Terry Stafford

Terry LaVerne Stafford (November 22, 1941 – March 17, 1996) was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his 1964 US top-10 hit "Suspicion" and the 1973 country music hit "Amarillo by Morning". Stafford was also known for his Elvis Presley sound-alike voice.

Born in Hollis, Oklahoma, he moved to Amarillo with his family at age seven, starring in basketball and football and graduating from Palo Duro High School in 1960. After a stint singing with a local rockabilly group, he moved to California to pursue a musical career.

His first recordings were "You Left Me Here To Cry" and "Heartache On The Way", which were released by Stateside and A&M Records, and produced by legendary trumpeter Herb Alpert.

Originally cut as a demonstration, Stafford's version of the Elvis Presley song "Suspicion" was released on the Crusader record label and made it to number three in the U.S. and number 31 on the UK Singles Chart. "Suspicion" had the distinction of being sixth on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 4, 1964, when the Beatles held the top five spots. The following week, "Suspicion" peaked at number three, with the Beatles holding three of the top five spots. Stafford's recording sold over a million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America. His follow-up, "I’ll Touch a Star", rose to number 25 in United States. Both recordings were produced by Bob Summers (brother-in-law of Les Paul), who played all the instruments on the tracks, as well as engineering and recording them, except for bass, which was played by Ron Griffith. Summers released his own version in the 1970s, and a remake with Ed Greenwald on vocals in 2008.

Crusader continued releasing material from Stafford (Follow That Rainbow) and his debut album which contained two more covers of Elvis Presley songs (Slowly But Surely and Pocketful of Rainbows), internationally London Records make the releases, with that, the success of Suspicion was such that Terry re-recorded it in Italian. Although this initial success was a great start for Stafford, Crusader went bankrupt shortly afterwards, so Terry spent the rest of the 60s with quite a few record labels.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.