Johnny Cash - The Best of Johnny Cash: Sun Records Essentials (2024)

Johnny Cash, born J. R. Cash, (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was a Grammy Award-winning American country singer-songwriter. Cash is widely considered to be one of the most influential American musicians of the 20th century.

Cash was known for his deep, distinctive voice, the boom-chick-a-boom or “freight train” sound of his Tennessee Three backing band, his demeanor, and his dark clothing, which earned him the nickname “The Man in Black”. He traditionally started his concerts with the introduction “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.”

Much of Cash’s music, especially that of his later career, echoed themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption. His signature songs include “I Walk the Line”, “Folsom Prison Blues”, “Ring of Fire”, “That Old Wheel” (a duet with Hank Williams Jr.), “Cocaine Blues”, and “Man in Black”. He also recorded several humorous songs, such as “One Piece at a Time”, “The One on the Right Is on the Left”, “Dirty Old Egg-Sucking Dog” and “A Boy Named Sue”; rock-and-roll numbers such as “Get Rhythm”; and various railroad songs, such as “Rock Island Line” and “Orange Blossom Special”.

He sold over 90 million albums in his nearly fifty-year career and came to occupy a “commanding position in music history”.

In 1954, the Cash moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he sold appliances, while studying to be a radio announcer. At night, he played with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant. Perkins and Grant were known as the Tennessee Two. Cash worked up the courage to visit the Sun Records studio, hoping to get a recording contract. After auditioning for Sam Phillips, singing mostly gospel songs, Phillips told him to “go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell.” Cash eventually won over Phillips with new songs delivered in his early frenetic style. His first recordings at Sun, “Hey Porter” and “Cry Cry Cry,” were released in 1955 and met with reasonable success on the country hit parade.

Cash’s next record, Folsom Prison Blues, made the country Top 5, and “I Walk the Line” became No. 1 on the country charts, also making it into the pop charts Top 20. Following “I Walk the Line” was Johnny Cash’s “Home of the Blues,” recorded in July 1957. In 1957, Cash became the first Sun artist to release a long-playing album. Although he was Sun’s most consistently best-selling and prolific artist at that time, Cash felt constrained by his contract with the small label. Elvis Presley had already left Sun, and Phillips was focusing most of his attention and promotion on Jerry Lee Lewis. The following year, Cash left the label to sign a lucrative offer with Columbia Records, where his single “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” would become one of his biggest hits.

Tracklist
01 - Cry! Cry! Cry!
02 - So Doggone Lonesome
03 - Hey Porter
04 - Get Rhythm
05 - I Walk The Line (Single Version)
06 - There You Go
07 - Wide Open Road
08 - Ballad Of A Teenage Queen
09 - Mean Eyed Cat
10 - Big River
11 - Guess Things Happen That Way (1958 Single Version)
12 - Give My Love To Rose
13 - Next in Line
14 - Train of Love
15 - Doin' My Time
16 - Cold, Cold Heart
17 - My Treasure
18 - Oh Lonesome Me
19 - Rock Island Line
20 - Port of Lonely Hearts
21 - I Love You Because
22 - Folsom Prison Blues
23 - Luther Played the Boogie
24 - Home Of The Blues
25 - Two Timin' Woman
26 - New Mexico
27 - Born to Lose
28 - I Couldn't Keep From Crying
29 - Katy Too
30 - Come in Stranger
31 - Country Boy
32 - The Wreck of the Old 97
33 - Thanks a Lot
34 - Sugartime
35 - You're My Baby
36 - Goodbye Little Darlin'
37 - Story of a Broken Heart
38 - The Ways Of A Woman In Love
39 - It's Just About Time
40 - I Heard That Lonesome Whistle
41 - You Tell Me
42 - Life Goes On
43 - I Forgot to Remember to Forget
44 - You Win Again
45 - Belshazzar
46 - Goodnight Irene
47 - I Could Never Be Ashamed of You
48 - You're the Nearest Thing to Heaven
49 - If the Good Lord's Willing
50 - I Was There When It Happened
51 - Always Alone
52 - Straight A's in Love
53 - I Just Thought You'd Like to Know
54 - Hey Good Lookin'
55 - Down the Street to 301
56 - Fool's Hall of Fame
57 - Blue Train
58 - Remember Me
59 - Don't Make Me Go
60 - I Can't Help It