Lots of fans screamed for Elvis Presley in the 1950s. Very few of them ended up singing on one of his records.
Donna Jean Thatcher did both.
She was born on Aug. 22, 1947, in Florence, Alabama. As a little girl growing up in Alabama, she went to see “Love Me Tender,” Elvis’s first movie, and the theater went wild.
“I had gone to see ‘Love Me Tender’ when I was either nine or 10 and everybody in the audience was screaming,” she remembered.
That was the Elvis she knew back then, the one on the big screen who made a whole theater lose its mind. If you want a feel for that moment, here he is singing the title song on national TV that same year.
Elvis singing “Love Me Tender” on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956
Little Donna Jean had a voice of her own, and it didn’t take her long to use it. Before she was even 20, she was singing on records in nearby Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
One of those records was Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman.” It went all the way to No. 1. Press play and listen for the backup voices behind Percy, because one of them belongs to the girl from Florence.
Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” with Donna Jean singing backup
Then came a session she’d never forget.
Elvis was recording at American Sound Studio in Memphis, and the work went late. Very late. Between 4 and 7 a.m. on Jan. 23, 1969, he cut “Suspicious Minds.” The backup singers credited on that record are Donna Thatcher, Mary “Jeannie” Greene and sisters Ginger and Mary Holladay.
The girl who’d screamed in a movie theater was now in the same room as the man on the screen.
“It was one of the most amazing times of my life,” she said.
She remembered him as warm with the singers. She said “he was so kind to us and encouraging and complimentary.” And “he was a gentleman to the highest degree. And he looked great.”
That last part was an understatement.
Up close, she said, “he was the most gorgeous human being I’ve ever seen, male or female.” She added that “he was just unreal looking.”
And her final word on the subject? “Much better looking than any picture or any movie.”
Coming from someone who’d first seen him on a movie screen as a little girl, that says a lot. You can hear Donna Jean tell more about meeting and recording with Elvis in her own words here.
Donna Jean remembering the day she met and recorded with Elvis
“Suspicious Minds” went to No. 1 too, so Donna Jean could say she’d sung on two No. 1 records.
Her story didn’t end in Memphis. In 1970 she married a piano player named Keith Godchaux, and in 1971 she introduced him to Jerry Garcia. In the early 1970s, the couple joined Jerry Garcia’s famous rock band, and Donna Jean sang with the band until 1979.
Here’s the record that brought her face to face with the King. Give it a fresh listen and see if you can pick out the backup voices.
Elvis’s “Suspicious Minds,” with Donna Jean among the backup singers
Donna Jean Godchaux passed away a year ago this week, at 78.
She sang with plenty of famous musicians over the years. It’s hard to top a story that starts with a screaming little girl in a movie theater and ends with her up close to Elvis in a Memphis studio before sunrise.