On October 31, 1972 RCA Victor released "Separate Ways" / "Always On My Mind". It entered Billboard's "Hot 100" on December 2nd at number 71, had a run of 12 weeks and peaked at number 20. On the "Easy Listening Chart" the 45 also stayed for 12 weeks, but made it to number 3. "Always On My Mind" was listed on the "Hot Country Singles Chart", where it stayed for 13 weeks and peaked at number 16. In 1992 the RIAA honored the US sales with a Gold Award. Even though the single charted on the top 10 in Australia and sold 250,000 copies in Janan, the global sales added up to no more than 1.75 million units (which translates to 262.5 million paid streams) and therefore had declined by 42% compared to Elvis' previous single.

On the streaming platforms this single is not available, but both tracks can be found on the album "Elvis" (1973). In 2016 the complete Presley catalogue was restored and remastered by Vic Anesini for a boxed set of 60 compact discs called "The Album Collection". Sony Music Entertainment provides the streaming platforms with the same versions of the individual tracks, albeit in 24 bit/90 khz flac. That means, if the platform of your choice supports high resolution audio, you can enjoy the songs in the same quality Sony used to scan and master them. On Spotify, which has a market share of approximately 30% and is the only platform that publishes streaming figures, "Separate Ways" accumulates 4 million streams, "Always On My Mind" clocks in at 258 million. Therefore it belongs to the ten most popular Presley tunes on Spotify. Without doubt the sales flop of 1972 has turned into a success.

The cover was designed with a b/w photo made during the "Elvis Summer Festival 1972" in Las Vegas. On a banner RCA Victor promoted the double album "Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite", even though the release was planned no earlier than February 1973.

In the song, the narrator splits from his wife and therefore has to leave his little daughter, too. "Separate Ways" was written by Red West and Richard Mainegra directly for Elvis and fit the current situation of the king like a glove. On March 27, 1972 he recorded 25 takes at RCA Studio C in Hollywood/California and selected the 21st attempt for release. On the day of the recording Felton Jarvis added harmony voices, strings and horns followed on May 8th. Later the violins were removed, because Elvis didn't like the arrangement.

This is another song about a separation. The singer affirms, that his wife was always on his mind, even though he had treated her not well and finally was left. Once again the lyrics could have been an excerpt of Elvis' diary, but this time it was nothing but a coincidence. "Always On My Mind" was written by Wayne Carson, Mark James and Johnny Christopher and had nothing to do with the king's situation. Elvis recorded the song on March 28, 1972 at RCA Studio C in Hollywood/California and needed seven takes to get it right. On April 27th further instruments were added, strings and horns followed on May 8th. Once again Elvis wanted to do without the violins, so they were removed before release.