"Ring of Fire" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Johnny Cash | ||||
from the album Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash | ||||
B-side | "I'd Still Be There" | |||
Released | April 19, 1963 | |||
Recorded | March 25, 1963 | |||
Studio | Bradley Studios, Nashville, Tennessee [1] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:38 | |||
Label | Columbia Nashville | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Don Law | |||
Johnny Cash singles chronology | ||||
|
"Ring of Fire" | ||||
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Single by Eric Burdon & the Animals | ||||
from the album Love Is | ||||
B-side | "I'm an Animal" | |||
Released | 1969 | |||
Genre | [ citation needed ] | |||
Length | 4:58(album version) | |||
Label | MGM | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Tom Wilson | |||
Eric Burdon & the Animals singles chronology | ||||
|
"Ring of Fire" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Alan Jackson | ||||
from the album 34 Number Ones | ||||
Released | 23 October 2010 | |||
Recorded | 2010 | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 3:12 | |||
Label | Sony Music Entertainment | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Keith Stegall | |||
Alan Jackson singles chronology | ||||
|
"Ring of Fire (1988 version)" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Johnny Cash | ||||
from the album Classic Cash: Hall of Fame Series | ||||
A-side | "Get Rhythm" | |||
Released | September 19, 1988 | |||
Recorded | October 1987 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:44 | |||
Label | Mercury | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Johnny Cash | |||
Johnny Cash singles chronology | ||||
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The song "Ring of Fire" was made popular by Johnny Cash after it appeared on his 1963 compilation album Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash . Written by Cash's eventual second wife, June Carter Cash, and songwriter Merle Kilgore, "(Love's) Ring of Fire" was originally recorded by June's sister, Anita Carter, on her 1962 album, Folk Songs Old and New.
Cash's version became one of the biggest hits of his career, staying at No. 1 on the country chart for seven weeks. It was certified gold by the RIAA on January 21, 2010, and has sold over 1.2 million digital downloads. [2] It was named the fourth greatest country song of all time by Country Music Television, while Rolling Stone called it the number one greatest country song of all time and listed it as the 87th greatest song of all time. [3]
In 1999, the 1963 recording of the song by Johnny Cash on the Columbia Records label was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. [4]
Most of the song is dedicated to a chorus that extends the metaphor comparing the passions of love with a "ring of fire". It describes being burned, and the flames rising, as the person continues falling for quite a distance ("down, down, down"), using the vocabulary of "falling in love". The song concludes without any resolution to the situation.
Some sources claim that Carter had seen the words "Love is like a burning ring of fire" underlined in an Elizabethan poetry book owned by her uncle A. P. Carter. [5] [6] She worked with Kilgore on writing a song inspired by this imagery, as she had seen her uncle do in the past. In her words: "There is no way to be in that kind of hell, no way to extinguish a flame that burns, burns, burns". [7]
The song was originally recorded by June's sister, Anita Carter, on her Mercury Records album Folk Songs Old and New (1963) as "(Love's) Ring of Fire". Mercury released Anita's version as a single and it was a featured "pick hit" in Billboard magazine. After hearing Anita's version, Cash claimed he had a dream where he heard the song accompanied by "Mexican horns". The mariachi horn sound had recently been popularized on American radio with 1962 hit song "The Lonely Bull" by Herb Alpert. Cash said, "[...] I'll give you about five or six more months, and if you don't hit with it, I'm gonna record it the way I feel it." [8] Cash noted that adding trumpets was a change to his basic sound. [9]
When the song failed to become a major hit for Anita, Cash recorded it his own way, adding the mariachi-style horns from his dream. This sound was later used in the song "It Ain't Me Babe", which was recorded around the same time. Mother Maybelle and the Carter sisters are prominently featured in the Cash recording singing harmony. Cash tinkered with a few of the original phrases in Anita Carter's version of the song. Cash's daughter Rosanne said, "The song is about the transformative power of love and that's what it has always meant to me and that's what it will always mean to the Cash children." [10]
In 2004, Merle Kilgore, who shared writing credit for the song with June Carter, proposed licensing the song for a hemorrhoid cream commercial. When performing the song live, Kilgore would often "mock dedicate" the song to the "makers of Preparation H". [11] However, June's heirs were not of a like mind, and they refused to allow the song to be licensed for the ad.
