Johnny Cash → Shel Silverstein

Before Johnny Cash ever sang "A Boy Named Sue," who wrote it and cut the first recording of it himself?Shel Silversteinlearned

Shel Silverstein

A Boy Named Sue · 1969 · via Johnny Cash

Shel Silverstein wrote it and put it on record himself in 1969, so this is the song in its writer's own voice. Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs picked it up that same year, which tells you it didn't stay his for long.