The Last Thing On My Mind

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“The Last Thing on My Mind” was written by folk singer-songwriter Tom Paxton and first recorded on his 1964 debut Elektra album Ramblin’ Boy. Paxton was one of the young Greenwich Village folkies alongside Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Phil Ochs — and according to fellow folk legend Dave Van Ronk, Paxton was actually the first of the whole crowd to perform mostly his own songs, back when even Dylan was still singing traditional material. Fittingly, this one has old roots: Paxton borrowed the melody’s bones from the traditional lament “The Leaving of Liverpool.” The Last Thing on My Mind +2

The song’s biggest claim to fame? It launched one of country music’s most famous (and famously stormy) partnerships. Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton chose it as their very first duet, and it became their first big hit in 1967, climbing to #7 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart — the beginning of a seven-year pairing that Dolly eventually left by writing “I Will Always Love You” as her goodbye to Porter. Since then, the song has been covered by dozens of legends, including Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, John Denver, and Neil Diamond, and it found a whole new audience when it appeared in the Coen Brothers’ 2013 folk-scene film Inside Llewyn Davis. Not bad for a heartbroken apology that any beginning guitarist can play with just three chords.