In her 2007 autobiography, Cash's first wife, Vivian, wrote: "One day in early 1963, while gardening in the yard, Johnny told me about a song he had just written with Merle Kilgore and Curly [Lewis] while out fishing on Lake Casitas. 'I'm gonna give June half credit on a song I just wrote,' Johnny said. 'It's called "Ring of Fire."' 'Why?' I asked, wiping dirt from my hands. The mere mention of her name annoyed me. I was sick of hearing about her. 'She needs the money,' he said, avoiding my stare. 'And I feel sorry for her.'" Vivian also noted: "To this day, it confounds me to hear the elaborate details June told of writing that song for Johnny. She didn't write that song any more than I did. The truth is, Johnny wrote that song, while pilled up and drunk, about a certain private female body part. All those years of her claiming she wrote it herself, and she probably never knew what the song was really about." [12]
Chart (1963–68) | Peak position |
---|---|
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles [13] | 1 |
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [14] | 17 |
German Singles Chart | 27 |
Swiss Singles Chart | 77 |
Chart (1969) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Single Chart [15] | 10 |
Dutch Charts [15] | 4 |
German Singles Chart [15] | 24 |
South Africa (Springbok) [16] | 6 |
UK Singles Chart [15] | 35 |
Chart (1990) | Peak position |
---|---|
Ireland (IRMA) [17] | 21 |
Chart (1990) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Alternative Airplay ( Billboard ) [18] | 25 |
Chart (2010) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Hot Country Songs ( Billboard ) [19] | 45 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [20] | Platinum | 600,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [21] Mastertone | Gold | 500,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Numerous cover versions of "Ring of Fire" have been produced, the most commercially successful version being by Eric Burdon & the Animals. Their version was recorded at the end of 1968, and made the top 40 in four countries. [15] In 1970, Ray Charles released a version on his album Love Country Style . [22] In late 1974, the Eric Burdon Band released a hard rock version. Wall of Voodoo debuted with a cover of the song on their self-titled 1980 EP and featured a pulsing synthesizer. Dwight Yoakam covered it on his debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. [23] Punk rock band Social Distortion covered it on their 1990 self-titled LP. In 1991, Frank Zappa released a reggae-style live version on the album The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life , after claiming to have met Johnny Cash in the elevator before the show and inviting him to perform the song with his band that night. Cash did not follow through on the invitation, but the band played the song anyway. A cover of the song by Alan Jackson with guest vocals from Lee Ann Womack was released as a single on December 6, 2010. It served as the lead-off single to his 34 Number Ones compilation album, and peaked at #45 in the Hot Country Songs, becoming his first single to miss the top 40 since "Just Put a Ribbon in Your Hair" peaked at #51 in 2004. [24] It was his last single released by Arista Records. The ska band Swim Herschel Swim covered the song on their album Burn Swim Burn. [25] [26] The English power metal band DragonForce recorded a cover as the closing track to the standard edition of their 2014 album, Maximum Overload . The Swedish rockabilly band The Go Getters recorded a cover on their 2017 album Love And Hate. [27]
Cash's version of "Ring of Fire" was never released as a single in the UK. However, in 1993 and 1994, it gained significant radio airplay in the UK after it was used in a popular television commercial for Levi's. In 2005, Liverpool FC fans began singing the song at matches during the run-up to that year's Champions League Final, and it has been a staple song for the team's fans ever since. [28]
Wall of Voodoo's cover version was featured in the 1981 avant-garde pornographic film Nightdreams . [29]
Since 2004, the Calgary Flames of the NHL have used the song as a victory song after every home win. [30]
Valerie June Carter Cash was an American country singer and songwriter. A five-time Grammy award-winner, she was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. Prior to her marriage to Cash, she was professionally known as June Carter and continued to be credited as such even after her marriage. She played guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp, and acted in several films and television shows. Carter Cash won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
"Mother" Maybelle Carter was an American country musician and "among the first" to use the Carter scratch, with which she "helped to turn the guitar into a lead instrument." It was named after her. She was a member of the original Carter Family act from the late 1920s until the early 1940s and a member of the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle group.
"A Boy Named Sue" is a song written by Shel Silverstein and made famous by Johnny Cash. Cash recorded the song live in concert on February 24, 1969, at California's San Quentin State Prison for his At San Quentin album. Cash also performed the song in December 1969 at Madison Square Garden. The live San Quentin version of the song became Cash's biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and his only top ten single there, spending three weeks at No. 2 in 1969, held out of the top spot by "Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones. The track also topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Easy Listening charts that same year and was certified Gold on August 14, 1969, by the RIAA.
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is the first live album by American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records on May 6, 1968. After his 1955 song "Folsom Prison Blues", Cash had been interested in recording a performance at a prison. His idea was put on hold until 1967, when personnel changes at Columbia Records put Bob Johnston in charge of producing Cash's material. Cash had recently controlled his drug abuse problems, and was looking to turn his career around after several years of limited commercial success. Backed by June Carter, Carl Perkins, and the Tennessee Three, Cash performed two shows at Folsom State Prison in California on January 13, 1968. The initial release of the album consists of fifteen songs from the first show and two from the second.
