The song came to Davis when he was at a party given by Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees and his then wife, Lulu. What Davis thought of as his best tune, however, was I Believe in Music, first recorded by Helen Reddy – who coincidentally died on the same day as Davis – and later a hit for Gallery. His other credits for Elvis included Don’t Cry Daddy, written by Davis when his first marriage ended, Clean Up Your Own Backyard, another “message” song, and Charro, the title song of a 1969 Western with no musical interludes. Davis reflected that it was only after desegregation took place at his school that he realised there were no black pupils there. The lyrics drew, said Davis, on the shaming conditions in which a black friend, Allen Smith Jr, had been raised in Lubbock. Elvis’s embracing a song with such a powerful social message was a landmark in America’s battle over civil rights. The boy grows up angry, steals a car and is shot dead.
The words chronicle the short and bleak cycle of life of a black child born “As the snow flies / on a cold and grey Chicago morning”. In 1969 Presley had his first Top 5 hit for four years when reaching No 3 in the US (and No 2 in Britain) with In the Ghetto. In 2002, however, after it was used in the film Ocean’s Eleven and had been remixed by Junkie XL, it became a worldwide smash and reached No 1 in the UK (and then No 3 when re-released in 2005).
Intended originally for Aretha Franklin, it was initially a minor hit for Presley after featuring in his 1968 musical comedy, Live a Little, Love a Little. He and Strange also came up with the more upbeat A Little Less Conversation. Working until dawn in Strange’s garage-cum-office, Davis wrote the sentimental ballad Memories, which established itself as a favourite of Presley fans. This was the televised concert in front of a studio audience that marked his exuberant return to live performance after years churning out films. In 1968, he was asked to write – overnight – a song for what would become Elvis’s celebrated Comeback Special. Versatility, as well as an unaffected straightforwardness, was to become one of the hallmarks of his music.Ī frequent collaborator with Nancy Sinatra was the songwriter and arranger Billy Strange, and while working with him Davis came to Presley’s attention. And I said if Buddy can do it, so can I.”īy the late Sixties, Davis was working at Nancy Sinatra’s Boots Enterprises, appearing on her records and penning songs for the likes of Perry Como, B J Thomas, Kenny Rogers and Louis Jordan. Then I saw him drive down College Avenue in a new, black and pink Pontiac Catalina convertible.
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Mac Davis, who has died aged 78, was a singer, actor and entertainer, at the peak of his success in the United States as a country and pop performer in the mid-1970s but his work was perhaps most widely known through songs he wrote for others, notably hits for Elvis Presley such as In the Ghetto and A Little Less Conversation.ĭavis was inspired to become a musician by the example of a boy a few years above him at Lubbock High School in Texas: “Buddy was on the radio,” he recalled, “but we thought they just played him on the Lubbock stations.
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