On This Day in 1955, Johnny Cash Recorded His Signature Song “Folsom Prison Blues” for the First Time at Sun Studios in Memphis

On this day (July 30) in 1955, Johnny Cash stepped into the Sun Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee to record “Folsom Prison Blues” for the first time. The song would go on to be a major hit for Cash. Later in his career, it would become one of his signature songs.

“Folsom Prison Blues” sits high on the list of most iconic Cash songs. Sitting somewhere between a prison song and a train song while describing the hardships of the narrator’s life, it ticks many of the songwriting boxes in the American folk tradition. This is something that the Man in Black would return to many times in his career.

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According to Songfacts, Cash wrote the song while stationed in West Germany during his time in the United States Air Force. The idea for the song came to him after watching the 1951 film Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison. Cash said that he wrote the line I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die by “Trying to think of the worst reason for killing another person.”

Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison wasn’t the only inspiration for the song. Cash borrowed heavily from “Crescent City Blues” by Gordon Jenkins. More than a decade after the song’s initial release, Jenkins sued Cash over the song and received an out-of-court settlement.

Johnny Cash Gets Two Hits with “Folsom Prison Blues”

Johnny Cash initially released “Folsom Prison Blues” in 1955 as the B-side of “So Doggone Lonesome,” the second single from his debut album With His Hot and Blue Guitar. The two-sided single went to No. 4 on the country chart.

More than ten years later, Cash included a live version of the song on his 1968 album At Folsom Prison. The live cut of “Folsom Prison Blues” was the first and only single from the live album. It went to No. 1 on the country chart and stayed there for four weeks. It also landed at No. 32 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.

Additionally, it brought Cash the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male in 1969.

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