The Best of Johnny Cash: The Man In Black’s 15 Most Essential Songs

For the first installment of our brand new feature, The 9513’s Best Of… series, we’ve put our heads together and endured the harrowing process of paring down the entire Johnny Cash catalog to a list of his 15 most essential recordings.

Neither a Greatest Hits list nor personal musings on our “favorite” tracks, this new feature aims to outline the songs that most effectively define and characterize the artist–in this case, Cash. Our goal was to create a conclusive, objective and complete portrait of his career, based on the following hypothetical scenario:

We’ve been hired to produce a Johnny Cash album. This album must include exactly 15 songs (no more, no less), and will serve as the absolute authoritative specimen regarding his music.

It goes without saying that this was a daunting task, as there are certainly more than 15 essential Johnny Cash songs. But the 15-track limitation is a central part of this feature, because it forces us, as a staff, to make hard choices about what to include and exclude. Trust me–those choices were especially difficult in this particular instance, and many of our readers will no doubt take objection to the fact that more than a few of Cash’s most popular songs do not appear on this list.

With that said, it bears noting that popularity played an important factor in our decision making process. But while most artist collections focus almost solely on the artist’s biggest hits (for obvious commercial reasons), we wanted to craft a collection that placed artistic and historical considerations ahead of sales goals.

The final list, which was crafted as a collaborative project by The 9513’s staff and editors, adhered to one simple rule: The tracklist, including what songs appear and in what order they appear, had to be unanimous. We forced ourselves to continue the debate until we were confident that the final product was as objective and appropriately representative as possible.

The Best of Johnny Cash: The Man In Black’s 15 Most Essential Songs

Cash was selected as the artist for the first installment of this series for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is his iconic status. It made sense to us to begin with someone widely considered the biggest star in the genre. More than this, however, we were especially interested in taking on Cash’s enormous discography, specifically because of it’s widely varying stages and stylistic shifts (as well as it’s vast depth and long running chronology).

Settling on 15 essential Cash tracks was difficult not only because he has so many iconic hits, but because building a true and full representation of his career required making certain that we included songs which reflected important changes in his artistry over the years.

It would be possible, of course, to create a Hits package just based on Cash’s Sun years, his Patriotic recordings, his Gospel recordings or any number of other criteria. We wanted to capture the most relevant of this within the very limited framework presented.

Tracklist:

1. “Cry, Cry, Cry” (1955)
The world was first introduced to Johnny Cash’s bellowing voice with the piercing lyrics “Everybody knows where you go when the sun goes down/I think you only live to see the lights of town.” Released on the B side of “Hey Porter,” “Cry, Cry, Cry” was Johnny Cash’s first radio hit, rising to #14. It was later released, in 1957, on Cash’s first full length album Johnny Cash and His Hot Blue Guitar, which also boasted “I Walk The Line” and the original studio recording of “Folsom Prison Blues.” Featuring the sparse, rhythmic sound that defined his early recordings, “Cry, Cry, Cry” is a crucial landmark in the Cash legacy.

2. “I Walk The Line” (1956)
One of Cash’s most recognizable recordings (and his first #1 hit), “I Walk The Line” gave its title to two feature films (1970 and 2005), and was ranked by Rolling Stone at #30 on the magazine’s list of the top 500 songs of all time. Prominently featuring the “boom-chicka-boom” rhythm that epitomizes Cash’s early work at Sam Phillips’ Sun Records, “I Walk The Line” contains what may be the most recognizable and iconic key changes in the history of popular music; Cash sings each of the song’s five lyrical sections in a different key, humming prior to each to find the correct pitch.

3. “Ring of Fire” (1963)
In the seven years between “I Walk The Line” and “Ring of Fire,” Johnny Cash charted 18 Top 10 singles, including four #1s. But none of them endures like, nor were any as commercially successful as, “Ring of Fire.” Famously written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore, the song’s birth is the stuff of legend; it is widely believed to be June’s personal musings on her conflicted feelings at the time she was falling in love with Johnny. “Ring of Fire” has been covered by artists ranging from Kitty Wells to Bob Dylan to Frank Zappa, and, lined with mariachi horns and opening with the simple declaration that “Love is a burning thing,” the song remains one of the most recognizable pieces of popular music in the world.

