Welcome to Golden Nuggets, where I take a look at the American listening habits of yesteryear by taking a listen to the number #1 song on the Billboard charts that week or weeks from 50 years ago. In this fifth installment, we'll be taking a listen to 'Suspicious Minds', as performed by Elvis Presley. Now, normally, I would give a brief summary of the artist in question, but I don't really think anyone needs an introduction to Elvis, so let's just cut to the analysis. Take a listen to the song here.
To get a picture of my opinion, I believe it was a Quentin Tarantino film that said you're either an Elvis or Beatles fan. Though I feel like a more accurate comparison is Beatles or Stones, for the sake of argument, let's use the original two. I fall squarely into the Beatles camp. I can see his role in the popularization of rock and roll to more mainstream (aka whiter) audiences, and a lot of 60s and 70s rock acts that I enjoy speak highly of Elvis, but his music is not really for me. I think it comes down to his exaggerated vocal delivery. With that being said, this song is pretty good. Catchy melody, solid topic, and much better production and arrangement than the Mark James original. His vocal delivery does kind of get in the way for me, but I can see why this song was partially responsible for his comeback into the charts in the late 60s. For my money though, the best version is the Dee Dee Warwick version. The horn section is a little overpowering at points, but her soulful delivery and the lively arrangement brings the song to a whole new level.
This song was only number one for the week of November 1st, 1969 (sorry, I know I got this post in a little late), and really rejuvenated Elvis' career, and this song has led to many other successful cover versions. Maybe it would be fun to kill an afternoon scouring the internet looking for the wildest rendition of 'Suspicious Minds'. As for me, I'm off to do some more research on our next Golden Nugget, 'Wedding Bell Blues', by the 5th Dimension.
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