Wyatt Merle Kilgore was an American singer, songwriter, and manager. Born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, he was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. At the time of his death, he was the personal manager of Hank Williams Jr.
"Pledging My Love" is a blues ballad. It was written by Ferdinand Washington and Don Robey and published in 1954.
Carlene Carter is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of June Carter Cash and her first husband, Carl Smith.
Johnny Cash at Madison Square Garden is a 1969 recording of a Johnny Cash concert at Madison Square Garden. It was released in 2002.
Ina Anita Carter was an American singer who played upright bass, guitar, and autoharp. She performed with her sisters, Helen and June, and her mother, Maybelle, initially under the name The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle. Carter had three top ten hits as well as other charting singles. She was the first to record the songs "Blue Boy" and "Ring of Fire". Carter was also a songwriter, most notably co-writing the Johnny Cash hit "Rosanna's Going Wild."
"Jackson" is a song written in 1963 by Billy Edd Wheeler and Jerry Leiber. It was recorded in 1963 by the Kingston Trio, Wheeler, and Flatt and Scruggs. It achieved its most notable popularity with two 1967 releases: a country hit single by Johnny Cash and June Carter, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Country Singles chart, and a pop hit single by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, which reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 39 on Easy Listening.
Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash is the sixteenth album by singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1963. This album collects tracks from singles and an EP released between 1959 and 1963, Cash's first years on the Columbia label, and marked the first release of these tracks in LP format, with the exception of "I Still Miss Someone," which had previously appeared on the 1958 album The Fabulous Johnny Cash. "Ring of Fire", one of Cash's most famous tracks, made its first LP appearance here. Ring of Fire was the first #1 album when Billboard debuted their Country Album Chart on January 11, 1964. Certified Gold on February 11, 1965 by the RIAA, it earned him his first Gold LP. It stands as the only Columbia "greatest hits" collection to be included in the Johnny Cash: The Complete Columbia Album Collection box set.
"If I Were a Carpenter" is a folk song written by Tim Hardin in the 1960s, and re-recorded with commercial success by various artists including Bobby Darin, The Four Tops and Johnny Cash. Hardin's own recording of the piece appeared on his 1967 album Tim Hardin 2. It was one of two songs from that release performed by Hardin at Woodstock in 1969. The song, believed by some to be about male romantic insecurity, is rumored to have been inspired by his love for actress Susan Morss, as well as the construction of Hardin's recording studio.
John R. Cash was an American country singer-songwriter. Most of Cash's music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. He was known for his deep, calm, bass-baritone voice, the distinctive sound of his backing band, The Tennessee Three, that was characterized by its train-like chugging guitar rhythms, a rebelliousness coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor, and his free prison concerts. Cash wore a trademark all-black stage wardrobe, which earned him the nickname as the "Man in Black".
The Carter Sisters, were an American band Each playing an instrument with June being a pioneer as a front-man or "person" consisting of Maybelle Carter and her daughters June Carter Cash, Helen Carter, and Anita Carter. Formed during World War II, the group recorded and performed into the 1990s. Maybelle and Ezra named the band "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle" and recorded under that title for 2 record labels RCA and Columbia. Like any mother would, Maybelle wanted her daughters to be the face of the band so to speak.
"The House of the Rising Sun" is a traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid the same fate. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the British rock band the Animals, was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and in the US and Canada. As a traditional folk song recorded by an electric rock band, it has been described as the "first folk rock hit".
Sun Secrets is an album by the Eric Burdon Band recorded in 1973 and released in December 1974.
"I Don't Hurt Anymore" is a 1954 song by Hank Snow. It was written by Don Robertson and Jack Rollins.
"Tennessee Flat Top Box" is a song written and recorded by American country music singer Johnny Cash. It was released as a single in late 1961, reaching 11 on the Billboard country singles charts and 84 on the pop charts. The song's name refers to a steel-stringed acoustic guitar.
"Making Believe" is a country music song written by Jimmy Work. Kitty Wells recorded a chart-topping version in 1955. The song is on many lists of all-time greatest country music songs and has been covered by scores of artists over the past fifty years, including Thorleifs, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Don Gibson, Roy Acuff, Lefty Frizzell, Wanda Jackson, Connie Francis, Ray Charles, Anita Carter, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard, The Kendalls, Ernest Tubb, Skeeter Davis, The Haden Triplets, Social Distortion and Volbeat. The song is occasionally called "Makin' Believe".
"Sea of Heartbreak" is a song written by Paul Hampton and Hal David and recorded by Don Gibson in 1961. The song reached #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.