Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 7, 1995)
• Original Release Date: 1963
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• Copy Protected
• ASIN: B000002AZ0
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #140,792 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This 1963 release is not a greatest-hits package, as the subtitle would have you believe, although the title cut did top the country charts. Instead, it offers a worthy sampling of Cash's far-ranging moods--dramatic saga songs, gospel hymns, love songs, honky-tonk weepers, folk ballads. The steady Tennessee Two churn forms the musical foundation, but is at times embellished by everything from banjo to mariachi horns to string section to background chorus to the Carter Family. Cash's august vocal tone and torpid phrasing command attention regardless of song or surroundings. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars His best up to 1963, that is...., August 6, 2001

By	Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I can't believe that anyone who'd enjoy this album hasn't heard it yet. But Johnny Cash's appeal is timeless, and there must be young people who have discovered him yet, or others who want the best sampling they can find of his music. This CD is the one for those people.

Ring of Fire: All time classic, #1 on the charts when it came out. What can I say that hasn't been said?

I'd Still Be There: This is one of four songs on this CD which I'd forgotten about and was glad to rediscover, a song full of the feeling and perception unique to Johnny Cash.

What Do I Care: This one hit #7 on the charts at the time, and another song expressing his deeper feelings.

I Still Miss Someone: Again, deep feelings...do notice the Luther Perkins guitar, especially important on this song.

Forty Shades of Green. I had also forgotten that he ever sang any Irish songs, and this one makes me wish he had recorded more.

Were You There When They Crucified My Lord: Gospel singing is a basic part of Johnny Cash's output and this well known spiritual is perhaps the most powerful and feeling example.

The Rebel-Johnny Yuma: A TV western theme, and a darn good example of a western song as opposed to country.

Bonanza: Same here, though the TV series this came from is much better known.

The Big Battle: A story song that brings out the singer's social consciousness...an anti-war classic for all time. This record hit #24 on the charts, no mean feat for a song with such a heavy subject.

Remember the Alamo: I also had forgotten this western song, inspired by the epic movie, THE ALAMO.

Tennessee Flat-top Box: A tuneful story that reached # 11 on the charts.

There'll Be Peace in the Valley: Yes, it's quite appropriate to end this collection with another gospel song. It just sets off the whole collection just right.

There are loads of Johnny Cash collections, but my advice is to get this one and then, as is likely, you have to get more, check out the box set, THE ESSENTIAL JOHNNY CASH.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatest Greatest Hits, August 18, 2004

By	Sarah Carpenter (Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

If you consider that this album is supposed to be a greatest hits collection, there are a lot of songs that you can not find on any other cd. Starting off with the title track, Ring of Fire, it moves right into one of them, I'd Still Be there, then another, What Do I Care. Then they go back to The Fabulous Johnny Cash album for his timeless standard I Still Miss Someone, before yet another unreleased tune Forty Shades of Green. Those three songs might not make it onto one of the hundreds of trashy greatest hits cds that have hit store shelves in the last ten years, but they are great in this collection. It continues on with one of his greatest spiritual recordings, Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord). This song is really a glimpse of heaven as a rough voiced Johnny sings with June or Anita (I'm not sure which) and the rest of the Carter Sisters in a positively electric showcase of talent. After that The Rebel Johnny Yuma lightens things up for a heavily distorted guitar intro to Bonanza!. The Big Battle and Remember the Alamo make up a little Americana before returning to the light hearted Tennessee Flat Top Box and finishing with (There'll Be) Peace In The Valley For Me. For a first time buyer, this cd offers great insight into the vast talent of Johnny Cash and his work in the early sixties. But it is with someone like myself, a Cash fanatic that it resounds the deepest. I hate greatest hits cd's with a passion as they merely throw the same eight or ten tunes on to a cd, add one or two less familiar songs and then wait for the money to roll in. But since this had been originally released in '63, they didn't defile his name as shameless companies no a days would.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Original classic johnny cash, December 16, 2000

By A Customer

For anyone confused with the numerous box sets & greatest hits of J.Cash, here is the classic original. Recorded in 1963 but still timeless. I first listened to this on LP when I was seven years old (23 years ago)and it has stuck with me ever since. I recommend this to anyone who wants to here J.C. before mainsteam commericalism took over. Now I want to buy it for my CD collection.