My Top 25 Johnny Cash Songs: Remember the Alamo (#11)

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What can you say about Johnny Cash? A great songwriter, a legendary singer, revered in country, rockabilly, rock, and gospel, and an American popular culture icon. People who have no clue about any of his music still know his name...and he's been gone for nearly 13 years. Here's another one of my favorite Johnny Cash tunes. #11: Remember the Alamo Cash was good friends with Johnny Horton, who became known for his "historical" ballads (such as "Sink the Bismarck" and his most famous song, "The Battle of New Orleans"). Cash could do that, too, as this song demonstrates. Cash didn't write this; and, in fact, he didn't do the best-known version. This was a folk song that was popularized by the Kingston Trio before Cash recorded it. Others have recorded it (including Donovan, no less!), but Cash's version -- which draws from the first recording of the song, by Tex Ritter in 1956 -- was the first that I heard and the one that sticks with me. The song tells about the brave men at the Alamo, grossly outnumbered, who held out in a Catholic mission building against the advancing Mexican army in the battle for Texas independence in 1836. It includes a personalization of the cost of war with the final verse, which details "a young scout" to tell the love of one of the dead soldiers, "grieve not, little darling, my dying if Texas is sovereign and free." The video below shows Cash singing the song at the Alamo, and this version is devoid of the backing vocals on the original recording. That makes it even more powerful to me. Remember the Alamo Written by Jane Bowers From Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash, 1963 Here's the video of Cash singing the song at the Alamo: