You Were on My Mind

"You Were On My Mind" is a blues song written by Sylvia Tyson in 1964 and originally performed by her duo Ian and Sylvia. It was covered in a modified up-tempo version, with somewhat altered lyrics, the following year by the California pop quintet We Five. M. Witmark & Sons of New York published the song in sheet form in 1965.

The opening lines are::"When I woke up this morning":"You were on my mind":"And you were on my mind"

The We Five remake, which reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1965, altered some of the original Fricker lyrics. The comparatively intense tune was a favorite of easy-listening stations, topping Billboard's easy listening chart for five weeks.

The song was also a major hit in the UK for Crispian St. Peters. In Italy, a local group named Equipe 84 had a hit with this song, retitled "Io ho in mente te " ("I've you on my mind"). Another performance in Italian was made by Paul Anka. Canadian singer Marty Shannon had a minor hit with the song as well. Still another cover version by Les Fradkin on his 2006 CD "Jangleholic", has been a solid seller at Apple iTunes as a download single.

The song was used in an Australian TV advertisement for Hungry Jacks (Burger King in the US).

A music video of a performance of the song by We Five (introduced by Fred Astaire on 2 October 1965) is presently available on YouTube. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_f16t1JGHo]