Suspicious Minds was written by a Memphis singer named Mark James, who also wrote the B.J. Thomas hit "Hooked On A Feeling." James recorded the original version in 1968, but it went nowhere.
Elvis heard the song at Chips Moman's American Sound Studio in Memphis, where he came to record as a change of pace from Nashville; it was his first time recording in Memphis since 1955.
"Elvis was in the studio at American Sound in Memphis, and our friend Mark James, who wrote 'Suspicious Minds,' had an office there," explained Donna Jean Godchaux, who sang backup on James' original and also on Elvis' recording. "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 of 'Suspicious Minds.' Elvis walked in and said, 'I want that song and I want those girls.'"
The other backup singers were Jeanie Greene, and the sisters Mary and Ginger Holliday. They also sang on "In The Ghetto."
This was a big comeback song for Elvis, who hadn't had a US #1 hit since "Good Luck Charm" in 1962. He had been making a series of unexceptional movies, and his music had lost its luster.
"Suspicious Minds" brought him back to #1 in November 1969, and he was off and running, launching a tour in 1970 (his first in nine years) and becoming a star attraction in Las Vegas. It ended up being his last #1 hit in his lifetime, but his releases started charting a lot higher than his mid-'60s output.
Elvis' publishing company, along with his manager, Col. Tom Parker, tried to get their usual cut of the royalties from this song and threatened to stop the recording if they didn't. But the song's writer, Mark James, held firm, and Elvis insisted on recording the song anyway. Most songwriters gave in to this demand because sharing the publishing on a song Elvis recorded was much more lucrative than not having him record it at all.
According to Elvis' good friend Marty Lacker, who convinced him to record in Memphis with Chips Moman, the song's fake ending was a result of tampering by Elvis' longtime producer Felton Jarvis.
"When Chips cut 'Suspicious Minds' and mixed it, the fade and bump at the end was not there," Lacker told Goldmine magazine.
"In other words, the song fades out and then it bumps up again. It's that part where Elvis is just repeating and repeating the last chorus. It might be good for the stage, a dramatic thing, but it's not good on a record.
What happened was 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."