| "The Ballad of Boot Hill" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Johnny Cash | |
| from the album Johnny Cash Sings 'The Rebel --- Johnny Yuma' | |
| Released | 1959 |
| Label | Columbia |
| Songwriter(s) | Carl Perkins |
"The Ballad of Boot Hill" is a 1959 song written by Carl Perkins which was recorded by Johnny Cash on Columbia Records. [1]
The song was originally released in 1959 in the U.S. on a Columbia EP by Johnny Cash entitled Johnny Cash Sings 'The Rebel --- Johnny Yuma'. The song was also released on his 1965 LP album Sings the Ballads of the True West . [2] [3] The song is about the 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral when three gunmen were killed by Doc Holliday. [4] "The Ballad of Boot Hill" appeared on the 1992 Columbia collection The Essential Johnny Cash 1955-1983 , a career retrospective of Johnny Cash's most important releases. The song was also released on an EP in Canada in 1959, Australia in 1960 and 1963, and in Germany in 1967. [5]
Johnny Cash performed the song live at the London Palladium on October 27, 1968 in concert with Carl Perkins. [6]
"The Ballad of Boot Hill" was recorded in 1984 by country and western singer Johnny Western which appeared on his 1989 album Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on Bear Family Records. [7] In 2008, Mark van den Berg recorded the song for his collection Mark van den Berg Sings the Hits of Johnny Cash on the Continental Record Services label. Billy McFarland recorded the song on his 2013 album Golden Guitar. Giuseppe Grasso, Jaromir Hauptman, Gabi Schaetz, Peter Medwed, Rainer Jantz, Thommy Kletsch, and Jeff Johnson have also performed the song.
"The Ballad of Boot Hill" appears on the following Johnny Cash albums:
Carl Lee Perkins was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, beginning in 1954. Among his best-known songs are "Blue Suede Shoes", "Honey Don't", "Matchbox" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby".
Ned Washington was an American lyricist born in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Johnny Cash at San Quentin is the 31st overall album and second live album by American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, recorded live at San Quentin State Prison on February 24, 1969, and released on June 16 of that same year. The concert was filmed by Granada Television, produced and directed by Michael Darlow. The album was the second in Cash's conceptual series of live prison albums that also included At Folsom Prison (1968), På Österåker (1973), and A Concert Behind Prison Walls (1976).
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.
Boot Hill, or Boothill, is the given name of many cemeteries, chiefly in the Western United States. During the 19th and early 20th century it was a common name for the burial grounds of gunfighters, or those who "died with their boots on".
The Fabulous Johnny Cash is the second studio album by American country singer Johnny Cash and his first to be released by Columbia Records. The album was released on November 3, 1958, not long after Cash's departure from Sun Records.
"I Walk the Line" is a song written and recorded in 1956 by Johnny Cash. After three attempts with moderate chart ratings, it became Cash's first #1 hit on the Billboard charts, eventually reaching #17 on the US pop charts.
Johnny Cash at Madison Square Garden is a 1969 recording of a Johnny Cash concert at Madison Square Garden. It was released in 2002.
Legacy Recordings is an American record label that is a division of Sony Music. Formed in 1990 after Sony's acquisition of CBS Records, Legacy originally handled the archives of Sony Music-owned labels Columbia Records and Epic Records. In 2004, under the Sony BMG joint venture, the label began to manage the archives of RCA Records, J Records, Windham Hill Records, Arista, LaFace, Jive, and Buddah Records. Legacy Recordings also distributes Philadelphia International Records and the catalog of recordings produced by Phil Spector. It is not related to the defunct British independent label Legacy Records.
Johnny Cash Sings the Ballads of the True West is a concept double album and the 22nd overall album released by country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1965. Covering twenty individual songs, the album, as its title suggests, contains various ballads and other songs on topics related to the history of the American Old West. This includes Carl Perkins' "The Ballad of Boot Hill", "Streets of Laredo", and the sole single from the album, "Mr. Garfield", describing the shock of the population after the assassination of President James Garfield. One of the songs, "25 Minutes to Go", would later be performed at Folsom Prison and appear on Cash's famous At Folsom Prison recording in 1968, while the melody of "Streets of Laredo" would be recycled for the song "The Walls of a Prison" featured on Cash's album From Sea to Shining Sea.
