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The Legend of Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
The Legend of Johnny Cash
Genres: Country, Pop, Rock, Christian & Gospel
 
  •  Track Listings (21) - Disc #1

The Legend of Johnny Cash spans his entire career for the first time on a single disc. Featuring 21 of his recordings on the Sun, Columbia, Island, and American Recordings labels, it's the first compilation to include his ...  more »

     
   

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CD Details

All Artists: Johnny Cash
Title: The Legend of Johnny Cash
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 1
Label: Hip-O Records
Original Release Date: 1/1/2005
Re-Release Date: 10/25/2005
Genres: Country, Pop, Rock, Christian & Gospel
Styles: Classic Country, Oldies & Retro, Southern, Country & Bluegrass
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 602498843406

Synopsis

Album Description
The Legend of Johnny Cash spans his entire career for the first time on a single disc. Featuring 21 of his recordings on the Sun, Columbia, Island, and American Recordings labels, it's the first compilation to include his work on American. Also highlighting the package is a 16-page deluxe booklet with photos and essay by author Rich Kienzle.His Sun Records tracks begin with his first single, "Hey, Porter"/"Cry! Cry! Cry!," a Country Top 20 penned by Cash and produced by Sam Phillips. Straddling country and rock 'n' roll, they scored in 1956 with the Top 10 Country "Folsom Prison Blues," #1 Country/Top 20 Pop "I Walk The Line" and #1 Country "Get Rhythm." Also heard from his Sun days are 1958's "Big River" (#4 Country/Top 20 Pop) and "Guess Things Happen That Way" (#1 Country/Top 20 Pop).Cash signed with Columbia in 1958 and five years later had a #1 Country/Top 20 Pop hit with "Ring of Fire," a ballad co-written by June Carter, who in 1967 would duet with him on the #2 Country "Jackson" and later become his wife. In 1969, the live Johnny Cash at San Quentin yielded his biggest hit: Shel Silverstein's novelty "A Boy Named Sue" (#1 Country/#2 Pop).Kris Kristofferson composed Cash's 1970 #1 Country hit "Sunday Morning Coming Down" while Cash himself composed his personal philosophy on 1971's #3 Country "Man in Black," his nickname for the rest of his days. Also from his Columbia tenure are 1976's "One Piece at a Time" (#1 Country/Top 30 Pop) and 1985's "Highwayman" with Waylon Jennings and Kristofferson.Cash joined Mercury in 1986 and The Legend of Johnny Cash includes a track from that period titled "The Wanderer," a duet with U2 written by Bono and U2, taken from the group's 1993 release Zooropa. That same year Rick Rubin, known for producing rap and rock acts, offered to record Cash singing whatever he chose. 1994's American Recordings, including college radio favorite "Delia's Gone," brought Cash to a new generation and won the Best Contemporary Folk Album Grammy. On 1996's Unchained, Cash brilliantly interpreted Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage" as well as the Hank Snow classic "I've Been Everywhere" and copped the Grammy for Best Country Album. On 2003's American IV: The Man Comes Around, he revisited old favorite "Give My Love to Rose" and gave new meaning to Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" (the video for "Hurt" was 6 times nominated at MTV's 2003 VMAs and also won a Grammy for "Best Short Form Music Video" that same year). From 2003's posthumous box set Unearthed, The Legend of Johnny Cash adds an early take on "The Man Comes Around."

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Member CD Reviews

Katcha S. (Jain) from FORT JONES, CA
Reviewed on 11/18/2010...
An excellent overall career collection with wide range of this man's offerings. Only made me want to hear MORE by him.
Christy S. (soupermom) from LINCOLN, NE
Reviewed on 9/27/2010...
Great collection of his music

CD Reviews

An Excellent Single-Disc Overview of The Man In Black!!!
Louie Bourland | Garden Grove CA | 10/26/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)

"The recently released "Legend of Johnny Cash" compilation is the first single-disc collection to cover the legendary Man In Black's entire career. While it would take literally a half-dozen CDs or more to cover every important piece of music Cash has made, this compilation offers the basics and is an excellent overview of his most important and classic work. The legendary Sun records hits, "Cry Cry Cry", "Hey Porter", "I Walk The Line" and "Folsum Prison Blues" are included here as well as "A Boy Named Sue", "Ring Of Fire" and "Highwayman" (his collaboration with Country legends Kris Kristoferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson). Also included is Johnny's cameo appearance from U2's 1993 "Zooropa" album, "The Wanderer" and to close out the disc, there are several tracks from his American Records series with producer Rick Rubin including the final hit "Hurt" (originally by Nine Inch Nails).

With that said, "the Legend of Johnny Cash" is an essential collection and offers an excellent brief history lesson of his most acclaimed work. For the few who have never heard of Johnny Cash, this CD is an excllent introduction to his music. For everyone else, this is probably the best collection of Cash music to date.

"
Well, there's things that never will be right I know
Evil Lincoln | Dayton, Ohio | 03/15/2006
(3 out of 5 stars)

"I own some of Johnny Cash's older albums as well as the spectacular 2-CD The Essential Johnny Cash. But since I didn't have any of his American recordings he did with Rick Rubin, I got The Legend of Johnny Cash for the six songs representing those albums. It's rather obvious that this collection was aimed at young people who have heard and liked Cash's music but wouldn't otherwise be caught dead in the record store's country music section (and who am I kidding; that includes me).



In that sense, it's a good CD. It includes the biggest of Cash's big hits: "Cry, Cry, Cry," "I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire," "Hurt," etc. But as a definitive greatest-hits collection, The Legend of Johnny Cash falls well short. "I Still Miss Someone," "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," "The Rebel- Johnny Yuma," "The One on the Right is on the Left," and (probably most bafflingly) "Daddy Sang Bass" are all absent from here. What's more, "Folsom Prison Blues" is the *studio* version- anyone at all can tell you that the definitive version is the live version recorded at Folsom Prison itself. This CD is only an hour long- that leaves plenty of time for more deserving cuts. The six American Recordings songs collected here are all great, and I think I'm going to spring for the albums themselves. "The Wanderer," featuring U2, also made it on here; I think that's one of Cash's best ever.



If you want a single-disc Johnny Cash collection, you could do worse. But I still think that The Essential Johnny Cash is a better bet. Even though there's no American Recordings material on there, it still includes every other song this collection does, plus many, many more great songs."