Top Ten Best Johnny Cash Songs

Johnny Cash was one the most prolific recording artists of all time with some marvellous recordings stretching over five decades, so picking the top ten best Johnny Cash songs was never going to be easy!  From his early days at Sun Records through until his time working with Rick Rubin on his 'American Recordings' series, Johnny Cash put out a great deal of top songs, many of them now considered classics.

I myself have been listening to Johnny Cash since I was a child (my father was a big fan of his) and my love for Johnny Cash and his material has never gone away.  Anyway, here’s my selection of what I believe to be the best Johnny Cash songs!

My Johnny Cash top ten begins with a Shel Silverstein song first recorded by Cash live at San Quentin Prison in 1969. "A Boy Named Sue" was so new to him, Cash had to read some of the words off a lyric sheet. The original version had the term son-of-a-bitch beeped out, but the song is now available uncensored. Features the lyric, “He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile.”

Written byJerry Leiber and Billy Edd , Johnny Cash and June Carter won a grammy for their version in 1968. Cash and Carter would be married later that year. Starts with the line, "We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout."

Released in 1958 as a single and provided a number one hit for Cash. Tells the story of a mother's warning to her son and performed in the simple but effective style that Cash perfected.

4. One of the Johnny Cash singles that was written early in his career when he was serving in the US Air Force in the 1950s and released by Sun records. The live version was recorded at Folsom Prison in 1968 and released as a single and is now considered to be one of the best Johnny Cash songs of all time. Combines two common Cash themes, prisons and railroads. Includes the lyric, “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.”

Co-written by Cash’s wife-to-be and Merle Kilgore, this passionate song was Cash’s biggest hit, staying at number one for seven weeks in 1963. Written about June Carter’s feelings around falling for Cash and originally recorded by June’s sister.  Cash said he heard Mexican horns accompanying the song in a dream, then went into the studio and recorded it that way.

Based on an old bluegrass fiddle tune about a luxury train that speeded down from New York to Florida. Cash sang the lyrics and replaced the fiddle break with double harmonicas, which made a good spectacle as well as sounding great. The song was also the title track of his 1965 album.

Kris Kristofferon song written about alcoholism and its effects.  Cash’s voice drips with the raw experience of a man who’s suffered multiple addictions himself.  Begins with the lines, “Well I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt, and the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad so I had one more for dessert.”

Released on the album, The Man Comes Around, and written by Trent Reznor of the band, Nine Inch Nails, this song, along with the Hurt video that was made to accompany it, is considered by many to be Cash’s epitaph. Cash was 71 years old and frail when he recorded it, but still managed to make the song into his own. It would be unthinkable not to include this track in my top ten Johnny Cash songs.

Cash’s stomping interpretation of this traditional folk song injects it with a dark, gritty menace. Cash's God is angry and vengeful in this song. Written in 2003 when Cash was suffering a health decline that would eventually lead to his death.

The 1980s wasn’t Cash’s greatest decade, but the first album by the Highwaymen, a country music supergroup consisting of Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson, was an exception. The title track has a haunting quality and the delivery of the song, with each member of the band having a separate verse to sing, is inspired.

The Top 10 Best Johnny Cash Albums

Johnny Cash: “Hurt”, The Story Behind The Video

Classic Concerts: Johnny Cash at Glastonbury Festival 1994

The Health Decline and Death of Johnny Cash