I keep a close watch on this heart of mine

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.  

1956 : I Walk The Line - Johnny Cash

Another track I know but haven't listened to in years - I like it a lot more than I like most of Johnny's other stuff (except "Ring Of Fire", which you can't beat).  Thinking about it though, I have absolutely no idea what the song is about - I assume it's not about walking along some lines.

And having listened to all 2:45, I'm still not entirely sure.  It's a catchy number and whilst I can't say Johnny is really my sort of thing (although I enjoyed Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line more than I enjoyed Jamie Foxx in Ray) this is another proper piece of music which feels like it fed into a few different genres over the years.

Wikipedia tells me "the song's lyrics refer to marital fidelity, personal responsibility, and avoiding temptation in his first marriage to Vivian Liberto".  Unfortunately, it appears that the song brought him too much attention and temptation for him to resist, but his first marriage did last twelve years and his second marriage to June Carter lasted 35 years, so he's not a complete quitter.  Apparently the song has unique chord runs (which I sincerely doubt) inspired by playing some stuff backwards (not sure I believe that either) and it captures his "boom-chicka-boom" sound by Johnny putting a dollar bill in the neck of his guitar" (and I've no idea what that means).  It did pretty well commercially - 43 weeks in the US charts selling over 2 million copies and it sold 250,000 physical copies in the UK to be declared silver, but has since been declared gold on account of it's digital plays, so it really is a popular choice!

The covers listed in Wikipedia are a particularly odd bunch - Jaye P. Morgan (really?), Rodney Crowell (Cash's son-in-law), Halsey (I have at least heard of her), a couple of contestants from The Voice and American Idol and Tapio Rautavaara who made a Finnish language version and tried to pass it off as his own composition.  Doing some more research because there have to be some better known covers, I came up with The Everly Brothers, Leonard Nimoy (that's going to be very bad, isn't it?), Telly Savalas (ditto), Dolly Parton (I bet she gives it a good go), Glen Campbell (ditto) and Chris Isaak - not a great selection, but better than WIkipedia managed!

So, I can see that Johnny has a good case for the top spot - what other songs have we got from that year to challenge him?  Looking at the UK #1s from the year, Doris Day's "Que Sera Sera" feels like the most likely challenger although I'm sure Dean Martin's "Memories Are Made Of This" has a few fans as well.  Looking at the charts over the Atlantic, Elvis was very much the main man with "Blue Suede Shoes", "Hound Dog", "Don't Be Cruel", "Love Me Tender" and "Heartbreak Hotel" all being released in this year - it feels like any of them could challenge Johnny, but Elvis has never felt quite as big over here as he is over there (or maybe his breadth of quality tracks hurt him with people unable to pick a favourite).

I'm happy for Johnny to have it though - it's a classy track which has stood the test of time well.

1955 - Bill demands a recount
1957 - He was gonna turn up somewhere