Johnny Cash, also known as The Man in Black, was a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and last but not least, a legend. Cash was born on February 26, 1932, in Arkansas into a poor farming community; he later went on to join the Air Force in 1950. Upon his discharge, his music career began. He had many struggles and successes along the way and made many significant musical contributions to American Popular Music. Growing up Johnny Cash, whose name was actually J.R. Cash, spent much of his time working out on the family farm. He did not live an easy life so one way to escape all the hardship was music. Cash grew up hearing his mother’s folk and hymn ballads along with the working music coming from the people out in the fields. Cash began to write his own music at age twelve. His mother, seeing his love and gift for music, scraped up all the spare money they had for J.R. to take music lessons. However, after three …show more content…
Phillips gave in, but upon hearing their music he told them he liked their sound but not their gospel driven song choice and for them to come back when they had an original song ←that would appeal to a broader crowd. Shortly after this, the group began working on the song “Hey Porter,” which was written by Cash. When they went back to present for Philips, they also played another song, “Cry, Cry, Cry,” which he liked therefore signing Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two. In May 1955, “Hey Porter” was released and a short year later “Cry, Cry, Cry” peaked the BillBoard Charts at number fourteen.
Johnny Cash achieved true fame in 1956, when he wrote “I Walk the Line” which took over number one on the country music charts and sold over two million copies. A year later, Cash released his debut album, Johnny Cash with His Hot & Blue Guitar then followed that up with chart toppers including, “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” and “Ballad of a Teenage