A 1956 Johnny Cash country single that pledges fidelity, built on a key-change pattern between verses and hummed inter-verse pitch references.
Composition
Johnny Cash wrote I Walk the Line while stationed with the U.S. Air Force in Germany, and recorded it for Sun Records in 1956. The song’s verses move through different keys, and Cash hums the new tonic between verses to find his pitch.
Reception
Released as a single in 1956, I Walk the Line reached number one on the U.S. country chart and the top twenty on the pop chart. It became the first of fifteen Cash singles to reach the country top spot.
Legacy
The song supplied the title for the 2005 biographical film about Cash starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. The Library of Congress added I Walk the Line to the National Recording Registry in 2018.