Mark James, a genre-defying and Grammy Award-winning songwriter whose hits included “Suspicious Minds,” “Hooked on a Feeling” and “All the time on My Thoughts,” died at his house in Nashville on Saturday. He was 83.
His demise was confirmed by his daughter, Sammie Zambon.
Numerous stars, together with Elvis Presley and Willie Nelson, lent their voices to Mr. James’s catalog of songs through the years.
His profession of powerhouse hits started in 1968 with “The Eyes of a New York Girl,” lower by the nation and pop hitmaker B.J. Thomas. Mr. Thomas, a lifelong pal of Mr. James, then recorded “Hooked on a Feeling,” Mr. James’s 1968 music celebrating newfound love, which hit the highest 5 that yr. The music once more made it to the highest 5 in 1974, when the Swedish rock band Blue Swede launched its model.
Mr. James catapulted into a special stratosphere in 1969 when Elvis lower “Suspicious Minds,” a music Mr. James first recorded and launched as a single, to little discover, the earlier yr. Elvis’s model reached No. 1 in 27 nations and have become one in all his largest hits and his final No. 1 single. The music is included in Rolling Stone’s checklist of the five hundred best songs of all time.
“All the time On My Thoughts,” which Mr. James co-wrote with Wayne Carson and Johnny Christopher, turned one in all his most embellished works. Brenda Lee recorded the primary model in 1972 earlier than Elvis launched his soak up 1973 and John Wesley Ryles made it a high 20 nation hit in 1979, in response to the Texas Heritage Songwriters Affiliation.
But it was Mr. Nelson’s 1982 model that earned “All the time On My Thoughts” a Grammy for music of the yr and for finest nation music, in addition to music of the yr from the Nation Music Affiliation. It was later inducted into the Grammy Corridor of Fame in 2008.
Mr. James’s arsenal of songs has been recorded by a spread of artists, together with Michael Bublé, Jay-Z, The Pet Store Boys, Invoice Withers and The Nice Younger Cannibals. They’ve been featured within the movies “Reservoir Canines” and “Lilo & Stich,” and within the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise.
Mr. James was inducted into the New York Songwriters Corridor of Fame, Nashville Nation Corridor of Fame and the Texas Songwriters Corridor of Fame. In 1999, Broadcast Music Inc., the music rights administration firm, named “Hooked on a Feeling,” “Suspicious Minds” and “All the time on My Thoughts” to its checklist of the 100 best songs of the twentieth century.
Mr. James was born Francis Rodney Zambon on Nov. 29, 1940, in Houston. (The Houston Chronicle reported that he glided by Mark James as a result of, when he began enjoying music in public, Houston membership homeowners “didn’t just like the sound of Francis Zambon.”) His survivors embody his spouse, Karen Zambon; his daughters, Sammie and Dana Zambon; his brother, Rollin; and two grandchildren.
In all, Elvis recorded 5 songs by Mr. James and named two of his albums after them, “Raised on Rock” and “Moody Blue.”
In an interview with The Tennessean, Mr. James recalled the second when Elvis was booked for a studio in Memphis and he realized “Suspicious Minds” could be excellent for him.
“I rotated within the chair and it was like seeing a golden primary and I knew that was the music I’d been searching for,” he mentioned, including, “I felt like even shaking Elvis and saying, ‘This can be a nice one for you, man, to document.’ However I knew in all probability everybody on this planet had in all probability mentioned that to him. So all I might do is inform the fellows round him, ‘Get him to chop this, it is a nice one for him!’”
