Like great novels, great songs often have their roots in real life. But I never knew that was the case with Suspicious Minds.

Mark James, who has just died at the age of 83, was indeed caught in a trap when he wrote it. He was living with his wife in Memphis but still carrying a torch for his ex in his hometown of Houston, who had also married someone but shared his feelings.

His jealous wife had her suspicions. Clearly he couldn’t walk out. Nor could he go on forever. So he decided to write a song about it.

Mark’s own recording, produced by Chips Moman in 1968, was a flop. But a year later Elvis – his career in a slump after ending his Hollywood adventure – booked into a Memphis studio to make a comeback album with Moman.

It followed the famous televised Comeback Special when he dressed in black leather and rocked away the memory of what he had become – a crooner of insipid ballads.

Mark James had been trying to write a new song for Elvis without success until his publisher suggested submitting his old song for inclusion on the album.

So he got Moman to play it to Presley, who loved it so much he even copied the arrangement closely.

When the single went to No.1 in August 1969, it not only took him to the top of the charts for the first time since 1962 but unleashed a stream of royalties that would keep the little-known James in clover for the rest of his life.

Even more so, in fact, as Presley recorded several other songs composed by James – by now divorced and remarried – including Moody Blue, It’s Only Love and Raised On Rock and Always On My Mind.

The last of those won a Grammy for James (and his two co-writers) as Song of the Year when Willie Nelson had a hit with it ten years later – and it boosted his bank account further when the Pet Shop Boys made their synthpop version in 1987.

In 2013 a poll by ITV to find “the nation’s favourite Elvis songs” put Always On My Mind at No.1 and Suspicious Minds at No.2 – cementing the status of Mark James (real name Francis Zambon) as one of the songwriting greats.

RIP Mark James (1940-2024)