, and the decades since have only vindicated me. Never seen the bizarre film with Joss Ackland in the back of a taxi though. I saw the skinheads hammering a car bonnet in the long video to 'What Have I Done to Deserve This' and was a bit spooked.

[wosl]

Singer has such a monotonous delivery. Works for some of their songs but not this one requiring soul and emotion in the vocal performance.

Yes, yes.  The vocalist of Pet Shop Boys ruins this song - horrible, wasp-in-jar nasal tone, and very uninterested-sounding, which, given the song, makes Pet Shop Boys' singer seem arrogant, in a sort of Warholian way.

[alan nagsworth]

Singer has such a monotonous delivery. Works for some of their songs but not this one requiring soul and emotion in the vocal performance.

I think that's a bit of a blinkered way of looking at it. For starters, it goes without saying that a cover song should be quite radically different from the original in order to have any standalone credibility, so that's one point awarded to Pet Shop Boys right out of the gate. However what makes it really stand out is that they alter it to the point where the narrative almost changes entirely, much to their advantage. As was mentioned upthread, the tone is far more relatable in its deadpan delivery to some than Elvis' deep crooning, which might sound less convincing in its cloying over-sentimentality. That's certainly how I feel about it. The Elvis version is wonderful, but the PSB version stops me dead in my tracks and enthrals me.

Other cover versions that spring to mind where the narrative is altered and the new version almost supersedes the original are The Slits' "Heard It Through The Grapevine" and Felix Kubin's "Hello". And of course let's not forget the great job Soft Cell and Coil body did with "Tainted Love".

Anyway yes this song absolutely fuckin rips

[Gulftastic]

Kept Fairy Tale of New York from Christmas No 1 and I'm fine with that.

No, before it got played to death and became everyone's default 'fave Xmas single' it was great. Wold have been a worthy number one on it's release.

I was more happy that they kept Rick Astley lazy as fuck cover of 'When I Fall In Love' from taking the top spot.

[Dr Rock]

Love this version but not as much as Elvises. I would add that Elvis doesn't sing it that deeply:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF5fW3-9DeI

[Monsieur Verdoux]

I think the vocal on the Pet Shop Boys version is very affecting, there's a sighing, defeated quality which gives off a sense that he knows his pleas are worthless, the love affair is already over. The massive synths create this impression too, there's a feeling of finality, the last big number, the curtain going down. There's an interesting tension in the gulf between the blockbuster scale of emotion displayed in the music and the sighing terseness of the vocal. Verdict: a banger

[Gregory Torso]

Felix Kubin's "Hello"

hell yes

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Love this version but not as much as Elvises. I would add that Elvis doesn't sing it that deeply:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF5fW3-9DeI

I find that version utterly heartbreaking. I have no vested interest in a famous man feeling sorry for himself because his wife has fucked off, it's just a very beautiful performance of a very sad song.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

A lot of the post-Priscilla Elvis catalogue is tough to listen to sometimes because of the vast, operatic levels of hurt in his voice

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

A lot of the post-Priscilla Elvis catalogue is tough to listen to sometimes because of the vast, operatic levels of hurt in his voice

Yep. He basically spent the last few years of his life recording songs full of self-loathing and self-pity. This one is particularly sad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLj0aLPLsys

Fucking hell. That sounds like God having a mental breakdown in the desolate dead of night.

[alan nagsworth]

Elvis mate what a legend

[DrGreggles]

Elvis mate what a legend

Shakin' Shakey, mate.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Elvis mate what a legend

Too much perspective.

[Sin Agog]

Can David Tennant go Uh huh huh?  No, David Tennant can't.

[phes]

PSB version of Helvis Pesley's Always in ma Mind is utterly brilliant from 360 degrees and if you disagree then why don't you just stop listening to it

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Can David Tennant go Uh huh huh?  No, David Tennant can't.

No need for that sort of language.

[non capisco]

I think the vocal on the Pet Shop Boys version is very affecting, there's a sighing, defeated quality which gives off a sense that he knows his pleas are worthless, the love affair is already over. The massive synths create this impression too, there's a feeling of finality, the last big number, the curtain going down. There's an interesting tension in the gulf between the blockbuster scale of emotion displayed in the music and the sighing terseness of the vocal. Verdict: a banger

Yes, that's absolutely bang on, completely agree. I can really pick up on the fathomless well of self-recrimination behind Neil's resigned delivery in the first verse of "I never took the time". It whallops me right in the ol' ticker just as much as Elvis' version, which I also think is wonderful. Another thing I fucking adore in the Pet Shop Boys cover is the sudden keening guitar tone in the middle that soars above the synth riff like repressed emotions finally coming to the surface, like a crying jag about to break.

We've all been there, eh, gang?

[Gregory Torso]

Yes, that's absolutely bang on, completely agree. I can really pick up on the fathomless well of self-recrimination behind Neil's resigned delivery in the first verse of "I never took the time". It whallops me right in the ol' ticker just as much as Elvis' version, which I also think is wonderful. Another thing I fucking adore in the Pet Shop Boys cover is the sudden keening guitar tone in the middle that soars above the synth riff like repressed emotions finally coming to the surface, like a crying jag about to break.

You are a poet and expressed everything I wanted to say. I love that soaring bit towards the end, and I wasn't joking when I said this song makes me cry because Im such a shit husband.

[Dr Rock]

I saw a clip on YouTube recently, Elvis about to sing Always On My Mind. He gets Priscilla, Lisa-Marie and his current gf out of the audience to show they are all friendly and explains that he loves singing sad songs but they shouldn't imagine they're all about Priscilla or about his life. He would say that though.

Here I found it. He may be on drugs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKSEqibwqHI

(There's a dig about Mike Stone not being a stud though)

fake edit - wait, he must be talking about You Gave Me a Mountain, not Always On My Mind (mentions it was written by Marty Robbins).

[Twed]

Stop saying Elvis things

[phes]

I saw a clip on YouTube recently, Elvis about to sing Always On My Mind. He gets Priscilla, Lisa-Marie and his current gf out of the audience to show they are all friendly and explains that he loves singing sad songs but they shouldn't imagine they're all about Priscilla or about his life. He would say that though.

Here I found it. He may be on drugs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKSEqibwqHI

(There's a dig about Mike Stone not being a stud though)

fake edit - wait, he must be talking about You Gave Me a Mountain, not Always On My Mind (mentions it was written by Marty Robbins).

All can see when listen to talking is Donald Trump

[Nowhere Man]

I know this is a Pet Shop Boy's thread but i'm quite happy to see some Elvis love on CaB.

Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues is a good latter day Elvis ballad, seems to have hit pretty close to his own life in the 70s, since he omitted the original verse about "popping pills to ease the pain".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk4eQTVNTaw

"You know my heart keeps tellin' me
You're not a kid at thirty-three
Play around you'll lose your wife
Play too long you'll lose your life"


To bring it back to PSB, What Have I Done To Deserve This? is their best single.