The Legend of Johnny Cash by Johnny Cash (CD, Oct-2005, Hip-O Records)

The recently released "Legend of Johnny Cash" compilation is the first single-disc collection to cover the legendary Man In Black's entire career. While it would take literally a half-dozen CDs or more to cover every important piece of music Cash has made, this compilation offers the basics and is an excellent overview of his most important and classic work. The legendary Sun records hits, "Cry Cry Cry", "Hey Porter", "I Walk The Line" and "Folsum Prison Blues" are included here as well as "A Boy Named Sue", "Ring Of Fire" and "Highwayman" (his collaboration with Country legends Kris Kristoferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson). Also included is Johnny's cameo appearance from U2's 1993 "Zooropa" album, "The Wanderer" and to close out the disc, there are several tracks from his American Records series with producer Rick Rubin including the final hit "Hurt" (originally by Nine Inch Nails).
With that said, "the Legend of Johnny Cash" is an essential collection and offers an excellent brief history lesson of his most acclaimed work. For the few who have never heard of Johnny Cash, this CD is an excllent introduction to his music. For everyone else, this is probably the best collection of Cash music to date.