A Boy Named Johnny Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ring of Fire

Johnny Cash recorded "Ring of Fire" for his "Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash" album, released in 1963, and the song rose to number one on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot Country Singles chart and to number seventeen on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100. "Rolling Stone" magazine has listed the song at number eighty-seven on its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list, and Country Music Televison ranked the song at number four on its list of 100 Greatest Songs of Country Music.

June Carter, Cash's second wife, and Merle Kilgore are generally given credit for the composition of the song. Carter has claimed that the song is about the tremendous passion she felt for Cash when they began to fall in love. Though she knew Cash was married, she could not control her feelings for him, and, as she has explained, "There is no way to be in that kind of hell, no way to extinguish a flame that burns, burns, burns".

Vivian Liberto, Cash's first wife, disagrees with the traditional belief about the song's origin. She argues in her book "I Walked the Line" that Cash came up with the idea for the song while under the influence of booze and pills. The "Ring of Fire" is supposed to be sexual innuendo for a female's vagina, according to Liberto.

June Carter's sister Anita recorded the song first, but when it did not become a hit for her, Cash recorded it himself. For his version, he added a mariachi horn section, an idea he claims that came to him in a dream.

In the early 2000s, Merle Kilgore, the credited co-writer of the song, wanted to license the song to be used for a commercial for a hemorrhoid cream. However, the Carter family refused to allow the song to be used in this manner.

Answer: I Walk the Line

Johnny Cash wrote "I Walk the Line", recorded it at Sun Studio, and released it in May of 1956. It went on to spend forty-three weeks on the record charts and became Cash's first number one U.S. "Billboard" hit. "Rolling Stone" magazine has ranked the song at number thirty on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list and at number one on its 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time list.

Cash claims to have written the song in about twenty minutes. However, he originally intended it to be much slower than the tempo at which he recorded it. Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Studio, managed to convince Cash to perform the song as a faster piece.

The song is unique in that it changes key at the beginning of each verse, a total of five times. Furthermore, Cash hums the root note of each new key before he sings each verse. Cash claims that he did this to make certain that he began singing each verse in the correct pitch. His extensive range is demonstrated by the fact that the last verse is sung a complete octave lower than the first verse.

Answer: Jackson

"Jackson" was written in 1963 by Jerry Leiber and Billy Edd Wheeler, who also recorded the song. However, it didn't become a hit until 1967, when two duos--Johnny Cash and June Carter as well as Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood--recorded and released the song. "Jackson" has continued to grow in popularity due to films, such as 2011's "The Help".

Wheeler claims that he was inspired to write "Jackson" after reading Edward Albee's play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". He then played and sang the song for Leiber, who couldn't stand the song's first few verses. He convinced Wheeler to trash all the verses except the climactic last one, which he insisted Wheeler should use as the first verse. Overcoming his resistance to such a suggestion, Wheeler eventually started with his last verse, which begins, "We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout", and wrote new verses to follow his new first verse.

The song is sung from the opposing perspectives of a man and a woman who find themselves in a marriage that started out with great passion but then cooled off. Each one thinks that he or she will go to Jackson and discover a more thrilling life now that their relationship is suffering. The song comes across quite comically as Cash and Carter alternate verses, each one trying to suggest that he or she will be more successful than the other at gaining the attention of another suitor or lover.

The "Jackson" referred to in the song is most likely Jackson, Tennessee, not Jackson, Mississippi.

Answer: The Ballad of Ira Hayes

"The Ballad of Ira Hayes" was written by Peter La Farge, an American folk singer/songwriter who died in 1965 at the age of thirty-four. While the song has been covered a number of times, Johnny Cash's version has remained the most well-known. Cash recorded the song for his 1964 album "Bitter Tears", which consisted primarily of songs written by La Forge and was meant to be a concept album focusing on American Indians.

The song is a miniature biography of the historical figure Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who became famous as one of the six marines who raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi for a photograph following the Battle of Iwo Jima. As the song relates, Hayes volunteers for the U.S. Marine Corp despite the cruelty he and his people have suffered because of the discriminatory practices of the United States. However, after Hayes returns home, he finds that his own people have rejected him and that the citizens of the United States have no sincere appreciation for him either. He falls into the despair of alcoholism and is eventually found dead in a ditch. The song's ultimate goal is to make a political statement and criticize the condition of Native Americans.

Answer: A Boy Named Sue

"A Boy Named Sue" was written by humorist, songwriter, and author of children's books Shel Silverstein. Some may recognize other songs of his, such as "The Cover of the Rolling Stone", "Sylvia's Mother", "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan", "Rosalie's Good Eats Cafe", and "The Mermaid", while others will recognize his books, such as "The Giving Tree", "Where the Sidewalk Ends", "A Light in the Attic", and "Falling Up".

Johnny Cash recorded "A Boy Named Sue" live at San Quentin State Prison in California on February 24, 1969, and it appears on his "At San Quentin" album. It became his only top ten single on the United States "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and spent three weeks ranked number two. The Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" single held the number one position, preventing Cash's song from reaching the top.

