Why Columbia Records Dropped Johnny Cash After 26 Years
With a legacy like his, it is hard to imagine any record label would willingly drop Johnny Cash. Yet, that is what happened between Cash and Columbia Records after 26 years of a partnership. Cash had been with Columbia since 1958 when they lured him away from his first record label, Sun Records, with a very lucrative contract.
With Colombia, Cash recorded eight No. 1 albums and released hits such as “Ring of Fire” and “Folsom Prison Blues.” However, by 1986, things had changed. The story told over the years says that Cash found out that Columbia dropped him by reading it in the local newspaper on July 15, 1986.
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Reportedly, things were going downhill for Cash in the ’80s and his songs weren’t performing as well as they used to. Cash felt it was the label’s fault and that they weren’t promoting him as much anymore, while the record label thought that Cash was just no longer selling well. His contract was up and Mercury Records offered him a large amount of money to switch over to them. Columbia couldn’t match it.
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Cash was supposed to announce the decision himself but as the story goes, a reporter from the Nashville Tennessean decided that he would break the story without authorization and it was then picked up by national newspapers. All around, it was a mess. Cash was with Mercury from 1986 until 1991, then moved to Rick Rubin’s American Recordings. Cash won a Grammy for Best Country Album for 1998’s Unchained, proving that his success was far from over. Before Cash died in 2003, he worked with Rubin to release several impressive cover songs including “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails and “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode. The video for “Hurt” also won a Grammy.
Remind Do you remember when the news was announced? Were you shocked at what happened between Cash and Columbia Records?
Kings Of Country
March 2022
From outlaws Willie & Waylon to the Man in Black, Johnny Cash, we have every tear in your beer covered
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