On 6 August 1982, Willie Nelson's album Always On My Mind returned to the top of Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, beginning a run that would make it the year's most successful country record. Notably, the album contained no original Nelson compositions, instead featuring covers of adult-contemporary and pop standards such as "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man". Its dominance mattered because it capped a year in which the chart was largely a contest between Nelson and the band Alabama, cementing Nelson's status as one of country music's biggest crossover stars.

The album spent 22 non-consecutive weeks at number one, the longest such run of any of Nelson's 13 chart-topping LPs, and sold more than four million copies over 253 weeks on the chart. It was later named Album of the Year by the Country Music Association. Its title track, "Always On My Mind", topped the Hot Country Singles chart and reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100; Nelson recorded it after hearing it during sessions for Pancho & Lefty, his 1983 duet album with Merle Haggard, who had turned the song down.