About The Song
The Last Thing on My Mind reached country radio on December 26, 2000 as the second single from Patty Loveless’s album Strong Heart. Al Anderson and Craig Wiseman wrote the song. Emory Gordy Jr. produced the recording for Epic Records. The track runs 3:22. Rebecca Lynn Howard and Ricky Skaggs provided background harmonies.
The single spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and peaked at number 20 for the week of April 14, 2001. It also reached number 14 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. The album Strong Heart had been released the previous August and marked another chapter in Loveless’s long run with Epic.
The song follows a woman who insists she is finished with a former partner. She tells her friends repeatedly that she does not love him anymore. She claims to have no regrets. She says he is the last thing on her mind. The daylight hours support the claim. She stays busy and keeps moving. Once the day ends and the shadows fall, the empty bed feels as large as Arkansas. As she drifts toward sleep, something in her broken heart turns back. He becomes the last thing on her mind after all.
The contrast drives the song. Public declarations of freedom meet private moments of memory. The harder she works to convince others, and herself, the clearer the quiet truth becomes when the lights go out.
The single arrived between the earlier top-fifteen hit “That’s the Kind of Mood I’m In” and the title track that followed. It was the last top-20 country single Loveless would score before shifting toward the bluegrass-leaning projects that began with Mountain Soul. The music video was directed by Trey Fanjoy.
Anderson and Wiseman were established Nashville writers by the time the song reached Loveless. Anderson had moved from his earlier rock work with NRBQ into country songwriting. Wiseman had already built a catalog of hits. Their collaboration gave Loveless a song that fit the traditional country approach she favored on Strong Heart.
The recording remains one of the clearer statements of quiet contradiction in her later Epic years. A woman can say the right words to everyone around her. Nighttime still has its own account of what she continues to carry.
Video
Lyric
I don’t love him anymore just ask all my friends
I’ve told them and I tell them time & time again
I don’t have no regrets no I’m not that kind
Honestly he’s the last thing on my mind
When the day turns into dusk
And the shadows start to fall
And this empty bed’s as big as Arkansas
And when I’m drifting off to sleep
Something in my broken heart rewinds
He’s the last thing
He’s the last thing on my mind
Now, rushing through the day
I might seem improved
There isn’t time to second guess my foolish moves
No I can only see
Once the lights go out
What it is I can live with and without
When the day turns into dusk
And the shadows start to fall
And this empty bed’s as big as Arkansas
And when I’m drifting off to sleep
Something in my broken heart rewinds
He’s the last thing
He’s the last thing on my mind
When the day turns into dusk
And the shadows start to fall
And this empty bed’s as big as Arkansas
And when I’m drifting off to sleep
Something in my broken heart rewinds
He’s the last thing
He’s the last thing on my mind