Karaoke Lounge

Karaoke songs in the style of American Icon Johnny Cash

Now that the American Idol season is over, let’s talk about an American Icon who has stood the test of time. Billboard describes Johnny Cash as “one of the most imposing and influential figures in post-World War II country music … And he was one of country music’s biggest stars of the ’50s and ’60s, scoring well over 100 hit singles”.

Born in Arkansas on February 26th, 1932, singer/songwriter Johnny Cash worked in the cotton fields as a boy and grew up surrounded by folk songs and hymns as part of family life.  He enlisted in the Air Force and served in Germany where he formed his first band.  Back in the States after service he moved to Memphis and worked as an appliance salesman while trying to break in to the music business (another example of a Crappy Job a star worked while trying to make it).

Although his first song Hey Porter, didn’t catch on, most all of his singles after that were hits (to only mention a few):

• Folsom Prison Blues
• I Walk the Line
• Don’t Take your Guns to Town
• I Got Stripes
• Ballad of a Teenage Queen
  

Listed as being active on Billboard for the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s, with over 100 hit singles, Cash’s I Walk the Line was the number one country single for six weeks.

In 1980, Cash was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (and was the youngest living musican to be so inducted).  Johnny Cash passed away September 12th, 2003 having sold more than 90 million records. In 2005 Fox Pictures released the bio-pic Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, the film was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, with Reese taking home the Oscar for Best Actress.

Johnny Cash songs are a pleasure to sing because they are singable, engaging stories that take us  to worlds that are sometimes familiar to us and sometimes foreign but still curiously captivating.  I have been quite happy to see  more karaoke songs in the style of Johnny Cash added to The KARAOKE Channel ONLINE in recent weeks.  Particularly the addition this week of his mega hits, I Walk The Line and Folsom Prison Blues.  I am so looking forward to hearing karaoke singers sing them.

Of course it helps if you’ve got a deep bass voice, but even if you don’t you can usually sing them an octave up.  Or use the Key Change feature (if available) to change the key up or down to let you sing the song in your range.  For example, you can change the key on Cash’s I Got Stripes. After loading the song into the Karaoke Player, click on the Key Change button on the player controls and select the number of semi-tones you would like to change the key to.

Also of interest, I Got Stripes, is currently one of the more than 250 free full length songs, so even if you don’t have a Star Membership you can still sing, record and share your full length performance of it! But do it now, the free songs are refreshed on a regular basis.

For a taste of karaoke recordings  of Johnny Cash songs, listen to the wonderfully talented curtio sing A Thing Called Love.  Or the extremely entertaining Danthe sing Orange Blossom Special. Or the unique vocal by stevieboy100be on I Got Stripes.

Hope to hear your version soon.  And if you do record your own version, why not add the link to it in the comments section here, so that others can enjoy listening to it too?

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