Terry Stafford’s Suspicion, when the alike is better

[luisam]

Often music history discussions revolve around the question "who did the original?" The type of misconception is more of the "mistaken identity" type. In other words, songs that people assume were recorded by one artist, but were actually done by another. It happens more often than you think...

 

Perhaps the most glaring example of this is the 1964 hit Suspicion by Terry Stafford. Wait: you heard this song and you thought that it was Elvis? So did most of America. That's why the song was played over and over and over... enough to make people buy the record even after they found out it wasn't The King. To this day, many think "Suspicion" is an Elvis song.

 

In the early months of 1964, on their inaugural tour of North America, The Beatles seemed to be everywhere: appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show, making the front cover of Newsweek, and playing for fanatical crowds at sold out concerts. On The Billboard April 4, 1964, Hot 100 list, the “Fab Four” held the top five positions. One notch down at Number 6 was “Suspicion,” a song that sounded suspiciously like Elvis Presley using an alias, by a virtually unknown singer named Terry Stafford. The following week “Suspicion” moved up to Number 3, wedged in between the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” and “She Loves You.”

 

“Suspicion” was written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, the team that delivered a string of hits for The Drifters, Dion and The Belmonts, Andy Williams, The Mystics, and especially Elvis Presley.

 

“Suspicion” is a snapshot of a relationship unraveling from within.

“Ev-’ry time you kiss me / I’m still not certain that you love me / Ev-’ry time you hold me / I’m still not certain that you care.”

 

The singer is unable to overcome his doubt, his suspicion.

“Though you keep on saying / You really, really, really love me / Do you speak the same words / To someone else when I’m not there?”

 

Is the singer’s distrust getting the better of him or is there truly cause for the persistent dread? The listener is left to decide.

“Suspicion torments my heart / Suspicion keeps us apart / Suspicion why torture me!” 

 

 

This song was written near the tail end of Doc Pomus’ marriage. With two kids and a house in the suburbs, it looked like the American dream. But it wasn’t. His wife Willi had dreams of performing and when she finally did land a role on Broadway, she met someone. Doc spent a lot of time in the city, across the street from his publisher and the cubicle he wrote in. It wasn’t conducive to happily ever after and he was probably feeling pangs of jealousy long before the picture came into focus and things changed permanently. These words must have almost written themselves.

 

When I was young, long before everything could be searched on Google, I loved Terry's single of "Suspicion". I knew it was not by Elvis, but always thought it sounded just as Elvis and wished I could have heard Elvis singing it. So, imagine my surprise when I eventually found out that Elvis had actually recorded the song first and Stafford had covered it.

 

Suspicion was recorded by Elvis Presley on March 19, 1962 in Studio B of RCA's Nashville studio and issued on his album Pot Luck, released June 15, 1962. A tom-tom-like percussion propels the momentum of the lyrics with The Jordanaires chiming in on the chorus.

 

As Presley archivist-discographer Ernst Jorgensen points out, “‘Suspicion’ seemed built to showcase every little vocal trick in Elvis’ bag, without ever developing into parody. It had hit written all over it.”

Nevertheless, the song remained tucked away on Side 2 of Pot Luck. In retrospective, you might like this original version or might not but the fact is that at that moment, in 1962, no one payed much attention to this track, probably not even Elvis.  RCA apparently wasn’t convinced by and never released the King’s version as a single. Hearing it today, it sounds a bit over-sweetened but without any dooubt, the vocals by Elvis are great! Even if it looks that Suspicion was not recorded to be a radio hit, I feel that Elvis' version might have sounded same or better than Stafford's after a couple more passes.

 

 

Terry Stafford was from Amarillo, Texas. He moved to Los Angeles after high school to pursue a singing career and performed at various local dances and social events. In 1962 he got the chance to record a demo at the Los Angeles studio of Bob Summers, the brother-in-law of Les Paul and chose "Suspicion". Bob Summers played all the instruments on the tracks as well as did the engineering and the recording, except for bass which was played by Ron Griffith.

 

Stafford and his manager took the tape around to all the major labels in town but they all turned it down. Along the way, Gene Weed, a disc jockey at KFWB (980 AM) heard the tape and contacted Herb Alpert at A&M Records. Although Stafford did cut two songs for A&M – “You Left Me Here to Cry” backed with “Heartaches on the Way” – Alpert passed on “Suspicion.”

 

A year later Stafford’s cousin, Ted Bevan, who was now his manager, sent the tape on to John Fisher, president of newly launched Crusader Records. John Fisher liked it and he did some remixing and mastering, added a synthesizer backing and promised to have it out by January, 1964. Once released, ‘Suspicion’ was the ‘Pick of The Week’ on KFWB. The single and the album took off from there.”

 

Much has been said of Stafford’s “sounds-like Elvis” way of singing and he is often categorized as a Presley imitator, Certainly, over the years, Terry Stafford is remembered for the uncanny resemblance of his singing voice to that of Elvis Presley, and for his one huge hit, Suspicion. Stafford gracefully acknowledged the influence and similarities. “I have always been a big fan of Elvis’ ever since I heard his first record. I spent a lot of time listening to his records so I might have picked up some of his phrasing.”

 

If Terry Stafford’s vocals are what first catch the listener’s attention, it is the sound that Bob Summers achieves in the production that gives “Suspicion” much of its singular appeal. When Stafford recorded the demo, Summers chose to center the melody around a reoccurring organ riff or refrain, what one observer called a “quirky flourish, the rinky-dink keyboard that plays throughout.” According to John Fisher, placing a paper bag over the organ’s speaker further enhanced the distinctive accompaniment. In addition, on the final mix for the commercial release, a vocal chorus with prominent female voices echoes sympathetically, intermingling with Stafford’s sleek delivery. Combine all of this with the paranoid mood of the Pomus breakup suite, and the result is a pop masterpiece.

 

In April 1964, when the Terry Stafford version of "Suspicion" was in the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100, the Presley original was given a US single release with "Kiss Me Quick" as the flip, but it was too late. The record-buying public had already declared Stafford’s million-seller the winner. Elvis’s single with “just over” 200,000 copies sold was his “worst performing” to date and it was "Kiss Me Quick" which was the favored side, reaching #34 nationally. "Suspicion" peaked at #103. "Suspicion" would belatedly afford Presley a Top Ten hit in the UK where its December 1976 single release would rise to a peak of #9 on the chart dated February 5, 1977.

 

However, things were not going well at Crusader Records. In August, Billboard reported “the sudden departure” of John Fisher. At the time Crusader were having management difficulties,” Stafford told in an interview, “and I was having contractual disputes so everything fell apart.” Looks Crusader advanced Stafford a few thousand dollars, but when the company went belly-up, Terry never received another dime in royalties. A cache of Fisher produced Crusader tracks have never been released, either.

 

Terry Stafford continued to record, but had no more hits. He had a part in a 1969 film, Wild Wheels. From the late '60s onto the 1980s, Stafford turned his attention to writing music. Two of his compositions gained notice. In 1969, Buck Owens re-wrote Stafford's "Big in Dallas", recording it as "Big in Vegas". Owens' version peaked at no. 5 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and reached No. 1 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada.  His 1973 release/joint composition, "Amarillo by Morning", was later covered by George Strait on Strait's 1982 album Strait from the Heart. The song was named "#12 country song of all-time" by Country Music Television.