The Johnny Cash Song "A Boy Named Sue" — TodayIFoundOut
The Johnny Cash song “A Boy Named Sue” was written by Shel Silverstein.
The song was originally inspired by a friend of Silverstein’s, Jean Shepherd (noted writer,
actor, radio personality, and humorist, who, among other things, co-wrote and narrated
the holiday classic The Christmas Story film, partially based on his childhood).
Jean had often been teased and picked on as a child for his somewhat effeminate name and
was quoted as saying because of it, “I fist-fought my way through every grade in school.”
As to why Silverstein picked “Sue”, it is thought that it was after famed attorney
Sue Hicks who was named after his mother who died from complications due to child birth
a few days after giving birth to Hicks.
Hicks is most famous for his part in the 1925 Scopes Trial.
For those unfamiliar, John T. Scopes was a teacher in Tennessee who broke Tennessee State
law by teaching evolution in his classroom.
In any event, at a party in 1969 held at Johnny Cash’s home, some of the guests decided
to have an impromptu “guitar pull”, which was where a group of people pass a guitar
around with each person playing and singing a song.
Among those in attendance at Johnny Cash’ party were Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and,
of course, Shel Silverstein.
Mitchell sang “Both Sides Now” and Dylan sang “Lay Lady Lay”.
When it was Silverstein’s turn, he sang “A Boy Named Sue”.
Cash was enamored with the song and so Silverstein wrote the lyrics down for him.
Cash’ wife, June, told him he should record the song in the upcoming show he was doing
at the San Quentin prison on February 24, 1969.
Cash was at first resistant to recording it at the show, as he didn’t think he’d have
time to learn it… and, indeed, he didn’t, but recorded it anyway.
As Cash later said, “I’d only sung it the first time the night
before and I read it off as I sang it.
I still didn’t know the words.
As a last resort, I pulled those lyrics out and laid them on the music stand, and when
it came time that I thought I was brave enough, I did the song.”
In fact, if you watch the filmed recording of him performing “A Boy Named Sue” during
that concert, you can see Cash is reading the lyrics as he sings, almost for the entire
song.
As he really liked “A Boy Named Sue” and the inmates had responded well to it, Cash
convinced Columbia Records, after cleaning up the lyrics a bit to be more radio friendly,
to release the song as a single.
Up to this point, Cash had previously seen quite a bit of success, but had never had
a record crack the top 10 in the Billboard’s Hot 100 (in fact, Cash still holds the record
for most consecutive songs that charted on the Top 100 without cracking the top 10- at
36 songs).
“A Boy Named Sue” changed all that, rocketing to #2 on the Hot 100 list and staying there
for 3 weeks.
It also hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard’s Hot Country Singles.
Bonus Facts: • While Shel Silverstein is today best known
for his children’s poem books such as “Where the Sidewalk Ends”, before that he was a
noted song writer and longtime writer/cartoonist for Playboy magazine (from 1957 through much
of the 1970s.)
Silverstein got his start as a professional cartoonist when he was drafted into the army
in 1953 and was published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes.
After the war, he got a job as a hot dog seller, primarily working Cubs and White Sox games.
During this time, he also continued to submit his cartoons to various magazines and his
career blossomed from there.
• There is a sequel of sorts to “A Boy Named Sue”, written by Shel Silverstein
from the perspective of the father of Sue, called “The Father of a Boy Named Sue”.
Not to completely spoil the ending, but let’s just say the last few verses more reflect
Silverstein’s adult themed work, rather than his children’s poems.