‘The Letter’ songwriter Wayne Carson dies at age 72

Acclaimed songwriter Wayne Carson, a Grammy-winning member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame whose credits include the country-pop classic “Always on My Mind” and the Box Tops’ 1967 chart-topper “The Letter“, died Monday in Franklin, Tennessee.

Wayne Carson suffered from diabetes, cardiac problems and kidney stones, revealed his wife Wyndi Harp Head to the Springfield New-Leader, the local paper from Missouri where the couple lived. The song hit number 1 in 1966 for 4 weeks.

Carson said that “Always On My Mind” had initially been offered to Fred Foster, a producer and record executive known notably for his work with Roy Orbison, but he did not like the song. He mostly wrote country music and rock “n” roll tunes. It’s called “Always on My Mind“. Carson had been in hospice care for the past month due to a recent gallstone flare-up.

One of those compositions, “Somebody Like Me“, would find its way to Chet Atkins and RCA Victor. “I told her real fast I had to hang up because I had to put that into a song”. “Always On My Mind” also won CMA, ACM, NSAI and Grammy trophies for Carson (along with co-writers Johnny Christopher and Mark James) and was named Song of the Year in both 1982 and 1983 – one of only two songs to win the award two years in a row.

Born to a musical family, Carson started out forming bands in the early ’60s before finding his niche as a songwriter, and enjoyed his first chart success with Eddy Arnold’s recording of his song “Somebody Like Me” in 1966.

Later in his career Carson spoke at a number of songwriting seminars maintaining that writing a song wasn’t something that could be taught – that it was more like discovering a story that was already there, waiting to be told.

Among the other artists to record Carson’s songs were Conway Twitty, the Beach Boys and Tina Turner.

Museum writer/editor Michael Gray, who conducted the “Poets and Prophets” interview, remembers Mr. Carson as “such a delight”, a warm and expressive person who wrote songs that resonated with millions of listeners and numerous artists. He’d later adopt his parents’ pseudonymous surname as his own, then drop it, using “Wayne Carson” as his stage name. Memorial services for Wayne Carson will be held next week in Nashville.