I was all-in on Pet Shop Boys by the point that anyone else would be. I hadn’t heard them until “West End Girls” was released in its second recording on EMI on 1985 and managed to make the duo one of the last and best Synthpop Duos of the Post New Wave period. By the time of their second album, “Actually,” I was buying the luscious and decadent CD-5 singles the band, as bonafide hit makers, were entitled to issue. That meant that I didn’t bother with the 12” records any more at the time. It was only years later when I started buying the rare mixes from the 2nd 12” singles and the like for that band. It was in the 90s when my wife bought the US 12” of “Always On My Mind” for me at a garage sale. Actually, I think she bought both of the copies on my racks!

But until recently, I had not ever spun it. My point of entry on the single was that original 1987 UK CD-5 with three tracks that differed from the US three track 12” version I got a decade later. I can easily recall buying that CD single. The fourth in my collection from Pet Shop Boys at the time. I was ordering a lot from music catalogs and I think it was from Jack Wolak’s Rare Necessities that I probably bought the CD-5 for $15 from them at the time. Wolak’s staff would travel to the UK every six weeks to stock up on the latest UK singles and issue a catalog that I would end up spending at least $125 from.

It was December of that year when I bought and received in the mail, the then-latest PSB single; a non-LP cover version of the Elvis Presley-slash-Willie Nelson chestnut that the band had covered for a British TV special [“Love Me Tender”] on the 10th anniversary of Presley’s death. The feedback the band received from all quarters went through the roof and not surprisingly, they decided to record and issue it as a single; netting them the prestigious Christmas number one slot in the UK for the 1987 season. I can remember the HI-NRG stomper getting repeat play at a Christmas party my friend’s were having that year. We were all into Pet Shop Boys, and it went over like gangbusters with them. Remembering that this was in advance of the single being on American airwaves. But that eventually happened in a few weeks.

Pet Shop Boys: Always On My Mind – UK – CD5/12″ #1 [1987]

1. Always On My Mind [Extended Dance Version] 8:07
2. Do I Have To? 5:14
3. Always On My Mind 3:59

The UK 12#1 was identical to the CD5, issued one week later for better chart-rigging! The single was a smash around the world, and not surprisingly, in America, their label reissued the “Actually” album [which had preceded the single by a few months] with a 12”/CD single [identical to the UK 12” #1/CD-5, but not the commercial US 12” of the single] included with the reissued album to capitalize on the big hit.

Pet Shop Boys: Actually + 12″ Reissue – US – LP + 12″ [1988]

“Actually”

1. One More Chance 5:29
2. What Have I Done To Deserve This? 4:17
3. Shopping 3:36
4. Rent 5:07
5. Hit Music 4:43
6. It Couldn’t Happen Here 5:20
7. It’s A Sin 4:58
8. I Want To Wake Up 5:07
9. Heart 3:57
10. King’s Cross 5:09

“Always On My Mind” 12″/CD5

1. Always On My Mind [Extended Dance Version] 8:07
2. Do I Have To? 5:14
3. Always On My Mind 3:59

In the Post-Frankie environment of the UK, there was a remixed 12″ single issued the week after the first one. This featured a remix by the group and Phil Harding in a three-track format like the first single. The remixed A-side was coupled with a new , brief dub mix.

Pet Shop Boys: Always On My Mind – UK – 12″ #2 [1987]

1. Always On My Mind [Remix] 5:55
2. Do I Have To? 5:14
3. Always On My Mind [Dub Version] 2:04

The US market, as usual, consolidated the multiplicity of singles which didn’t fit into the American promotional model…yet. There would come a day when multiple single mixes/formats started to happen in The States. In about four to five years. But in 1988, the two A-side remixes were on the same 12″, this one having four tracks.

Pet Shop Boys: Always On My Mind – US – 12″ [1988]

1. Always On My Mind [Extended/Julian Mendelsohn 12″ Dance Version] 8:07
2. Always On my Mind [Phil Harding Mix] 5:55
3. Do I Have To? 5:14

America also got a promo 12″ with one unique mix that appeared nowhere else. As a collector, these were often things I would focus on but at the time, in 1988, I was too busy buying import CD singles at $15/each to bother much with 12″ singles from any but the most important artists I collected. I stopped buying Pet Shop Boys 12″ singles once there were import CD5s to buy instead. At least in the contemporary time period.

