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Ring of Fire (song)

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"Ring of Fire"
A man holds a guitar; the neck reads "Johnny Cash".
Picture sleeve for the 1963 U.S. vinyl single
Single by Johnny Cash
from the album Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash
B-side"I'd Still Be There"
ReleasedApril 19, 1963
RecordedMarch 25, 1963
StudioColumbia (Nashville, Tennessee)[1]
Genre
Length2:38
LabelColumbia Nashville
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Don Law
Johnny Cash singles chronology
"Busted"
(1962) 		"Ring of Fire"
(1963) 		"The Matador"
(1963)
"Ring of Fire"
Single by Eric Burdon & the Animals
from the album Love Is
B-side"I'm an Animal"
Released1969
Genre
[citation needed]
Length4:58 (album version)
LabelMGM
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Tom Wilson
Eric Burdon & the Animals singles chronology
"White Houses"
(1968) 		"Ring of Fire"
(1969) 		"River Deep Mountain High"
(1969)
"Ring of Fire"
Single by Alan Jackson
from the album 34 Number Ones
Released23 October 2010 (2010-10-23)
Recorded2010
GenreCountry
Length3:12
LabelSony Music Entertainment
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Keith Stegall
Alan Jackson singles chronology
"Hard Hat and a Hammer"
(2010) 		"Ring of Fire"
(2010) 		"Long Way to Go"
(2011)
"Ring of Fire (1988 version)"
Single by Johnny Cash
from the album Classic Cash: Hall of Fame Series
A-side"Get Rhythm"
ReleasedSeptember 19, 1988
RecordedOctober 1987
Genre
Length2:44
LabelMercury
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash singles chronology
"I Walk the Line"
(1987) 		"Ring of Fire (1988 version)"
(1988) 		"Ballad of Ira Hayes"
(1988)

The song "Ring of Fire" was made popular by Johnny Cash after it appeared on his 1963 compilation album Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash. Written by Cash's eventual second wife, June Carter Cash, and songwriter Merle Kilgore, "(Love's) Ring of Fire" was originally recorded by June's sister, Anita Carter, on her 1962 album, Folk Songs Old and New.

Cash's version became one of the biggest hits of his career, staying at No. 1 on the country chart for seven weeks. It was certified gold by the RIAA on January 21, 2010, and has sold over 1.2 million digital downloads.[2] It was named the fourth greatest country song of all time by Country Music Television, while Rolling Stone called it the number one greatest country song of all time and listed it as the 87th greatest song of all time.[3]

In 1999, the 1963 recording of the song by Johnny Cash on the Columbia Records label was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[4]

Description

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Most of the song is dedicated to a chorus that extends the metaphor comparing the passions of love with a "ring of fire". It describes being burned, and the flames rising, as the person continues falling for quite a distance ("down, down, down"), using the vocabulary of "falling in love". The song concludes without any resolution to the situation.

Background

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"Ring of Fire" excerpt
From the album Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash. This sample a portion of the chorus. Flourishes from the mariachi are also featured.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Some sources claim that Carter had seen the words "Love is like a burning ring of fire" underlined in an Elizabethan poetry book owned by her uncle A. P. Carter.[5][6] She worked with Kilgore on writing a song inspired by this imagery, as she had seen her uncle do in the past. In her words: "There is no way to be in that kind of hell, no way to extinguish a flame that burns, burns, burns".[7]

The song was originally recorded by June's sister, Anita Carter, on her Mercury Records album Folk Songs Old and New (1963) as "(Love's) Ring of Fire". Mercury released Anita's version as a single and it was a featured "pick hit" in Billboard magazine. After hearing Anita's version, Cash claimed he had a dream where he heard the song accompanied by "Mexican horns". The mariachi horn sound had recently been popularized on American radio with 1962 hit song "The Lonely Bull" by Herb Alpert. Cash said, "[...] I'll give you about five or six more months, and if you don't hit with it, I'm gonna record it the way I feel it."[8] Cash noted that adding trumpets was a change to his basic sound.[9]

