Always on my Mind

This song is not one that changed my life, it was the song that marked the most momentous change in my life.

Janet and I had met at work on Monday February 2 1987, my first day at the Chatham A Unemployment Benefit Office. For the first couple of months Janet showed me the ropes and realised that I wasn’t good at routine tasks, much to her frustration and occasional amusement! Then she told everyone that she had got another job. I remember feeling sad about it but I wasn’t quite sure why. She left in May and that was the last time I expected to see her. However, she missed me as much as I missed her and eventually she plucked up the courage to pass a message to Wendy who still worked with me to ask if I would like to go for a drink. We settled on December 17th at my local, the Crispin and Crispianus. By the end of that evening I knew deep down that she was the one for me. The relationship deepened and nearly 39 years later we are still very much in love.

The Number 1 record on December 17 1987 was Always on my Mind by the Pet Shop Boys. It was a song they had contributed to an Elvis special for the 10th anniversary of his death and it was the only song of the night that wasn’t a tired or insipid cover version. The group were persuaded to release it and it got to Number 1 on December 13 and stayed there into the New Year. Looking at the other records that were in the Top 5, any of them could have become our song. When I Fall in Love by Rick Astley was at Number 2, and although it showcased his voice very well, it couldn’t match up to the original. I ended up choosing the original version by Nat King Cole, which ended up in the Top 10 the week after, as the first dance at our wedding. Pete Waterman of Stock Aitken and Waterman accused Parlophone, the label that the Pet Shop Boys recorded on of releasing the original as a deliberate spoiling tactic to ensure that Always on my Mind was the Christmas Number 1. Given that Capitol Records was the US arm of the same company, he was probably right! Rounding out the Top 5 were The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson, Love Letters by Alison Moyet, an absolutely sublime cover version, and the previous week’s Number 1 by T’Pau China in Your Hand. Other than the Pet Shop Boys, I would very happily have had Love Letters as our Number 1, but Always on my Mind has become completely entwined with our lives. It’s our song and every time we hear it we are reminded of a night that changed our lives completely.