Ring of Fire

This was written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore. Kilgore wrote several other country hits, acted in a few movies, and became a manager for artists like Hank Williams. Kilgore was best man when Carter married Cash.

June Carter wrote the lyrics about her relationship with Johnny Cash. She felt being around Cash was like being in a "ring of fire." Cash was involved in drugs and had a very volatile lifestyle. When she wrote this, both June and Johnny were married, but they became singing partners and close friends. By 1967, Cash and Carter were single again and they got married in 1968. Johnny claimed that June saved his life by helping him get off drugs. June died in 2003 after 35 years of marriage to Johnny.

According to Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 Songs, June Carter wrote this song while driving around aimlessly one night, worried about Cash's wildman ways - and aware that she couldn't resist him. "There is no way to be in that kind of hell, no way to extinguish a flame that burns, burns, burns," she wrote. Not long after hearing June's sister Anita's take on the song, Cash had a dream that he was singing it with Mariachi horns. Cash's version became one of his biggest hits, and his marriage to June 4 years later helped save his life. The song was based on a poem Love's Ring Of Fire, and it was originally recorded in a more folksy manner by June Carter's sister, Anita, as "(Love's) Ring Of Fire." Cash held back on his single to give her version a chance to chart.