1969 No. 1, Featuring A Backup Singer From The Grateful Dead, Hit The Top 57 Years Ago Today

Elvis Presley was the King of Rock 'n' Roll, and he took seven singles to the top of the Hot 100. The final Presley song to go to No. 1: the bombastic, heart-wrenching "Suspicious Minds." Along with a braying horn section, Presley was assisted in his march to the No. 1 position on October 30, 1969, by support vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux. She sang on "Suspicious Minds" as well as Presley's "In the Ghetto" and throughout the "From Elvis in Memphis" LP, all captured during the same recording stint, while she remains best known for her history with the Grateful Dead.

Getting "Suspicious Minds" the way it was, as popularized by Presley, was a group effort. Mark James had written so many smash hits — including B.J. Thomas' 1968 love song "Hooked on a Feeling" — that major producer Chips Moman hired him to be a house songwriter for his Memphis publishing company. His release of his own "Suspicious Minds" went unnoticed, leaving it available for Presley to discover and take to the top of the pop chart for a week in the fall of 1969.

While strumming on a guitar one night during his employment in Memphis, Mark James developed "Suspicious Minds" in a moment of self-confrontation and catharsis. He sought to process a love triangle in which he found himself — he had a wife but kept pining for a girlfriend from his youth, and his spouse correctly surmised as much. Chips Moman let James record it in his studio and produced the track, but James' contracted label, Scepter Records, lacked the funds to market "Suspicious Minds," and so it missed the pop chart.

Following the successful "Elvis: '68 Comeback Special," Elvis Presley headed to Moman's facility to cut the album "From Elvis in Memphis." When asked by a studio higher-up if he had any tunes that would fit Presley's voice or the project, James suggested "Suspicious Minds." The songwriter knew that Presley was interested in an evolved, theatrical rock sound in the vein of Tom Jones and suited to Las Vegas showrooms. Presley adored James' recording, and he pretty much replicated it in the studio, utilizing an identical arrangement and largely the same base of session musicians.

Presley's take on "Suspicious Minds" made its debut in July 1969, when the singer included it in his set at a Las Vegas concert that broke an eight-year live show hiatus. "Suspicious Minds," a rock song from 1969 that sounds even cooler today, was quickly issued as a single, and on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated November 1, it jumped to No. 1.