Suspicious Minds

One of the biggest comebacks for “The King.” It’s about loving someone so much but feeling trapped because of her suspicions. He’s telling her not to throw their love away and keeps trying to convince her of his innocence. He can’t let go of her love but just can’t keep going like this, it’s mistrusting and dysfunctional relationship. Song writer Mark James, who first wrote and recorded this song in 1968, was asked by Chips Moman to come to Memphis to write songs for American Sound Studio. James had written three number one hits in Southern United States, while he was living in Houston back then. After that, James decided to move to Memphis because the American Sound Studio was gaining a reputation in the music industry as the Box Tops. When asked about the story of the song, James said that late one night while he was fooling around on his Fender guitar and using his Hammond organ pedals for a bass line; he came up with what he thought was a catchy melody. He was married to his ex-wife, but still had feelings for his childhood sweetheart, who was married back in Houston. That’s when his wife started getting suspicious about his feelings towards her. He felt that three of them were caught in a trap and unable to get out of it. James then recorded the song and after the tape was mixed, his manager had arranged a meeting with Scepter Records in New York. Scepter then loved the song and released it, but they did not have enough money to promote new singers, and so the song did not make it to the charts. Elvis had booked Scepter’s studio later that year to record the album ‘From Elvis in Memphis’. Don Crew, Morman’s partner asked James if he had any songs that would be right for Elvis. Tom Jones was a hot artist at the time, so James felt Presley needed a mature rock ‘n’ roll song to bring him back, and ‘Suspicious Minds’ was the one. After Presley heard the song, he decided to record it and make it a hit, even though James’s recording had not been commercially successful.

Release Date: August 26, 1969

Songwriter/s: Mark James

Label: RCA

Chart Rankings: In the US, this song was Presley’s last number 1 on the charts, and it was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The song peaked at number 2 in the UK and Ireland, and topped the charts in Australia, Belgium and Canada. It reached number 4 on the Dutch MegaChart Top and peaked at number 7 in West Germany back then.

Artist’s age on Release Date: Elvis Aaron Presley was 34 years old when he released this song.

Cover Versions: Fine Young Cannbals – Dwight Yoakam – Gareth Gates – Dee Dee Warwick – B. J. Thomas – Waylon Jennings & Jessi Colter – The Heptones – Judy Cheeks – Ronnie McdDowell – Candi Staton – Bobby Orlando – Phish – Bowling for Soup – U2 – The Edge – James Brown (Elvis impersonator) – No Doubt – Pete Yorn – Avail – Sakis Rouvas – Miss Kittin & The Hacker – Rusted Root – Steve Hofmeyr – The Bourbon Cowboys – Glasvegas featuring Florence Welch – Clay Aiken – Amanda Lear – Martina McBride – Justin Timberlake – Amateur artists such as Michael Sharp – Leah Daniels – Ismael Davies – Leandro Kasan – and others covered this song on Youtube.