"I Walk The Line" by Johnny Cash

Not only did Johnny Cash walk the line he talked the talk and walked the walk... His death, in September 2003, wasn't the end of his career by a long-shot; this day in 2010 marked the release of American VI: Ain't No Grave on what would have been his 78th birthday.*

Cash released I Walk the Line in May 1956, and it would be one of the songs** most closely associated with him; he's seen here performing it on Ranch Party (which was co-hosted by Tex Ritter) in 1958, aged just 23. The song would also lend its title to a pair of movies associated with Cash's life and career - the first, in 1970, starring Gregory Peck and Tuesday Weld, was not about Cash in any way but its soundtrack was exclusively Cash's work; the second, a 2005 biopic entitled Walk the Line, starred Joaquin Phoenix as Cash, Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, and was directed by James Mangold.

*Making this his would-be 79th birthday, natch...
**The other being 1963's Ring of Fire which, unlike I Walk the Line, was co-written with his wife, June Carter, and Merle Kilgore.
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