Suspicious Minds

"Suspicious Minds" is a song written and first recorded by American songwriter Mark James. After James' recording failed commercially, the song was handed to Elvis Presley by producer Chips Moman, becoming a number one song in 1969, and one of the most notable hits of Presley's career. "Suspicious Minds" was widely regarded as the single that returned Presley's career success, following his '68 Comeback Special. It was his eighteenth and last number-one single in the United States. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked it No. 91 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Session guitarist Reggie Young played on both the James and Presley versions.

The song

The song is about a mistrusting and dysfunctional relationship, and the need of the characters to overcome their issues in order to maintain it. Written in 1968 by Mark James, who was also co-writer of "Always on My Mind" (which Presley would later record), the song first was recorded and released by James on Scepter Records in 1968. Chips Moman had asked James to come to Memphis to write songs for American Sound Studio. At the time, James was residing in Houston. James had written three songs that became number one hits in the Southern United States. American Sound Studio was gaining a reputation in the industry as the Box Tops had just recorded "The Letter" there so James relocated to Memphis.

Suspicious Minds (album)

Suspicious Minds: The Memphis 1969 Anthology is a two-disc compilation of Elvis Presley's studio recordings at American Sound Studio during the winter of 1969, released in 1999, RCA 67677-2. This set features all of the master recordings made by Presley that would eventually feature on multiple singles as well as the albums From Elvis in Memphis and the studio disk of From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis. Original recordings produced by Chips Moman and Felton Jarvis.

Contents

For the bulk of the 1960s, Elvis had been trapped in a cycle of making three movies a year, and recording their attendant soundtracks in either Nashville or Hollywood. After the success of his Christmas special on NBC in December 1968, Presley made a decision not to continue with business as usual, but instead to return to recording in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, to take advantage of the thriving soul music scene active at the city's studios such as Stax and Hi Records. Presley chose American Studios, run by songwriter Chips Moman, for several reasons. First, their music staff was populated by session musicians steeped in Elvis' upbringing in blues, country, gospel, and rock and roll; second, they knew how to give the music a "commercial" gloss, Moman having already produced or written hits for Aretha Franklin and The Box Tops; third, after hitting the top ten on the singles chart only once since 1963 with a song that had been recorded in 1960, Presley needed hits.

Suspicious Minds (disambiguation)

"Suspicious Minds" is a song written by written and recorded by Mark James and made famous by Elvis Presley.

Suspicious Minds may also refer to: