I fell for you like a child / Oh, but the fire went wild, wrote June Carter in “(Love’s) Ring of Fire, first recorded and released by her sister Anita Carter in 1962. Following an all-consuming love, the song, co-written with Carter’s distant cousin Merle Kilgore, went to No. 1 on the Country chart a year later when Johnny Cash released his version, “Ring of Fire,” with a few lyrical tweaks, set to mariachi horns that came to him in a dream.
“I didn’t want to fall in love with him, didn’t mean to fall in love with him,” said Carter in a previous recording featured in the 2024 Paramount+ documentary June. At the time, Carter was married to her second husband, Edwin “Rip” Nix, and Cash to his wife Vivian Liberto. “I was scared to death of him,” she added. “I wouldn’t even admit it to myself for a long time,” June said in archival interview footage included in the documentary. “I didn’t want to hurt anybody. I didn’t want to do anything that would hurt him or his family or my family.”
Eventually, Carter and Cash left their partners, in 1966 and 1967, respectively, and were married in 1968. A year before their marriage, they released their first collaborative album, Carryin’ On with Johnny Cash and June Carter, featuring their crossover hit ”Jackson.”
Along with the couple’s other collaborative albums and co-writes, June’s contribution to her husband’s catalog extended beyond “Ring of Fire,” with “Rosanna’s Going Wild,” “The Road to Kaintuck,” “Wings of Angels,” and more.
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[RELATED: 3 Songs You Didn’t Know June Carter Cash Wrote for Other Artists]
“The Matador” (1963)
Written by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash
Originally released in 1963 with the B-side “Still in Town,” Cash went to No. 2 on the Country chart with “The Matador,” which was later featured on his twenty-eighth album, Old Golden Throat, in 1968.
The crowd is waiting for the bullfight
Matador
My final fight the place is packed once more
Anita won’t throw me a rose this fight
The one she wears is not for me tonight
She’s watching now with her new love I know
Walk proud and slow
Be strong and sure and give the crowd their show
They want blood you know
You’re still their idol as you were before
Kill just one more
Remind Anita, you’re the greatest Matador
“Time and Time Again” (1964)
Written by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash
Cash’s “Time and Time Again” was first released as a single in October 1964 with the B-Side “It Ain’t Me, Babe” as the B-side, from his album It Ain’t Me, Babe. The song was later released on two compilation albums, More of Old Golden Throat, a collection of lesser-known tracks, many of which never made it onto Cash’s albums, and Johnny Cash: The Complete Columbia Album Collection from 2012.
I wish my heart was stone cause you’re hard on flesh and bone
But even if my heart was stone I couldn’t stand that long
Cause time and time again you’re gone with the wind
And even when you’re here I know you’re making plans to go
You come back and I take you back but you like the shifting sand
And like the sand you shift right through my hands
Time and time again I got you time and time again
“Happiness Is You” (1966)
Written by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash
The title track of Cash’s twenty-fourth album, which peaked at No. 10, “Happiness is You,” opens the album. Their lyrics play as a love song to one another—I know now my pot of gold is anywhere you are / My heart won’t miss you, my heart goes with you.
Way down the mountain I chased a moonbeam
On the beach I built sand castles too
My moonbeams faded my castles tumbled
All of this was meaningless ’cause happiness is you
No more chasing moonbeams or catching falling stars
I know now my pot of gold is anywhere you are
My heart won’t miss you my heart goes with you
Loneliness is emptiness but happiness is you
I tried to doubt you and live without you
Tried to deny but I love you like a do
But I realize now and I’ll admit it
You’ll always be a part of me cause happiness is you
“My Old Faded Rose” (1979)
Written by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash
Another compilation, Tall Man, from 1979, features a batch of Cash rarities and previously unreleased songs, including “Kleine Rosemarie” and “Besser So, Jenny-Jo,” which were recorded in German for that market. On the album is another song he wrote with June, “My Old Faded Rose,” a man’s reflection on a love he took for granted.
Way down the mountain I chased a moonbeam
On the beach I built sand castles too
My moonbeams faded my castles tumbled
All of this was meaningless ’cause happiness is you
No more chasing moonbeams or catching falling stars
I know now my pot of gold is anywhere you are
Photo: Moviestore/Shutterstock
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