April 2, 1956 Is A Historic Day In The History Of Country Music And Here’s Why

Is there a bigger, more legendary name in all of Country Music history than Johnny Cash?

The argument could be made that there is not.

And that legend, in many ways, was born on the day of April 2, 1956.  Johnny Cash was a largely unknown artist looking for a way to make his living in music.  He was at the legendary Sun Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee and recorded a song he had written.  On May 1st of 1956, upon the release of that song, the legend that would become 'The Man In Black' began.

'I Walk The Line' was recorded that early April day in Memphis.  It spent an incredible 43 weeks on the record charts, spent six weeks atop the Country Music chart, was a solid Top 20 Pop hit and sold over 2 million copies.

Johnny actually recorded the song 4 times in his storied career.

How good was the song?  In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine (not exactly a bible for Country Music) ranked it #30 on it's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Recorded with Marshall Grant and Luther Perkins (The Famed 'Tennessee Two'), the song has been 'covered' dozens of time, by everyone from George Jones to Ernest Tubb, from Billy Ray Cyrus to Bobby Darin to Dean Martin to...Leonard Nimoy!

But there's no question: 'I Walk The Line' is Johnny Cash.