This morning’s selection is Johnny Cash’s huge novelty hit from 1976, “One Piece at a Time.”
Written by Nashville tunesmith Wayne Kemp, this song is based on a wonderful bit of urban folklore: the assembly line worker who builds his own automobile by taking parts home in his lunch box.
The Man in Black is usually remembered for dark, disquieting songs like “I Walk the Line” and “The Ballad of Ira Hayes,” but some of his greatest commercial successes came with funny novelty tunes including “A Boy Named Sue” and this one, which rose to number one on the Billboard Country chart. It’s easy to see why: the song is a whole lot of fun. Please enjoy.
This song is on the first cd in my car’s changer and probably gets played more than any other. Sure wish I could find the car in the pic!
When the song went #1, the record company had a car built (completely unlike this one, black sedan). Last I saw it was in a museum in Illinois, but if you ask me it has your name on it.
The Man in Black knew whereof he spoke; Johnny Cash actually worked for Cadillac on the assembly line for a few years in the very early ’50’s.
Like many who emigrated north from the hills and hollows of Appalachia, the lure of the money to be made was irresistible. But regimented factory life takes a special breed of human being, and he left in a year or two.
When the song was released, GM was appalled; a former employee validating inventory shrinkage as entertainment (!!!!) Alas, there was nothing they could do, so the song made its way to every shop bar jukebox along with “Take This Job and Shove It.”