Introduction:
Country legend Conway Twitty was known for his signature song formula: infidelity and guilt. It had been a winning combination that earned him success, especially in the early years of building up his career. His 1975 track “Linda on My Mind” was written just like that, and it hit number one and reigned for eight weeks on the chart.
And here’s a fun fact: the song couldn’t be disregarded as just one of Conway Twitty’s chart-toppers. It was the 12th and also one of his eleven self-penned number-ones.
Meaning Behind the Song
“Who is Linda?” one might ask. Well, Conway Twitty kept the mystery surrounding this woman, never revealing if she was a real person or just a figment of his imagination. But it wasn’t Linda’s cryptic identity that generated the buzz around the song—especially the controversies. It was the fact that he had been thinking of Linda while he was in bed with another woman.
Twitty didn’t beat around the bush, opening the song with a straight-up confession: “Now I’m lying here with Linda on my mind / And next to me, my soon-to-be, the one I left behind.” That isn’t the worst part, though. She’s crying—and he says it’s killing him—because she knows that he’s there, physically, but his mind is elsewhere.
He then goes on to talk about Linda. He sings of how he placed no one above her and how, in a turn of unplanned events, he set her free. He also reminisces the first time he held her close and she danced with him and squeezed his hand.