Another very spooky coincidence; The day after this request came in on the 7th June, the song’s writer passed away. Mark James never had any UK nor US hit singles, but his songs are well known, many have recorded them including Elvis Presley who charted five of his songs. His most successful was Suspicious Minds, a number two hit for Elvis Presley and a chart-topper exactly 18 years later for the Pet Shop Boys. It’s another relationship-related song that millions can identify with, but was it from the heart? Let’s find out.
Such were the Texas-born songwriter’s achievements that, in 2000, he was named one of the top songwriters of the 20th Century alongside names like Elton John and Paul McCartney. During his lifetime he wrote songs that were covered by Willie Nelson, Brenda Lee, Bill Withers, Michael Buble, Pet Shop Boys and Jay-Z
He was born Francis Zambon in Houston, Texas in 1940 and by the end of the 50s he was performing locally and recorded his first single called, Jive Noted. His family said of him, “He was a captivating storyteller who had the sweetest smile, the most infectious laugh and a twinkle in his eye that never dimmed,” and that certainly came across in his songs. The only time his career was halted is when he was drafted into the army to fight in the Vietnam War.
After he was demobbed, he signed to a Memphis music publishing company, where he collaborated with a fellow Houston native B.J. Thomas and the pair co-wrote Thomas’ first US hit The Eyes Of A New York Woman.
So is the song based on a true life story? In a word, yes. The lyrics were inspired by James’ feelings for his childhood sweetheart. The pair had split up and James went on to marry someone else and his childhood sweetheart was also married to someone else, but he couldn’t get her out of his mind, “It was a very confusing time for me,” he explained in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, “I felt as though all three of us were all caught in this trap that we couldn’t walk out of.” He recorded his original version of the song in 1968 and his record company, Scepter Records released it believing, quite rightly, it was going to be a big hit. It wasn’t. It failed to chart altogether.
Between March 1956 and March 1962, Elvis Presley had notched up 54 Billboard Hot 100 hit singles with the 54th being his 17th number one, Good Luck Charm. He continued to record and have hits, but producer and studio owner Chips Moman convinced Elvis to record at his studio in Memphis and Elvis agreed and so they headed off to ARS, the American Recording Studio where Elvis hadn’t recorded since the mid-50s. The session was productive as Elvis recorded 16 songs including Don’t Cry Daddy, In the Ghetto and Suspicious Minds. One of the backing singers in the studio, Donna Jean Godchaux, explained in an interview with Songfacts how Elvis got to record the latter, “Elvis was in the studio and our friend Mark James, who wrote Suspicious Minds, had an office there. Elvis walked by Mark’s office and Mark was playing the demo that we had done, we had done the background vocals on his version and Elvis said, ‘I want that song and I want those girls.'” So Donna did backing vocals on both the original and Elvis’ cover. Elvis’ version also had Ronnie Milsap and Jeannie Greene as additional backing singers. Moman said, “He wanted to hear the song over and over again, and learned it on the spot,” and he pretty much used the same arrangement as James’s original.
Elvis first showcased the track in July 1968 as part of what is now known as the Legendary 1968 Comeback Special. He was on stage as the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas and the audience were on their feet giving a standing ovation as he walked on stage. It ran for 10 nights in Vegas and was such a success that RCA released Suspicious Minds as a single and it went to number one in the States, giving him his final chart-topper there – seven years after his last – and number two in the UK.
The song has been covered by numerous people including the country singers Waylon Jennings, B.J. Thomas, Dwight Yoakam, Dee Dee Warwick, Peters & Lee, Freddie Starr, Thelma Houston, Candi Staton, Joe Dolan, Fine Young Cannibals, P.J. Proby and Ronan Keating. A live version by Elvis was released in the UK in 2001 and went to number 15. The highest charting version in the UK is probably long forgotten. Who will remember in 2002, Gareth Gates took the song to number one as one half of a double A-side with Gareth and Will Young’s version of The Long and Winding Road? Not many I bet.
There is one notable fact about the Elvis’ version and that is at around three and a half mins, the song seems to fade out and come back again and, I, for one, have wondered if this was intentional. Well, in an interview with the wonderful Goldmine magazine, Marty Lacker, who was a good friend of Elvis’, explained, “The song fades out and then it bumps up again. It’s that part where Elvis is just repeating and repeating the last chorus. In my opinion, it might be good for the stage, a dramatic thing, but it’s not good on a record. What happened was [producer] Felton Jarvis took the master to Nashville and started fooling with it thinking he could do better. And he couldn’t. He should have left it alone. He added background voices. The voices that Chips put on in Memphis, Mary Green and all those people, they’re fantastic southern sounding R&B-ish singers. Chips used them on a lot of the hits he had.” The fade out wasn’t on the tape before Jarvis took it to Nashville, so it’s down to producer error.
Mark James passed away on the 8th June 2024 at the age of 83. His family said, “his larger-than-life personality filled any room he was in, and his smile lit it up”.