Level: 2/3
Tuning: Standard

The biggest hit of Cash's career, "Ring Of Fire" was written by his wife June Carter and Merle Kilgore, and was released in 1963 on Columbia Records. The mariachi-style horns (Cash's idea) gave the record a unique flavor, and June added harmony vocals, along with her sisters and mother Maybelle Carter. The thumb plays a constant alternating bass throughout this key-of-A fingerpicking arrangement, and the guitar imitates the horn licks on treble strings. It's played with first-position, easy chords except for the up-the-neck E and D chords in the instrumental chorus. Notice how the alternating bass continues, on open bass strings, during that section.