The late Shel Silverstein was a superb musician, writer, and cartoonist gifted with a piercing sense of humor. He wrote many popular young people's books. Silverstein also crafted one of Johnny Cash's legendary signature songs, "A Boy Named Sue." Per Wide Open Country, Silverstein was inspired to write the song by his pal, Jean Shepherd, who wrote "A Christmas Story." Shepherd really disliked having a girl's name. Silverstein sensed there was a good song there, so he wrote one. A great one, as it happened.
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The song hit big for Cash, winning Grammys for Best Country Song and Best Male Country Vocal Performance, plus the CMA for Single of the Year, all in 1970. How did "A Boy Named Sue" actually come to be?
Shel Silverstein Was Onto Something When He Wrote 'A Boy Named Sue'
The Song Describes A Boy Angry At His Dad For Giving Him A Female Name
Finally, the dad explains that he gave his son a girl's name just to make him strong when people ridiculed him because of it. Guess it worked!
Mitch Myers, Silverstein's nephew, talked about the song's unique brand of evolution, per Songfacts: "In those days in Nashville, and for all the people that would visit, the most fun that anyone really could have would be to go over to someone's house and play music. And they would do what one would call a 'Guitar Pull,' where you grabbed a guitar and you played one of your new songs, then someone else next to you would grab it and do the same, and there were people like Johnny Cash or Joni Mitchell, people of that caliber in the room."
Silverstein sang "A Boy Named Sue" at one of these informal get-togethers. Cash's wife, June, took a shine to the song, thinking it would be ideal for her husband. Her judgement proved right.
Johnny Cash Sang And Recorded 'Sue' At San Quentin State Prison In 1969
Everything Just Fell Into Place
June Cash urged Johnny to take the song with him to the prison for his performance there. That brilliant, off-the-cuff, unrehearsed performance made history, In fact, Cash sang it again at the White House in April of 1970 when Richard Nixon was president.
Shel Silverstein also wrote another song as a sequel of sorts called "The Father Of The Boy Named Sue." But nothing could surpass his original gem!
