G major · Camelot 9B · 117 BPM
Suspicious Minds
by Elvis Presley
- 117
- BPM
- G major
- Key
- 9B
- Camelot
- 49
- Danceability
- 4
- Acousticness
At American Sound Studio in Memphis, the session that produced "Suspicious Minds" ran from 4 to 7 a.m. on Thursday, January 23, 1969. Elvis Presley cut the track with producer Chips Moman during the marathon session, and "I'll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)", "Without Love (There Is Nothing)", and "I'll Be There" were recorded at the same time. Mark James, who wrote the song and had first recorded it himself on Scepter Records in 1968, was in Memphis that night but stayed away from the studio. A few days earlier he had walked in during a session, sensed that Presley was uncomfortable with him there, and did not want to jinx the song.
The production nearly collapsed over a publishing dispute. Presley's business people, Hill & Range, demanded half of Moman's publishing rights, and Moman threatened to halt the session. Harry Jenkins of RCA sided with Moman, believing the song would be a big hit with plenty to go around. Moman got his way, and the recording proceeded.
When James first heard the track the day after it was cut, he thought it sounded too slow. The embellished version changed his mind. On August 7 the song was overdubbed again to stereo and mono in Las Vegas, where Bill Porter produced the final master. Felton Jarvis added a fade-out at 3:36, lasting nearly 15 seconds before the music returned, a choice Moman later criticized. The single reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Suspicious Minds runs at 117 BPM, the tempo of pop, funk and disco-leaning dance. In classical terms it sits in moderato territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.05 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 513 ms. It is in G major, Camelot 9B, which shares its notes with E minor and mixes cleanly with C major and D major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.