Ring of Fire

Merle Kilgore · June Carter Cash · Country · Folk

Ring of Fire chord chart in G

About

The tune

"Ring of Fire" was written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore. Its original recording was made by Anita Carter in 1962 and released on the album Folk Songs Old and New on the Mercury label. In 1963 Johnny Cash popularized the song, and his version reached No. 1 on the Billboard country chart, where it stayed for seven weeks. Cash's recording came the year after Anita Carter's, so the song had already been issued once before it became a country number one. The song is also listed under the alternative title Love's Ring of Fire. In 1999 the original recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

What the song is about

The lyrics compare the passions of love to a ring of fire, and the narrator describes being burned by them. The song ends without resolution. Rosanne Cash, Johnny Cash's daughter, has said that the song is about the transformative power of love, a reading that sits alongside the image of pain and burning in the lyrics.

Facts

Music: Merle Kilgore, June Carter Cash
Original key: G

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