Brenda Lee and Gwen McCrae, Eric Clapton, Pet Shop Boys, and Elvis Presley are just a few of the notable acts to sing “Always On My Mind”. However, the most notable and arguably successful rendition of the song is Willie Nelson‘s 1982 cover of the iconic single. Though the success in the name does not just reside in one single place. In Nelson’s case, it resides over a whole album, as Nelson’s 1982 album was at No. 1 on the country albums chart on this day, August 22, 1982.
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Willie Nelson’s discography features songs not even sung by him and singles that are strictly his. In other words, the man has created a lot of music over his career, which has spanned roughly seven decades. Nelson’s significance as an artist goes far beyond any numerical ranking or statistic, but he does have quite a few of those as well.
In total, Willie Nelson has 20 No. 1 hits, 14 No. 1 albums, 12 Grammy Awards, and 57 Grammy nominations. Needless to say, Willie Nelson is one of the most decorated recording, performing, and writing artists not only in country music, but in all of music. And today, August 22, 1982, was a small factor that factored into that very fact.
The Most Successful Willie Nelson Album of All Time?
On February 28, 1982, Willie Nelson released one of the most successful albums in his catalog: Always On My Mind. Following its release, the album climbed to the top of the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and stayed there for a total of 22 weeks. Furthermore, Nelson’s masterpiece peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for an impressive 99 weeks. Like a lot of Nelson’s work, it was a cross-genre success, becoming Nelson’s second-best-selling album of his career.
Given the length of time Nelson’s album stayed on the country chart, Always On My Mind unsurprisingly went on to become the No. 1 Billboard country album of the year. In addition to the album’s success on the charts, several singles also did incredibly well on both country and popular charts. Particularly, the album’s title track peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and also unsurprisingly, peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.
While it’s impossible to say what truly is the most successful Willie Nelson album of all time, this one is most certainly in the conversation.
Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images
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