When the song failed to become a major hit for Anita, Cash recorded it his own way, adding the mariachi-style horns from his dream. This sound was later used in the song "It Ain't Me Babe", which was recorded around the same time. Mother Maybelle and the Carter sisters are prominently featured in the Cash recording singing harmony. Cash tinkered with a few of the original phrases in Anita Carter's version of the song. Cash's daughter Rosanne said, "The song is about the transformative power of love and that's what it has always meant to me and that's what it will always mean to the Cash children."[10]

Other accounts and uses

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In 2004, Merle Kilgore, who shared writing credit for the song with June Carter, proposed licensing the song for a hemorrhoid cream commercial. When performing the song live, Kilgore would often "mock dedicate" the song to the "makers of Preparation H".[11] However, June's heirs were not of a like mind, and they refused to allow the song to be licensed for the ad.

In her 2007 autobiography, Cash's first wife, Vivian, wrote: "One day in early 1963, while gardening in the yard, Johnny told me about a song he had just written with Merle Kilgore and Curly [Lewis] while out fishing on Lake Casitas. 'I'm gonna give June half credit on a song I just wrote,' Johnny said. 'It's called "Ring of Fire."' 'Why?' I asked, wiping dirt from my hands. The mere mention of her name annoyed me. I was sick of hearing about her. 'She needs the money,' he said, avoiding my stare. 'And I feel sorry for her.'" Vivian also noted: "To this day, it confounds me to hear the elaborate details June told of writing that song for Johnny. She didn't write that song any more than I did. The truth is, Johnny wrote that song, while pilled up and drunk, about a certain private female body part. All those years of her claiming she wrote it herself, and she probably never knew what the song was really about."[12]

Chart performance

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Johnny Cash version

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Chart (1963–68) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles[13] 1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[14] 17
German Singles Chart 27
Swiss Singles Chart 77

Eric Burdon and the Animals version

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Chart (1969) Peak
position
Australian Single Chart[15] 10
Dutch Charts[15] 4
German Singles Chart[15] 24
South Africa (Springbok)[16] 6
UK Singles Chart[15] 35

Sandy Kelly & Johnny Cash version

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Chart (1990) Peak
position
Ireland (IRMA)[17] 21

Social Distortion version

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Chart (1990) Peak
position
US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[18] 25

Alan Jackson version

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Chart (2010) Peak
position
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[19] 45

Certifications

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[20] Platinum 600,000‡
United States (RIAA)[21]
Mastertone 		Gold 500,000*

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Legacy

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Numerous cover versions of "Ring of Fire" have been produced, the most commercially successful version being by Eric Burdon & the Animals. Their version was recorded at the end of 1968, and made the top 40 in four countries.[15] In 1970, Ray Charles released a version on his album Love Country Style.[22] In late 1974, the Eric Burdon Band released a hard rock version. Wall of Voodoo debuted with a cover of the song on their self-titled 1980 EP and featured a pulsing synthesizer. A rock version by Blondie appears in the 1980 film Roadie. Dwight Yoakam covered it on his debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.[23] Punk rock band Social Distortion covered it on their 1990 self-titled LP. In 1991, Frank Zappa released a reggae-style live version on the album The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life, after claiming to have met Johnny Cash in the elevator before the show and inviting him to perform the song with his band that night. Cash did not follow through on the invitation, but the band played the song anyway. A cover of the song by Alan Jackson with guest vocals from Lee Ann Womack was released as a single on December 6, 2010. It served as the lead-off single to his 34 Number Ones compilation album, and peaked at #45 in the Hot Country Songs, becoming his first single to miss the top 40 since "Just Put a Ribbon in Your Hair" peaked at #51 in 2004.[24] It was his last single released by Arista Records. The ska band Swim Herschel Swim covered the song on their album Burn Swim Burn.[25][26] The English power metal band DragonForce recorded a cover as the closing track to the standard edition of their 2014 album, Maximum Overload. The Swedish rockabilly band The Go Getters recorded a cover on their 2017 album Love And Hate.[27]