4. “The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer” (1963)
By the early 1960s, Cash’s health was deteriorating and he was sinking deep into alcohol and drug abuse. These excesses exacted a toll on his voice, production and consistency. But in 1963, Cash recorded and released what exists as one of the earliest manifestations of his Americana artistry. A stark contrast to the very general themes of his earlier work, Blood, Sweat and Tears was essentially a commercial disaster, peaking at #80 on the country charts and spawning only a single Top 20 hit, “Busted.” Nonetheless, this collection of songs about America’s working people marks one of Cash’s principal contributions to country music; Cash was at the forefront of the emergence of “themed” albums, and for a period he was the most prominent artist concerned with album cohesion in an era dominated by records that were comprised of a mish-mash of hit singles, covers and throwaways. Cash would be guilty of this crime himself at times in his career, but albums like Blood, Sweat and Tears and Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian (1964) occupy a unique space in country music history.

Co-written by Johnny and new wife June, “The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer” is an eight and a half minute narration on the life of railworker and American folklore symbol John Henry. Featuring sparse production, numerous rhythmic shifts, pauses and a percussion track meant to resemble a hammer coming down on a rail spike, it is one of the most unique and intricate (and some would say eccentric) recordings in Cash’s catalog. It has also been accused of containing high degrees of sexual innuendo.

Although the song was never a hit and is seldom featured on collections of Cash’s music, the artist himself felt it important enough to include, four years after its recording, on what would become the most important album of his career, Live at Folsom Prison.

5. “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” (1964)
Much like “The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer,” “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” is an important piece of Americana. Unlike the former, however, it was a huge hit, rising to #3 on the country charts…although not until Cash took out a full-page advertisement in Billboard, imploring country DJs to have enough guts to spin the controversial track. “‘Ballad of Ira Hayes’ is strong medicine,” Cash wrote. “So is Rochester — Harlem — Birmingham and Vietnam.”

While “John Henry” was very much about the American working man, “Ira Hayes” is a mutli-layered song that displays Cash’s growing patriotic output as well as his growing social consciousness. Penned by folk singer Peter La Farge, it is also unique in the sense that while most country songs about Native Americans were built around stereotypes and silly caricatures, here Cash tells a very human and very disturbing story that directly confronts the treatment of “Indians” in America at that time–specifically, and in this case, one who served in WWII.

6. “Folsom Prison Blues” (1968)
It is often opined that Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison marked his resurgence from a period of commercial stagnancy. That’s not entirely true: Between 1963 and 68 Cash placed 13 albums in the Top 10. Little of the music from those albums, however, carried the resonance of his previous work–one example of this being his biggest hit from the period, 1966’s “The One on the Right is On The Left,” a piece of throwaway fluff that surely marks one of the low points of his career.

In that sense, At Folsom Prison, and specifically the live version of “Folsom Prison Blues,” reestablished Cash as the iconic figure he was, and cemented the path he would walk during what may be considered the second part of his career. After all, despite the fact that Cash was finally cleaning up his personal life, the gritty aesthetic of country music’s landmark live album, and lyrics like “I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die,” brought him–willingly or not–into the focal point of the outlaw movement. Further, although Cash sang the same lyrics years earlier, after the dark period that dominated his life in the 1960s he sang them with a much more palpable sense of understanding.

7. “Flesh and Blood” (1970)
“Flesh and Blood” (from the I Walk The Line soundtrack) rose to the top of the country charts, and in many ways is evidence of Cash’s stature within the music world. Although he doesn’t go so far as to explicitly detail particular sexual desires, there were few country artists–even by 1970–who would have been able to so openly declare that “Flesh and blood needs flesh and blood,” (an obvious sexual allusion) with such commercial success.

8. “Man in Black” (1971)
Like “The Ballad of Ira Hayes,” “Man in Black” demonstrates Cash’s social awareness. More than just a protest song, however, it is also evidence of a level of self awareness. The song serves as an explanation of his traditional black stage attire, but more interesting than this is that it is one of the few examples in his catalog which seemingly speaks to his understanding of his place in the grand scheme.

9. “A Boy Named Sue” (1968)
Any collection of Johnny Cash songs that claims to be definitive would be lying if it did not include at least one track dedicated to the singer’s legendary (and oft forgotten, especially in later years) sense of humor. Cash was not afraid to tackle comedy–sometimes to great effect and other times to terrible tragedy (see: “Everybody Loves A Nut”).

