62 Years Ago, Johnny Cash Landed an Unprecedented No. 1 With a Career-Defining Album that Set Multiple Chart Records

On April 27, 1964, Johnny Cash was at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart with Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash. The album spent a total of 14 weeks. The compilation album was Cash’s first No. 1. It was slo the first in his discography to receive Gold certification from the RIAA. Additionally, it was the first LP to contain one of his biggest all-time hits. The album was significant on another level as well. It was the first to reach the peak of the Top Country Albums chart.

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Billboard didn’t start tracking albums until the 1960s. The first iteration of the current Top Country Albums chart made its debut on January 11, 1964. Cash’s Ring of Fire compilation was at No. 1 that week.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1959, Johnny Cash Played His First Concert Outside the United States, Cementing His International Star Status]

It spent a single week there before being dethroned by Ray Price’s Night Life. Buck Owens Sings Tommy Collins came next, spending two weeks at the top. Then, Ring of Fire returned to the peak position, where it stayed for 13 consecutive weeks. This set the record for longest run at No. 1. That record stood until November 1968, when Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman started its 20-week run.

Johnny Cash Made History with a Compilation

Johnny Cash didn’t need to write new songs or head to the studio to record Ring of Fire. Instead, Columbia Records compiled the 12-track collection from singles and an EP that he released in his first four years with the label.

This was the first time many of these songs had been issued on a full-length album. The track “I Still Miss Someone” appeared on The Fabulous Johnny Cash in 1968. Three songs–“Forty Shades of Green,” “The Rebel–Johnny Yuma,” and “Remember the Alamo”–appeared on the 1959 EP Johnny Cash Sings “The Rebel–Johnny Yuma.” The rest had only been singles or B-sides.

Owning all of these songs on one LP was surely a draw for fans at the time. However, the album’s title track was the driving force behind its success. It had spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart in 1963 and remains Cash’s biggest hit.

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