The Definitive Version Series
Definitive version of “Sunday Morning Coming Down” by Alvin Youngblood Hart for the album Johnny’s Blues – A Tribute To Johnny Cash
Johnny’s Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash is a 2003 Canadian compilation album released by Northern Blues Music of blues-oriented songs made popular by Johnny Cash.
“Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” is a song written by Kris Kristofferson that was first recorded by Ray Stevens in 1969 before becoming a No.1 hit on the Billboard US Country chart for Johnny Cash.
Stevens’ version of the song reached No.55 on the Country Chart and No.81 on the Hot 100 pop chart in 1969.
In 2021 Rolling Stone Magazine listed the song at #476 on their “Top 500 Best Songs of All Time”.
The song was also recorded by Kristofferson himself on his 1970 self titled debut album.
In a 2013 interview, Kristofferson said the song:
“opened up a whole lot of doors for me. So many people that I admired, admired it. Actually, it was the song that allowed me to quit working for a living.”
In 2024, Rolling Stone ranked the song at #96 on its 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time ranking.
The biggest success for the song came from a Johnny Cash performance that had been recorded live at the Ryman Auditorium during a taping of his weekly television show The Johnny Cash Show.
Cash introduced the song with the following monologue:
“You know, not everyone who has been on ‘the bum’ wanted it that way. The Great Depression of the 30s set the feet of thousands of people, farmers, city workers, it set ’em to ridin’ the rails. My Daddy was one of those who hopped a freight train a couple of times to go and look for work. He wasn’t a bum. He was a hobo but he wasn’t a bum. I suppose all of us ‘been at one time or another a drifter at heart, and today like yesterday there’s many that are on that road headin’ out. Not searchin’ maybe for work, as much as for self-fulfillment, or understanding of their life, trying to find a meaning for their life. And they’re not hoppin’ freights much anymore. Instead they’re thumbin’ cars and diesel trucks along the highways from Maine to Mexico. And many who have drifted, including myself, have found themselves no closer to peace of mind than a dingy backroom, on some lonely Sunday morning, with it comin’ down all around you.”
Cash’s recording of the song would appear on the soundtrack LP The Johnny Cash Show the following year, as well as a single.
Cash’s version won the Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year in 1970 and hit #1 on the country chart.