Answer: Sunday Morning Coming Down

"Sunday Morning Coming Down" was written by Kris Kristofferson and it was originally released in 1969 by Ray Stevens, who is known for such songs as "Everything Is Beautiful", "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival", "The Streak", "It's Me Again, Margaret", and "Ahab the Arab". Johnny Cash released the song a year later from his 1970 album "The Johnny Cash Show".

Kris Kristofferson was trying to find success in Nashville and had given a tape of some of his songs to June Carter Cash to give to her husband Johnny. However, after not hearing from him, Kristofferson landed a helicopter in Cash's front yard. Cash apparently was not home at the time, but Kristofferson's bold act got his attention. He recorded "Sunday Morning Coming Down" live on his show, and Kristofferson won Songwriter of the Year at the Country Music Awards. Kristofferson wrote "Me and Bobby McGee" (yes, the song Janis Joplin sang) and "Help Me Make It through the Night", and he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor -- Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in "A Star Is Born".

Cash recorded this monologue at the beginning of his recording of Kristofferson's song: "You know, not everyone who has been on 'the bum' wanted it that way. The Great Depression of the 30's set the feet of thousands of people-farmers, city workers-it set 'em to ridin' the rails. My Daddy was one of those who hopped a freight train a couple of times to go and look for work. He wasn't a bum. He was a hobo but he wasn't a bum. I suppose we've all....all of us 'been at one time or another 'drifter at heart', and today like yesterday there's many that are on that road headin' out. Not searchin' maybe for work, as much as for self-fulfillment, or understanding of their life...trying to find a *meaning* for their life. And they're not hoppin' freights much anymore. Instead they're thumbin' cars and diesel trucks along the highways from Maine to Mexico. And many who have drifted...including myself...have found themselves no closer to peace of mind than a dingy backroom, on some lonely Sunday morning, with it comin' down all around you."

Answer: Man in Black

"Man in Black" was written by Johnny Cash and was recorded as one of the songs on his 1971 album, also called "Man in Black". As a single, it peaked at number three on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart and number fifty-eight on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart.

The words of the song explain why Cash chose to wear black clothing during his stage performances. According to the lyrics, he wears black "for the poor and the beaten down / Living in the hopeless, hungry side of town", "for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime / But is there because he's a victim of the times", "for the sick and lonely old / For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold", "for the lives that could have been", and "for the thousands who have died" in Vietnam. He refuses to take the black off until "we start to make a move to make a few things right". Obviously, the song is truly meant to be a protest song, a song criticizing, if you listen to some of the other words, the hypocritical religious people and the rich who contribute to the suffering of others or do nothing to help the suffering of others.

Former musicians who performed with Cash have explained that the true reason for Cash's wearing black is that he and his early band members wanted to dress similarly but couldn't find any inexpensive similar clothing except in the color black. Furthermore, Cash's daughter Rosanne explains that the color, to her, always represented the sadness and suffering Cash experienced in his own life, particularly in his earlier years.

Answer: Ballad of a Teenage Queen

"Ballad of a Teenage Queen" was written by Jack Clement, a singer-songwriter and steel guitar player. He not only wrote this song for Johnny Cash but a few others, such as "Guess Things Happen That Way" and "The One on the Right Is on the Left". Clement also participated in the recording of some of U2's songs on the album "Rattle and Hum".

Cash recorded "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" for his 1958 album "Johnny Cash Sings the Songs that Made Him Famous". The single climbed to number one on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart and to number fourteen on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. The song tells the story of a girl who falls in love with a local boy but leaves him to pursue success in Hollywood. She finds great fame but no happiness and gives it all up to return to the boy from the small town.

A 1988 recording of the song was made that includes the vocals of Johnny Cash, his daughter Rosanne, and the Everly Brothers.

Answer: Flesh and Blood

"Flesh and Blood" was written by Johnny Cash, who recorded it for the soundtrack for the 1970 film "I Walk the Line" starring Gregory Peck and Tuesday Weld. The album of the soundtrack is essentially a Johnny Cash album.

The single "Flesh and Blood" peaked at number one on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart and at number fifty-four on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. "Billboard" ranks the song as number nine on its list of top fifteen best Johnny Cash songs and claims it to be "one of the most realistic love songs of any artist's catalog".

During the song, the singer is overwhelmed by the beauty of nature around him and seems to have a spiritual experience there. Nevertheless, this experience is not as fulfilling as the one with the woman he loves because "flesh and blood needs flesh and blood".

Answer: Don't Take Your Guns to Town

"Don't Take Your Guns to Town" was written by Johnny Cash and released in 1958 as a single with "I Still Miss Someone" as its B-side. It climbed to number one on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart and to number thirty-four on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart.

The song tells the story of a young man who ignores his mother's advice--"Don't take your guns to town"--because he thinks he's man enough to handle himself. Unfortunately, he ends up dead.

The Irish band U2 covered the song as a B-side to their 2001 single "Elevation". This was not the first time U2 paid homage to Johnny Cash. Cash also performs the haggard-sounding vocals on "The Wanderer", which appears in the line up of songs on U2's 1993 album "Zooropa". Cash is meant to represent "The Preacher" from the book of "Ecclesiastes" in the Old Testament.