Silver is the 25th anniversary studio album by American country singer Johnny Cash and his 62nd album overall, released on Columbia Records in 1979. It peaked at #28 on the Billboard albums chart. "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" peaked at #2 on the singles chart; the two other singles, "Bull Rider" and "I'll Say It's True", had reached #66 and #42, respectively. Recordings of "Cocaine Blues" had previously appeared on At Folsom Prison and Now, There Was a Song!, under the title "Transfusion Blues" on the latter. The album was produced by Brian Ahern, who controversially introduced digital elements into the songs to the disapproval of some listeners. This is the last album that featured bassist Marshall Grant, longtime Cash collaborator in Tennessee Two. He departed from Cash's band the following year.
America: A 200-Year Salute in Story and Song is a concept album and the 40th overall album by country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1972. As its title suggests, it comprises a number of tracks dedicated to the topic of American history, like several of Cash's other Americana albums. The record is a mix of songs and narration, in which Cash attempts to describe elements of the country's past, including famous personalities like Paul Revere or Big Foot. America also includes a re-recording of "Mr. Garfield" and "The Road to Kaintuck", songs previously released as singles in 1965 on Sings the Ballads of the True West. Most of the tracks on the album were written by Cash, with some exceptions, including a rendition of the well-known song "The Battle of New Orleans" and a reading of Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address. The album was included on the Bear Family box set Come Along and Ride This Train.
Johnny Cash på Österåker is a live album by country singer Johnny Cash released on Columbia Records in 1973, making it his 43rd overall release. The album features Cash's concert at the Österåker Prison in Sweden held on October 3, 1972. Its counterparts in concept are the more notable At Folsom Prison (1968), At San Quentin (1969), and A Concert Behind Prison Walls (1976). Unlike aforementioned, På Österåker does not contain any of Cash's most well-known songs; it does, however, include a version of Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee". "Orleans Parish Prison" was released as a single, faring rather poorly on the charts. Cash had previously recorded "I Saw a Man" for his 1959 album, Hymns by Johnny Cash.
The Johnny Cash Children's Album is the 49th album by country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1975 featuring recordings made between January 1972 and October 1973. As the title implies, it contains songs written for children. Among others, this includes "Tiger Whitehead", a song later released in an acoustic version on Cash's posthumous Personal File album in 2006. Most of the songs on the album had not been performed by Cash before. "Old Shep" had been performed by Elvis Presley, among others. One track recorded in 1972 was previously released on LP: "I Got a Boy " was first made available on the 1972 album International Superstar. It is a tongue-in-cheek duet between Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, about their son, John Carter Cash.
Paul Kennerley is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer working in the American contemporary country music industry.
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 Tennessee Three backing band characterized by train-like chugging guitar rhythms, a rebelliousness coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor, free prison concerts, and a trademark all-black stage wardrobe, which earned him the nickname the "Man in Black".
"Daddy Sang Bass" is a song written by Carl Perkins, with lines from the chorus of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?", and recorded by American country music singer Johnny Cash. It was released in November 1968 as the first single from the album The Holy Land. The song was Cash's sixty-first release on the country chart, going on to No. 1 on the Billboard country chart for 6 weeks and spending a total of 19 weeks there. The single reached No. 56 on the Cashbox pop singles chart in 1969. "Daddy Sang Bass" was also released on the Columbia Records Hall of Fame Series as a 45, #13-33153, b/w "Folsom Prison Blues". The record was nominated in the CMA awards category of Single of the Year by the Country Music Association (CMA) in 1969.
"Big Iron" is a country ballad written and performed by Marty Robbins, originally released as an album track on Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs in September 1959, then as a single in February 1960 with the song "Saddle Tramp" as the B-side single. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
The Complete Columbia Album Collection is a box set by country singer Johnny Cash, released posthumously in 2012 on Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings.
"Brother" is a song by the American rock band Alice in Chains and the opening track on their 1992 acoustic EP Sap. The song was written by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell for his younger brother, David. Cantrell sings lead vocals in the song, while Heart lead vocalist Ann Wilson sings backing vocals. An acoustic version performed on Alice in Chains' MTV Unplugged in 1996 was released in a live album and DVD. The song was included on the compilation albums Music Bank (1999) and The Essential Alice in Chains (2006).