“A Boy Named Sue” is definitely the former, and it serves as one of the primary gateways in the world of Cash. Ask almost anyone–country fan or not–and they’ll tell you that they’ve heard this song. That is no doubt due, at least in part, to the song’s versatility; edgy enough to avoid sounding overly dated and silly enough that it’s appropriate for any radio scenario from early morning classics shows to evening request segments. It has been referenced in popular culture ranging from cartoons Dexter’s Laboratory and Jimmy Neutron, Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and even a documentary about a sex-reassignment patient. It is also one of the few country #1 country singles to feature an “obscenity” (“bitch”) that was censored rather than simply edited (the most popular version of the song is a live recording from the Johnny Cash at San Quentin album).

10. “Jackson” (1967)
Aside from an unforgettable opening line (“We got married in a fever/Hotter than a pepper sprout”), “Jackson” is a bright glimpse into the chemistry and tension that made Johnny and June the stuff of legend. The interplay between the couple on this song is built on a real-life relationship dynamic that can’t be hidden or fabricated. Add all of that to the fact that it features two phenomenal performances by two of country music’s most indelible voices, and you have a song that is a classic in spite of its slightly off-beat subject matter.

11. “If I Were A Carpenter” (1969)
One Johnny/June duet simply would not be enough to fully reflect the impact that the love of his life had on the Man in Black and his music. “If I Were A Carpenter” sits at the foundation of modern husband and wife duets–listen for its undeniable influence in the music of Buddy & Julie Miller or Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson. This song also contrasts the playful bickering of “Jackson” with the very genuine dedication at the heart of the couple’s relationship.

12. “Sunday Morning Coming Down” (1970)
From the songbook of legendary writer and artist Kris Kristofferson, “Sunday Morning Coming Down” is one of the most chilling examples of the pure weight of Johnny Cash’s God-like voice. Brilliant lyrics like “On a Sunday morning sidewalk, I’m wishing, Lord, that I was stoned,” would be potent in the hands of any great vocalist, but Cash delivers them with heartbreaking conviction and unmatchable gravity. He elevated what would be a classic song by any definition into something even higher, taking one of the greatest pieces of songwriting in country music history and rendering it almost otherworldly.

Although it has been covered by many others, none have ever matched, or will ever match, Cash’s recording.

13. “Highwayman” (1985)
By 1975, Johnny Cash had essentially faded to the background of a rapidly changing country music world. In the decade between 1975 and 85, Cash charted only four Top 10 singles and placed only one record (1976’s One Piece at a Time) in the Top 20 country albums.

Then, in 1985–thanks to a little help from his friends Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson–he reemerged as a member of The Highwaymen, and the first single from the group’s debut project rose to #1. Fitting, too, is that the song tells the story of four drifting souls seemingly forgotten by the rest of the world.

Amazingly, exactly 40 years after scoring his first #1, Johnny Cash’s voice sounds as good here as it ever did, showing hardly any of the age and frailty that would become a staple of his late-life recordings.

14. “The Man Comes Around” (2002)
Had Johnny Cash never teamed with producer Rick Rubin for what would become known as the American Sessions, he still would be a legendary–some would say the pinnacle–figure in music history. Already considered an outlaw, Cash was a popular figure both within country music and outside it. But after “Highwayman,” he seemingly disappeared (despite recording a number of quality projects for Mercury during the 1980s). Johnny Cash never had another hit single, and it appeared that his career as a recording artist was over.

The American Sessions changed that, bringing about a renewed interest in his music–past and present–and cementing his place as more than just legendary. It is often said about Cash that his voice sounded like the voice of God, but Rubin’s American Sessions made sure that the world knew that he was a god.

One of the last songs he ever wrote, “The Man Comes Around” in probably the most haunting, that fact aided by the death creeping into his voice. The message of the song–that God calls all of us home eventually–is emphasized by our realization that this singer, this hero, this larger than life and once seemingly ageless figure, would soon be gone.

When I hear “The Man Comes Around,” I am struck by all of this. But perhaps most of all I am struck by the fact that even in the face of all the torment he was dealing with, Johnny Cash’s attitude endured. This track rocks hard; it is gritty and driving and incomprehensibly candid.

Just like the man himself.

15. “Hurt” (2002)
Written and originally performed by Trent Reznor of industrial band Nine Inch Nails, Johnny Cash’s interpretation of “Hurt” was a revelation, and it introduced him to a new generation. More songs would follow from the American Sessions, but none would ever match “Hurt” in terms of emotional impact. As a capstone to his musical legacy, it is absolute perfection. As a window into the struggle and pain of this legendary singer, it is heartbreaking. As a part of any Johnny Cash collection, it is simply indispensable.

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