Funny Songs: A Boy Named Sue

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Hopefully you guessed this one would be here. I mean, when we talk songs that have a humorous tint to them, this one ranks right up there in terms of humor and popularity. Gotta include this one, and I did! So here it is. A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash I had three or four other Shel Silverstein songs on the list, including his brilliant “Three-Legged Man” (about a guy who is having an affair with the wife of “Peg Leg” Johnson, so he runs off with the woman and Johnson’s leg ) and “Bottomless Well” (about a guy who stumbles on an oasis in the Okeechobee Swamp and falls in love with a woman who is the “wife and daughter” of a vicious man). In the end, I whittled it down to two: this one and another one coming soon. This is one of Johnny Cash’s best-known songs, a big hit in country and pop. And, just to show you how things were back then, the 45 (even the album) had a “BEEEEEP” over the “S.O.B.” words. Cash even took to singing it live as “‘cause I’m the nuhhhhh that named you Sue.” (The remastered version of the album is unedited, as is the video performance linked below.) A comedian friend of mine also said it’s the best rap song in history. A Boy Named Sue Written by Shel Silverstein Recorded by Johnny Cash From Johnny Cash at San Quentin, 1969 My name is Sue! How do you do!