I Walk the Line

I Walk the Line is the title of a country song from 1956, written by Johnny Cash and interpreted by him and the Tennessee Two. He was the first million-seller and the first No. 1 song in the country charts for cash. A new recording with Columbia Records appeared on the same album. 2004 made ​​it the song in the list of 500 best songs of all time the magazine Rolling Stone ranked 30th

Genesis

After Cash had recorded its first successes in 1955 and was on his way to the sought-after star, his then wife Vivian Liberto was worried that her husband might succumb to the temptations in the form of many female fans. In her posthumously published in 2007 biography wrote Liberto, Cash told her one day: " Do not worry, you're day and night in my thoughts. I stay for you on the straight path. " He then asked them to write down these lines, and cash made ​​it the song I Walk the Line. Next Liberto wrote: " Every time I heard this song by Johnny, regardless of whether it's been thousands of times, I knew he sang each of the words for me." They were divorced in 1967; 1968 married June Carter Cash.

After a concert in Texas cash first saw the title of Because You're Mine for the song before, but his friend and colleague Carl Perkins Sun advised him to choose I Walk the Line as a song title from the text lines. Since Cash's band at that time did not have a drummer, he had a piece of paper jam behind the strings of the rhythm guitar; this percussive buzz became a typical feature of the famous "boom - chicka - boom" sound. The name is an onomatopoeic description for the fast, pounding sound similar to that of a moving freight train ( freight train rhythm ). The later case of cash songs often recurring rhythm has become his sound.

Cash had a song originally created as a ballad, but Sam Phillips of Cash's Sun label was of the view that a faster version sell better. Admission was April 2, 1956, which was also the B- side of Get Rhythm arose. The May 1, 1956 as the Sun # 241 published single was Cash's third album. In June 1956, the song entered the country charts, where it remained at number one six weeks. In September, the song also developed for crossover, when he got up to # 17 on the pop charts. After Blue Suede Shoes by Carl Perkins to I Walk the Line entwickeIte for the second million-seller of Sun Records, with sales of almost two million copies.

Interpretations

After the first shot of 1956 Cash sang the song in 1964 for the eponymous album one more time a. Under the title Who knows the way took Cash, who had served in Landsberg am Lech in the U.S. military, on June 19, 1965 in New York, a German -language version with a text by Günter Loose on.

Other recordings were made in 1968 and 1969 for the album At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin in 1971 for the soundtrack of the film I Walk the Line ( The Sheriff) with Gregory Peck in the lead role, and finally in 1988 for the album Classic Cash: Hall of Fame Series. Published in 2001, Cash's son Rodney Crowell on his album The Houston Kid the song as a duet with Cash.

Cover versions

The song received a BMI Award and has 33 times been gecovert. Among them is a German version of Gunter Gabriel, I'll stay on course from the year 2002.

2005 turned director James Mangold a Johnny Cash biography titled Walk the Line. In the film, all cash songs are sung by lead actor Joaquin Phoenix, including I Walk the Line, the Phoenix recorded for the soundtrack of the same name.

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