{"id":215710,"date":"2025-09-10T14:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T14:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/215710\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T14:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T14:32:12","slug":"the-story-behind-the-only-song-roy-orbison-wrote-with-dear-friend-johnny-cash-in-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/215710\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story Behind the Only Song Roy Orbison Wrote With Dear Friend Johnny Cash in 1969"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1958, Johnny Cash<\/a> recorded \u201cYou Tell Me\u201d with the Tennessee Two at Sun Records in May of 1958. Written by friend\u00a0Roy Orbison<\/a>, it was one of Cash\u2019s final recordings with the label before moving to Columbia Records that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Released as a single in 1959 with the B-side cover of Gene Autry and Johnny Marvin\u2019s 1939 South of the Border song \u201cGoodbye, Little Darlin\u2019, Goodbye,\u201d \u201cYou Tell Me\u201d was a dialogue between two people at the end of a relationship.<\/p>\n

Cash and Orbison had met during the mid-1950s while Cash\u00a0was touring with\u00a0Elvis Presley<\/a>. Cash then helped Orbison get his career started by suggesting he talk to Sun Records\u2019 founder, Sam Phillips. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn late \u201955 or early \u201956, I was touring with Elvis when I met Roy in Texas,\u201d\u00a0recalled Cash<\/a>. \u201cI told him to get in touch with Sun Records if he wanted to be a recording artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since their earlier Sun Records days, Cash and Orbison remained close friends for more than three decades, until Orbison\u2019s death in 1988. \u201cIt was a particularly close friendship, too,\u201d said Cash<\/a>. \u201cWe became like brothers right from the start, and we stayed that way until the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

[RELATED: The Story Behind the Only Song Kris Kristofferson Ever Wrote for Roy Orbison and Never Recorded Himself]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Friends and Neighbors<\/p>\n

Both were even one-time neighbors in Henderson, Tennessee, and Cash was around during the tragedies in Orbison\u2019s life, including the death of his first wife, Claudette Frady, who inspired his 1964 hit \u201cOh, Pretty Woman<\/a>,\u201d in a motorcycle accident, and the loss of his two sons in a house fire in 1968. <\/p>\n

Cash later bought both the piece of land where Orbison\u2019s house once stood and planted an orchard tree in memory of his sons. Orbison was also there when members of Cash\u2019s family, including John Carter Cash, who was 4 at the time, were involved in a vehicle accident near his home in 1974. <\/p>\n

By the early \u201970s, the two had already collaborated on two songs<\/a>, and Orbison appeared on The Johnny Cash Show three times between 1969 and 1971. Cash also recorded Orbison\u2019s 1967 song, \u201cBest Friend,\u201d for his 1973 album\u00a0Any Old Wind That Blows, and in 1986, both appeared, along with\u00a0Carl Perkins\u00a0and Jerry Lee Lewis, in their final collaboration, the Sun Records tribute album\u00a0Class of \u201955: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming.<\/p>\n

\"\"American singer, guitarist, and musician Roy Orbison (1936-1988) performs on a television show in England circa 1965. (Photo by David Redfern\/Redferns)\u2018Hello, I\u2019m Johnny Cash\u2019<\/p>\n

Nearly two decades before their final work together, Cash also released the only song he would ever co-write with Orbison, \u201cSee Ruby Falls.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pulled from a phrase that was often painted on barn roofs in the south to direct visitors to an underground waterfall in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the signs inspired the two to write \u201cSee Ruby Fall.\u201d <\/p>\n

Named after the Chattanooga waterfall, the lyrics revolve around a girl named Ruby leaving a relationship to pursue a more exciting life\u00a0under the red light downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, I knew someday, Ruby would be leavin\u2019
That she wasn\u2019t happy living quietly, quietly
\u2018Cause she would get the bedroom look each mornin\u2019
And I felt Ruby pull away from me<\/p>\n

Yeah, so go downtown about nine o\u2019clock this evening
Walk under that red light and down the hall, down the hall
Look for the highest flyin\u2019 girl, that\u2019s Ruby
And if you wait your turn, you\u2019ll see Ruby fall<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let her know that you even know me
She\u2019ll be tryin\u2019 to forget it all
And don\u2019t tell me how is was tonight, tomorrow
\u2018Cause I don\u2019t want to see Ruby fall<\/p>\n

Once released on Cash\u2019s 1970 album,\u00a0Hello, I\u2019m Johnny Cash, \u201cSee Ruby Fall\u201d went to No. 4 on the Country chart. <\/p>\n

Photo: David Redfern\/Redferns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1958, Johnny Cash recorded \u201cYou Tell Me\u201d with the Tennessee Two at Sun Records in May of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":215711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,63151,975,96446,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-215710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-johnny-cash","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-roy-orbison","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115180493014994976","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}