Parker told him, “Now you can tell anybody that Colonel Parker rubbed your head. At a Presley recording session, he met Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who, upon learning that Davis was the writer of the song Presley was recording, told him to bend over so he could rub his head. Through Billy Strange, a songwriter, arranger, and member of the legendary Wrecking Crew, he was able to get his songs to Presley. He continued to compose his own songs and joined Nancy Sinatra’s company, Boots Enterprises, Inc. He gave up performing to enter the music business after he got married and started a family. So that’s how I got my start…I wanted to do that.”ĭavis left Lubbock when he was 16 to attend college in Atlanta, where he started a band. “I also saw Elvis perform there when he was getting started. “I had that get-up-and-go in me that made me want to be ‘that guy,’ especially when went off to New York and came back with a big, monster hit record,” he said in the same interview. His first musical heroes were a pre-stardom Buddy Holly, whom he saw perform at the local skating rink, and Elvis Presley. He was born Morris Mac Davis on January 21, 1942. He parlayed a string of solo country and crossover hits, including his signature song, “I Believe In Music,” the Grammy-nominated “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me,” and “Stop and Smell the Roses,” into an acting career in films, on Broadway, and in his own variety TV series, The Mac Davis Show, which ran between 1974–76.ĭavis did not score his own first hit until he was 28, but he had been writing songs since he was a preteen. He also wrote top 40 hits for Kenny Rogers & the First Edition (“Something’s Burning”) and Bobby Goldsboro (“Watching Scotty Grow,” which made it to number one on the easy-listening chart). He was 78.ĭavis, who described himself as “ an ‘ol country boy from Lubbock, Texas,” was a prolific songwriter who wrote chart-topping hits for Elvis Presley, including “A Little Less Conversation,” “Memories,” “Don’t Cry Daddy,” and “In the Ghetto,” which helped revive the iconic performer’s career in the late 1960s. Davis’s family posted to social media accounts, “Your love and prayers will be deeply appreciated at this time.”ĭavis died September 29, according to a statement from his manager Jim Morey. The hashtag #PrayForMacDavis trended on September 28, after Dolly Parton tweeted her support following news that the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter was in critical condition following heart surgery in Nashville.

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