On This Day in 1976, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings Recorded a Pre-Highwaymen Hit for the Ages

On this day (July 6) in 1976, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings recorded a pair of duets for Cash’s 1978 album I’d Like to See You Again. They cut “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang,” which gave Cash his first top 10 hit since “One Piece at a Time” topped the chart in 1976, and “I Wish I Was Crazy Again.”

Cash released “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang” backed with “I Wish I Was Crazy Again” in May 1978. The A-side climbed to No. 2 on the Hot Country Songs chart. It was his first song to enter the top 10 in two years. His final solo hit, “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky,” reached No. 2 the next year. “I Wish I Was Crazy Again” entered the country chart in November 1979 and peaked at No. 22 in January 1980.

Cash didn’t write “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang,” but it fits perfectly alongside other prison songs in his catalog. The lyrics, penned by Hal Bynum and Dave Kirby, read like a letter from a prisoner to his parents. In the chorus, he tells them about the lessons he’s learning behind bars. Among those important revelations is that he’s not cut out to be a criminal and “there ain’t no good chain gang.”

Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings Recorded a Duets Album

“There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang” and “I Wish I Was Crazy Again” are the first singles that Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings recorded together.

[RELATED: The Rude Highwaymen Critique That Made Waylon Jennings Threaten To Burn a TV Reporter’s House Down]

They famously partnered with Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson for Highwayman in 1985, introducing one of country music’s greatest supergroups. Around the same time they recorded the debut Highwaymen album, they also recorded Heroes, an album of duets.

Many of the tracks on the LP are covers. Notably, they took on Bob Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings” and Kristofferson’s “Love Is the Way.” They released the Rodney Crowell-penned “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and Tom T. Hall’s “Ballad of Forty Dollars” as singles. They peaked at No. 40 and No. 50, respectively.

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