Career Start at Sun Records
In the wake of Elvis Presley’s 1954 breakthrough at Sun Records in Memphis, Cash and his minimalist band auditioned for its owner-producer, Sam Phillips. Beginning with the double-sided hit “Cry! Cry! Cry!”/“Hey Porter” in 1955, Cash became one of the label’s most promising young artists.
Country hits “I Walk the Line,” “Ballad of a Teenage Queen,” and “Guess Things Happen That Way” crossed over to the pop charts and made Cash a dominant new country singer in the late 1950s. The style Cash set early on changed little over the years; the addition of drummer W. S. “Fluke” Holland in 1960 merely reinforced his trademark rhythm-based sound.
The Columbia Years
Cash left Sun and signed with Columbia Records in mid-1958. Hit singles such as “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” (1959) and “Ring of Fire” (1963) followed, but Cash increasingly turned his attention to recording concept albums such as Ride This Train (1960), Blood, Sweat and Tears (1962), Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian (1964), and Ballads of the True West (1965). Producer Don Law encouraged Cash to connect with the burgeoning folk music revival of the times. He explored cowboy songs, gospel and traditional spirituals, songs of social conscience and protest, and adaptations of folk material, though his new directions did not always find favor with country’s old guard.
In the mid-1960s, Cash suffered from addiction to pills while his first marriage failed, but with the help of June Carter, a member of the Carter Sisters with whom he recorded several hit duets, Cash was able to overcome his addiction. Cash and Carter married on March 1, 1968.
On January 13, 1968, Cash recorded his masterful live album At Folsom Prison, from which came a new, #1 version of “Folsom Prison Blues.” The album and his 1969 live album At San Quentin pushed Cash’s career to new heights. Taken from the San Quentin album, “A Boy Named Sue” (#1 country, #2 pop) became Cash’s biggest-selling single and a Country Music Association Single of the Year (1969). Cash was also voted the CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1969.
From 1969 through 1971, Cash hosted The Johnny Cash Show, a prime-time network television variety show that showcased his status as a national icon while featuring an eclectic mix of guest performers. A live cut from the show, “Sunday Morning Coming Down”—written by Kris Kristofferson—became a #1 country hit for Cash, and he increasingly recorded and featured on the show the work of new songwriters drawn to country from folk and rock music backgrounds.
From the late 1960s, and into the 1970s and 1980s, Cash toured with his powerful road troupe, which included at various times Mother Maybelle Carter, the Carter Sisters (Helen, June, and Anita), Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers. He also broadened the range of his pursuits to include acting, including the feature film A Gunfight (1971) with Kirk Douglas, the made-for-TV movies Thaddeus Rose and Eddie (1978, with June Carter) and The Pride of Jesse Hallam (1981), and a guest-star appearance in an episode of Columbo.
As the 1970s progressed, Cash’s hit records grew more infrequent. But with his old friends Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson, Cash earned a #1 hit with the title cut of the Highwayman album in 1985. The foursome did a series of special limited concert tours and recorded two more albums: Highwayman 2 (1990), and Highwayman: The Road Goes on Forever (1995).
