The Essential Johnny Cash

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Professional reviews
The Essential Johnny Cash

Compilation album by Johnny Cash
Released	February 2002
Recorded	May 1955—May 1993
Genre	Country and western
Length	1:43:53
Label	Legacy/Columbia
Producer(s)	Sam Phillips Jack Clement Don Law Frank Jones Bob Johnston Johnny Cash Charlie Bragg Brian Ahern Earl Ball Flood Brian Eno The Edge
All Music Guide link
Johnny Cash chronology
American III: Solitary Man (2000)	The Essential Johnny Cash (2002)	At Madison Square Garden (2002)

The Essential Johnny Cash is a double-compact disc compilation by Johnny Cash, part of Sony Music's "Essential" CD anthology series. It was compiled to commemorate Cash's 70th birthday. It is not to be confused with the three-CD box set of the same name released by Columbia Records in 1992.

The double album concentrates mainly on Cash's first 15 years as a recording artist with Sun Records and Columbia, contains only eight post-1970 selections, and ignores Cash's work with Rick Rubin for American Recordings - as well as predates Cash's final hit single, "Hurt", by ten months.

Amongst the 36 tracks on the compilation are two songs that feature Cash prominently but never appeared on any of his albums: "Girl from the North Country" from Bob Dylan's 1969 album Nashville Skyline, and "The Wanderer" from U2's 1993 album Zooropa.

As a testimony to Cash's wide sphere of influence on country, rock, and other modern musics and his wide fan base, the liner notes feature testimonials and 70th birthday greetings from a wide array of artists - not only from friends and fellow travelers and collaborators like Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Petty, ex-stepson-in-law Nick Lowe, and wife June Carter Cash, but from the likes of Keith Richards, Elvis Costello, Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of Slipknot, Metallica's Kirk Hammett, and Black Flag's Henry Rollins.

1 Track listing
- 1.1 Disc one
- 1.2 Disc two
2 Testimonals

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Disc one

"Hey Porter" – 2:13
"Cry, Cry, Cry" – 2:23
"I Walk the Line" – 2:43
"Get Rhythm" – 2:13
"There You Go" – 2:17
"Ballad of a Teenage Queen" (Jack Clement) – 2:11
"Big River" – 2:31
"Guess Things Happen That Way" (Jack Clement) – 1:49
"All Over Again" – 2:12
"Don't Take Your Guns to Town" – 3:02
"Five Feet High and Rising" – 1:46
"The Rebel - Johnny Yuma" (Richard Markowitz/Andrew Fenady) – 1:52
"Tennessee Flat-Top Box" – 2:58
"I Still Miss Someone" (Johnny Cash/Roy Cash Jr.) – 2:34
"Ring of Fire" (June Carter/Merle Kilgore) – 2:35
"The Ballad of Ira Hayes" (Peter LaFarge) – 4:07
"Orange Blossom Special" (E.T. Rouse) – 3:06
"Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)" (traditional, arranged by Johnny Cash) – 3:51

[edit] Disc two

"It Ain't Me, Babe" (Bob Dylan) – 3:03
- Performed with June Carter Cash
"The One on the Right is on the Left" (Jack Clement) – 2:47
"Jackson" (Gaby Rodgers/Billy Edd Wheeler) – 2:44
- Performed with June Carter Cash
"Folsom Prison Blues" (live version) – 2:44
"Daddy Sang Bass" (Carl Perkins) – 2:20
"Girl from the North Country" (Bob Dylan) – 3:42
- Performed by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash; from Dylan's Nashville Skyline
"A Boy Named Sue" (Shel Silverstein) – 3:46
"If I Were a Carpenter" (Tim Hardin) – 2:59
- Performed with June Carter Cash
"Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" (Kris Kristofferson) – 4:09
"Flesh and Blood" – 2:36
"Man in Black" – 2:52
"Ragged Old Flag" – 3:08
"One Piece at a Time" (Wayne Kemp) – 4:01
"(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" (Stan Jones) – 3:44
"Song of the Patriot" (Marty Robbins/Shirl Milete) – 3:28
- Performed with Marty Robbins
"Highwayman" (Jimmy Webb) – 3:03
- Performed with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson as The Highwaymen
"The Night Hank Williams Came to Town" (Billy Braddock/Charlie Williams) – 3:23
- Performed with Waylon Jennings
"The Wanderer" (Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr., Adam Clayton) – 4:43
- Performed by U2 featuring Johnny Cash; from U2's album Zooropa