Johnny Cash Tops Chart After 37-Year Break



Johnny Cash's once-boisterous baritone takes on a fragile tone on 'V,' finished just weeks before his death in 2003.

NEW YORK (July 12) - He died nearly three years ago but Johnny Cash is back at the top of the charts - for the first time in 37 years.


The accomplishment, though, is muted slightly:


"American V: A Hundred Highways," a compilation of recordings by the Man in Black, reached No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart with a record-low sales figure for a first-place debut, 88,000 units, according to the Web site billboardradiomonitor.com.


The disc is Cash's first No. 1 album since 1969's "Johnny Cash at San Quentin."


It also tops Billboard's country-albums chart, pushing the Dixie Chicks ' "Taking the Long Way" to second place.


Cash died of complications from diabetes on Sept. 12, 2003, at age 71. June Carter, his wife of 35 years, died in May of the same year.