"Girl in Saskatoon"
Single by Johnny Cash
from the album Heart of Cash
A-side"Girl in Saskatoon"
"Locomotive Man"
Released1960 (1960)
GenreCountry, pop
Length2:12
LabelColumbia 4-41920
Songwriter(s)Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton[1][2]
Johnny Cash singles chronology
"Mean-Eyed Cat"
(1960)		 "Girl in Saskatoon"
(1960)		 "Oh Lonesome Me"
(1960)
Audio
"Girl in Saskatoon" on YouTube

"Girl in Saskatoon" is a song co-written by Johnny Cash with Johnny Horton[2] and originally recorded by Cash for Columbia.

It was released as a single (Columbia 4-41920, with "Locomotive Man" on the opposite side).[3][4][5][6] in December 1960,[3][6] the same month Sun Records released "Oh, Lonesome Me" / "Life Goes On" (Sun 355).[7]

U.S. Billboard picked the song "Girl in Saskatoon" as one of the "Spotlight winners of the week", giving it four stars that corresponded to a "very strong sales potential". The review called the song "another fine folkish effort by Cash" and continued:

It has the quality of one of those old Robert Service poems about the Far North. Solid chanting and it can go.[8]

Nevertheless, the song didn't chart on Billboard at all:

A couple of weeks after Horton's death, Cash and crew recorded "Girl in Saskatoon," a song co-written by Cash and Horton. Both that song and another recorded at the session, “Locomotive Man,” were released as singles. Although promoted heavily by Columbia, neither entered the charts, but songs from his Sun days continued to do so.

— C. Eric Banister. Johnny Cash FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Man in Black[9]

On the Cash Box country singles chart, "Girl in Saskatoon" reached number 25 during its nine weeks stay.[10]

Later the song was included on Johnny Cash's albums "Heart of Cash" (1968) & "More of Old Golden Throat" (1969).

Background

By the time Cash returned to the road on March 4[, 1960,] in Winnipeg, he had a song idea, albeit a slim one—a story about a guy longing to get home to the girl of his dreams in Saskatoon, somewhat the reverse of "Ballad of a Teenage Queen." He figured he needed to get back on the pop charts, and "The Girl in Saskatoon," which he cowrote with Horton, was certainly closer to a teen pop song than anything he had recorded since leaving Sun.

— Robert Hilburn. Johnny Cash: The Life[11]

John M. Alexander writes in his book The Man in Song: A Discographic Biography of Johnny Cash:

"Girl in Saskatoon" is another exceptional collaboration between Cash and Horton. It's unfortunate that it did not find a wider audience. It was originally released as a single in 1960, but failed to chart. It's a breezy retro ballad wherein the singer follows the girl he's in love with all the way to Saskatoon, Canada, where he ultimately finds her and weds her. And, despite the cold temperatures, he "found eternal spring with the girl in Saskatoon." An interesting side note is that while performing in Saskatoon in 1961, Cash selected a girl from the audience named Alexandra Wiwcharuk to sing the song to. She was a local beauty queen who dreamed of becoming a stewardess. Tragically, a few months later, the young woman was found murdered on the banks of the [South] Saskatchewan River. The story goes that once Cash heard this news he never sang the song again.[12]

Track listing

7" single (Columbia 4-41920,[1] 1967)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Girl in Saskatoon"J. Cash, J. Horton2:12
2."Locomotive Man"J. Cash2:49

References

  1. 1 2 "Johnny Cash - Girl In Saskatoon | Releases". Discogs. 1960. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  2. 1 2 John L. Smith (1 January 1999). Another Song to Sing: The Recorded Repertoire of Johnny Cash. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-3629-7.
  3. 1 2 The Johnny Cash Record Catalog. Greenwood Publishing Group. 1994. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-0-313-29506-5.
  4. ↑ Steve Turner (1 November 2005). The man called Cash: the life, love, and faith of an American legend. Thomas Nelson Inc. p. 266. ISBN 978-0-8499-0815-6.
  5. ↑ Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (23 May 1970). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 1–. ISSN 0006-2510. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
    Standard Catalog of American Records, 1950-1975. Krause Publications. 2000. ISBN 978-0-87341-934-5.
    Tim Neely (1 August 2002). Goldmine Standard Catalog of American Records: 1950-1975. Krause Publications. ISBN 978-0-87349-471-7.
    Tim Neely (31 August 2006). Goldmine Standard Catalog of American Records: 1950-1975. Krause Publications. ISBN 9780896893078.
  6. 1 2 John L. Smith (1 January 1985). The Johnny Cash Discography. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-24654-8.
  7. ↑ Peter Lewry (2001). I've Been Everywhere: A Johnny Cash Chronicle. Helter Skelter. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-900924-22-1. Another month when Sun and Columbia release singles at the same time -- "Oh, Lonesome Me"/"Life Goes On" (Sun 355) and "Locomotive Man"/"Girl in Saskatoon" (Columbia 4-41920).
  8. ↑ Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (19 December 1960). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 29–. ISSN 0006-2510. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  9. ↑ C. Eric Banister (1 August 2014). Johnny Cash FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Man in Black. Backbeat. pp. 138–. ISBN 978-1-61713-609-2.
    C. Eric Banister (1 August 2014). Johnny Cash FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Man in Black. Backbeat Books. pp. 123–. ISBN 978-1-61713-608-5.
  10. ↑ George Albert (1 January 1984). The Cash Box Country Singles Charts, 1958-1982. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-1685-5.
  11. ↑ Robert Hilburn (31 October 2013). Johnny Cash: The Life. Orion. pp. 148–. ISBN 978-0-297-86658-9.
  12. ↑ John M. Alexander (10 April 2018). The Man in Song: A Discographic Biography of Johnny Cash. University of Arkansas Press. pp. 211–. ISBN 978-1-68226-051-7.


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