Cash's version of "Ring of Fire" was never released as a single in the UK. However, in 1993 and 1994, it gained significant radio airplay in the UK after it was used in a popular television commercial for Levi's. In 2005, Liverpool FC fans began singing the song at matches during the run-up to that year's Champions League Final, and it has been a staple song for the team's fans ever since.[28]

Wall of Voodoo's cover version was featured in the 1981 avant-garde pornographic film Nightdreams.[29]

Since 2004, the Calgary Flames of the NHL have used the song as a victory song after every home win.[30]

References

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  1. ^ Snoddy, Glen (1972). "Nashville, The Recording Center" (PDF). Country Music Who's Who. Record World. Retrieved May 10, 2024.
  2. ^ Grein, Paul (September 24, 2010). "Chart Watch Extra: Songs From The Last Century". Nielsen Business Media. Yahoo! Music. Archived from the original on October 5, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  3. ^ "100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. June 1, 2014.
  4. ^ https://www.grammy.com/awards/hall-of-fame-award#r [bare URL]
  5. ^ "Obituary: Anita Carter". The poem was "Love's Ring Of Fire by Bob Johnston, according to Johnny Cash by Stephen Miller. The (London) Independent. August 4, 1999. Retrieved on March 23, 2007.
  6. ^ Miller, Stephen (March 10, 2003). Johnny Cash: The Life of an American Icon. Omnibus. p. 117. ISBN 9780711996267 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ "Ring of Fire". RollingStone.com. December 9, 2004. Retrieved on March 23, 2007.
  8. ^ D'Ambrosio, A. (2009). A Heartbeat and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears. New York: Nation Books. p. 153. ISBN 9781568586076.
  9. ^ Johnny Cash interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
  10. ^ "Cash family blocks haemorrhoid ad". BBC.com. February 18, 2004. Retrieved on March 23, 2007.
  11. ^ "Cash Family Draws Line Around 'Ring of Fire'". Fox News. March 25, 2015. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
  12. ^ Cash, Vivian; Sharpsteen, Ann (September 4, 2007). I Walked The Line: My Life with Johnny. Scribner. ISBN 978-1-4165-3862-2.
  13. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944–2006 (2nd ed.). Record Research. p. 75.
  14. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 111.
  15. ^ a b c d e The Animals chart entries, Tsort.info.
  16. ^ "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  17. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Ring of Fire". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
  18. ^ "Social Distortion Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard.
  19. ^ "Alan Jackson Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
  20. ^ "British single certifications – Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  21. ^ "American ringtone certifications – Johnny Cash – Ring of Fire". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
  22. ^ Paulson, Dave; Leimkuehler, Matthew (August 19, 2021). "Country Music Hall of Fame 2021 inductees include Ray Charles, The Judds". The Tennessean.
  23. ^ Paula J. Bishop and Jada E. Watson, Whose Country Music? (2022), p. 169.
  24. ^ Alan Jackson USA chart history, Billboard.com. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  25. ^ Vice, Jeff (August 26, 1991). "LOVE WAS ON THE LAM AT RAM SLAM SHOW". Deseret News.
  26. ^ "Swim Herschel Swim – Ring O Fire". YouTube. November 23, 2009. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
  27. ^ "Spotify". Spotify.
  28. ^ "Why do Liverpool fans sing 'Ring of Fire'? Champions League chant explained | Goal.com". www.goal.com.
  29. ^ ""Nightdreams": Filmmaker Rinse Dream's visionary and surreal first foray into the world of X-rated adult films". Nightflight.com.
  30. ^ "Ring of Fire". October 10, 2018.
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