The 2 Songs Roy Orbison Wrote for Johnny Cash in 1959 and 1969

By the mid-1950s, Johnny Cash was touring with Elvis Presley when he first met Roy Orbison. It was Cash who also suggested Orbison talk to Sun Records’ founder, Sam Phillips, to get his career started. “In late ’55 or early ’56, I was touring with Elvis when I met Roy in Texas,” recalled Cash. “I told him to get in touch with Sun Records if he wanted to be a recording artist.”

Though Phillips said, “Well, Johnny Cash doesn’t run this operation, I do, thank you very much,” before hanging up on the young singer, Orbison eventually made his way into Sun with his first recording, “Oooby Dooby,” in 1956.

Cash and Orbison remained close friends for more than three decades after first meeting and were even one-time neighbors in Tennessee. When Orbison lost his two sons in a house fire in 1968 while he was on tour, Cash bought the piece of land where Orbison’s house once stood and planted an orchard tree in memory of his little boys and promised never to rebuild on the site. Just two years earlier, Orbison also lost his first wife, Claudette Frady, who inspired his 1964 hit “Oh, Pretty Woman,” in a motorcycle accident.

By the late ’60s, Orbison also started appearing on The Johnny Cash Show, which ran from 1969 through 1971, and even performed his 1964 hit “Pretty Paper” with Cash on the show.

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[RELATED: 7 Songs You Didn’t Know Roy Orbison Wrote for Other Artists]

In 1973, Cash recorded the Orbison-penned “Best Friend” on his 1973 album Any Old Wind That Blows, though he wasn’t the first to release it. Orbison first recorded and released the song, co-written with Bill Dees, for the 1967 Western The Fastest Guitar Alive. The film was the only acting role in Orbison’s career.

Orbison and Cash continued collaborating several more times, including being two parts of the 1986 collaborative album Class of ’55: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming, along with Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. The album honors some of the first artists who got their start at Sun Records and features two songs sung by Cash and one song, “Coming Home,” written and performed by Orbison. It was their final collaboration before Orbison passed away in 1988.

With a lifelong friendship that started in their Sun Records days, Orbison also wrote a few songs for Cash earlier in their careers. Here’s a look behind the two he wrote for Cash in 1959 and 1969.

“You Tell Me” (1959)

Written by Roy Orbison

Cash recorded “You Tell Me” with the Tennessee Two at Sun Records in May of 1958, one of his final recordings with the label before moving to Columbia Records that year. Released as a single in 1959 with the B-side cover of Gene Autry and Johnny Marvin’s 1939 South of the Border song “Goodbye, Little Darlin’, Goodbye,” “You Tell Me” was a back-and-forth conversation about the end of a relationship.

Tell me why she left me, I’ll tell you why I cried
Tell you why I stayed around, tell me why she lied
I’ll tell why my heart’s broken, tell me why she said goodbye
Tell me why she left me, I’ll tell you why I cried
You tell me, then I’ll tell you
I’ll tell you why I loved her, tell me why she said goodbye
Tell me why she left me, I’ll tell you why I cried

“See Ruby Fall” (1969)

Written by Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash

“See Ruby Falls” was a phrase often painted on barn roofs in the south, directing visitors to an underground waterfall in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The signs inspired Cash and Orbison to write “See Ruby Fall.” Released on Cash’s 1969 album Hello, I’m Johnny Cash, the song went to No. 4 on the Country chart. Though named after the Chattanooga waterfall, their lyrics revolved around a girl named Ruby leaving the singer for a more exciting life under the red light downtown. 

Well, I knew someday, Ruby would be leavin’
That she wasn’t happy living quietly, quietly
‘Cause she would get the bedroom look each mornin’
And I felt Ruby pull away from me

Yeah, so go downtown about nine o’clock this evening
Walk under that red light and down the hall, down the hall
Look for the highest flyin’ girl, that’s Ruby
And if you wait your turn, you’ll see Ruby fall

Photo: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images