Music on Mondays — #4: I walk the line

#4
I walk the line

I don’t remember much about my father because he killed himself in 1961 when I was just six years old. One thing I do remember is that he loved Johnny Cash. Cash’s music was always playing around the house.

I remember one time when I was laying on the floorboard in the back seat of the car, dad was driving, and mom was in the other front seat. Not sure where my older brother and younger sister were. As we were going wherever we were going, “I Walk The Line” came on the radio and I started singing along with it. To this day it’s my favorite Johnny Cash song.

“I Walk The Line” was originally released on May 1, 1956. Cash wrote the song in 20 minutes and recorded it in one day, tasks that take much longer in today’s world.

“I Walk The Line” became Cash’s first #1 country hit on the Billboard charts and crossed over to the pop charts to peak at #17 (some sources say #19), selling over two million copies. The song was originally on his album With His Hot and Blue Guitar.

Cash re-recorded the song four times after its initial release: for the I Walk the Line album in 1964, for the At San Quentin album in 1969, for the I Walk the Line soundtrack in 1970, and lastly in 1988 for the Classic Cash: Hall of Fame Series album. The original recording is still the best, as original recordings often are. It’s hard to compete with that initial surge of enthusiasm and creative genius.

This post is dedicated to Michele Miller, Executive Assistant and Realtor for Keller Williams in Worcestor, Massachusetts. At the site where I had been hanging out for the past three years, Michele was instrumental in my Music on Mondays series. She also has a Music on Mondays series, but she started hers a good nine months or more before mine. I copied her, a fact which she didn’t mind. If you are needing the services of a Realtor in the Worcestor, Massachusetts, area, I can highly recommend Michele as I have known of her excellent work for the last three years through my interaction with her on the Internet.