Ring of Fire
June Carter and Merle Kilgore's song, with the trumpets Cash heard in a dream, seven weeks at number one.
Johnny Cash, from Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash (1963)
- Written by
- June Carter, Merle Kilgore
- Released
- 19 April 1963
- Length
- 2:38
- Album
- Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash
June Carter and Merle Kilgore wrote it, and Anita Carter first recorded it as Love's Ring of Fire on Mercury. Cash recorded his version on 25 March 1963 at Columbia's Bradley Studios in Nashville with producers Don Law and Frank Jones, and it was released on 19 April 1963 with I'd Still Be There on the B-side. He said he dreamed the arrangement with Mexican horns, inspired by Herb Alpert's The Lonely Bull. Mother Maybelle Carter and the Carter Sisters sing harmony.
It spent seven weeks at number one on the country chart and reached number 17 on the Hot 100. It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and was certified Gold in 2010. Rosanne Cash has said it is about the transformative power of love.
Covers and versions
- Eric Burdon and the Animals (1968)
- Ray Charles (1970)
- Social Distortion (1990)
- Alan Jackson with Lee Ann Womack (2010)
More songs by Johnny Cash
Folsom Prison Blues, I Walk the Line, Cry! Cry! Cry!, The Ballad of Ira Hayes, A Boy Named Sue, Hurt, Man in Black
Sources
- Ring of Fire (song), Wikipedia
- Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash, Wikipedia