Pet Shop Boys: Always On My Mind – US Promo – 12″ [1988]

1. Always On My Mind [Extended/Julian Mendelsohn 12″/Dance Version] 8:07
2. Always On My Mind [7″ Instrumental] 3:59
3. Always On My Mind [7″ Version] 3:59
4. Always On My Mind [12″ Version/Phil Harding/Remix] 5:55
5. Always On My Mind [7″ Dub] 2:04
6. Do I Have To? 5:14

Not to be outdone, the group’s Japanese label as usual, attempted to bring something unique to the market. Bonus tracks on Japanese CDs are legendary among collectors, but in the case of “Actually,” the EMI label went as far as bundling a 7″ of “Always On My Mind” with the LP, but it was the only commercial release for ages of the actual version that Pet Shop Boys had recorded for the “Love Me Tender” TV special that was the genesis of the song. The David Jacob production was the A-side and the dub mix of “Heart” was the B-side.

Pet Shop Boys: Actually + 7″ – JAPAN – LP + 7″ [1987]

“Actually”

1. One More Chance 5:29
2. What Have I Done To Deserve This? 4:17
3. Shopping 3:36
4. Rent 5:07
5. Hit Music 4:43
6. It Couldn’t Happen Here 5:20
7. It’s A Sin 4:58
8. I Want To Wake Up 5:07
9. Heart 3:57
10. King’s Cross 5:09

“Always On My Mind” 7″

1. Always On My Mind [TV Version] 4:03
2. Heart [Dub] 5:16

Finally, the last chapter of the “Always On My Mind” saga concluded later that year when the next Pet Shop Boys album, “Introspective,” appeared. Pet Shop Boys had followed up their debut album with “Disco,’ a remix compilation that was seen as a stopgap measure before “Actually,” their actual sophomore album. At the time, it felt like “Introspective” was along the lines of “Disco 2” [though that would appear in name and fact, years later…] due to the blurred lines resulting in the appearance of “Always On My Mind” one more time along with a remixed B-side from the “Rent” single; “I Want A Dog.” Otherwise, there were four new songs on the album, but all of the six tracks were long twelve inch styled mixes. With the passage of time, even I have agreed that this was the third Pet Shop Boys album.

Pet Shop Boys: Introspective – US – CD [1988]

1. Left To My Own Devices 8:16
2. I Want A Dog 6:15
3. Domino Dancing 7:40
4. I’m Not Scared 7:23
5. Always On My Mind/In My House 9:05
6. It’s Alright 9:24

The group re-recorded a new version of “Always On My Mind” that took the “you were always in my house” drop-in from the 1987 Phil Harding remix version as a jumping off point for the new nine minute medley version here. The second movement of the track was subtitled “In My House,” and featured Neil Tennant “rapping” again, as he had on “West End Girls” over the House beats that the band were obviously soaking up like a sponge, since they also covered Sterling Void’s Chicago House track “It’s Alright” here as the climax to the album.

With “Always On My Mind,” what had begun as a one-off done for a once-aired British TV special had developed into a juggernaut of a cover version; the first of Pet Shop Boys excellent excursions into the form. Taking an Elvis Presley/Willie Nelson hit onto dancefloor banger territory with a HI-NRG makeover was considered transgressive at the time, but they would take that vessel much further out a few years later in a jaw-dropping fashion with their U2/Four Seasons medley “Where The Streets Have No Name/Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You.”

But “Always On My Mind” became a Pet Shop Boys calling card to follow their “Actually” campaign and enliven the perceived lull that would have preceded their “Introspective” phase. It went a little further than that in America, where the album was reactivated with the single bolted on as a freebie. I was amazed at the time that they didn’t just re-press the album with “Always On My Mind” replacing a deep cut as US labels loved to do, but perhaps Pet Shop Boys contracts gave them veto power to such hijinx. At the end of it all, “Always On My Mind” was a massively successful Pet Shop Boys single [their last such hit in America, sadly] and my pick for the single of the year in 1987.

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