A Boy Named Sue

In 1969, Johnny Cash and his wife, June, threw a party at their house in Hendersonville, Tennessee, a “guitar pull,” where guests passed around a guitar and tried out new songs.

- KIMBERLY ELKINS

Shel Silverstein, a songwriter better known as a humorist and children’s author, played “A Boy Named Sue.” The story goes that the song was inspired by a male friend of Silverstein’s with a feminine name: Jean Shepherd, screenwriter of the film A Christmas Story.