I Walk the Line

Cash said he wrote the song backstage one night in 1956 in Gladewater, Texas, as a promise of faithfulness to his wife. He recorded it at Sun Studio on 2 April 1956 with Sam Phillips, who wanted a faster tempo than the slow ballad Cash had in mind. It was released on 5 May 1956, topped the Billboard country chart, spent more than 43 weeks on the charts and sold over two million copies.

He hums before each verse because the key changes, and slipped a dollar bill into the neck of his guitar for the boom-chicka-boom rhythm. It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and Rolling Stone ranked it number 30 on its 2004 list of 500 greatest songs and number one on its 2014 list of the 100 greatest country songs. Cash re-recorded it in 1964, 1969 at San Quentin, 1970 and 1988.