On 29 July 1968, Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" was in the midst of a four-week run at number one on the Hot Country Songs chart, more than a decade after he first wrote and recorded it. Cash originally composed the song while serving in the US Air Force in Germany, after watching the 1951 film "Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison" and imagining a hardened criminal narrator, giving rise to the famous line "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die." The version that topped the charts in 1968 was recorded live at Folsom Prison itself, forming part of his celebrated live album and cementing the song's place as one of his signature hits.

The track's success extended beyond country music, reaching number 32 on the Hot 100 and winning a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male, but it also landed Cash in legal trouble. Songwriter Gordon Jenkins sued him for plagiarism, alleging that Cash had borrowed the melody and lyrics from his own 1953 song "Crescent City Blues." Cash settled out of court for roughly $75,000, though Jenkins was never credited as a co-writer on any released version of "Folsom Prison Blues."