Johnny Cash

The Original Sun Albums 1957-1964

CHARLY. CD Happy 60th birthday to Cash’s hot and blue guitar. When his 1957 debut album …With His Hot And Blue Guitar came out, Johnny Cash was already a singles star courtesy of Cry! Cry! Cry!, Folsom Prison Blues and I Walk The Line. Long-players, however, were still less than a decade new. Sam Phillips wasn’t alone in underestimating the format’s future, so Cash’s Sun albums were bonus money-spinners, recycling current and past hits alongside whatever standards and gospel songs had been reworked enough to justify inclusion. Even his final Sun album, 1964’s Original Sun Sound Of…, included mid-’50s recordings, but that lean Tennessee Two ‘boom-chikkaboom’ rockabilly chug hadn’t, and still hasn’t, dated. This gorgeous box – a 12-inch hardback book with seven original albums, artwork and sleevenotes, in-depth essays and a final CD of alternative takes – captures the seeds of an actual legend. With creative editing it also produces a playlist of timeless brilliance.