Orange Blossom Special [Bonus Tracks]

1	Orange Blossom Special 3:10
2	Long Black Veil 3:10
3	It Ain't Me Babe 3:05
4	The Wall 2:12
5	Don't Think Twice, It's All Right 3:00
6	You Wild Colorado 1:49
7	Mama, You Been on My Mind 3:06
8	When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below) 2:40
9	All of God's Children Ain't Free 2:16
10	Danny Boy 5:13
11	Wildwood Flower 2:15
12	Amen 2:08
13	Engine 143 Bonus Track / Mono Version 3:35
14	(I'm Proud) The Baby Is Mine Bonus Track 2:33
15	Mama, You Been on My Mind Bonus Track / Earlier Version 2:55

Barnes & Noble

Johnny Cash has recorded more popular albums than 1965's Orange Blossom Special, but few are better. Despite the title, it's not one of his concept albums about railroading, though it makes as strong a statement as his more thematically centered collections. Orange Blossom Special reveals Cash's embrace of the upstart folksinger Bob Dylan in the form of three cover songs: "It Ain't Me Babe" becomes an attitude-rich duet with June Carter; the lilting, mid-tempo "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" features Luther Perkins's signature top-strings licks; and "Mama, You Been on My Mind" finds Cash with a swaggering tone. On an album with three Dylan songs, why not a song of social protest? "All God's Children Ain't Free" is a study in contrasts, its lilting, graceful swing and smooth, pop-styled female background voices juxtaposed against lyrics decrying all manner of injustice and prejudice. A tenderhearted reading of the Carter Family's "Wildwood Flower," a foreboding take on "Long Black Veil," an album-closing gospel celebration of "Amen," and the rambunctious, infectious title song are the tough choices to single out for praise on an album with no weaknesses. This is a folk/country/gospel masterpiece. David McGee

All Music Guide

Even if the best and most popular of the songs on this 1965 album are the ones most likely to show up on greatest-hits compilations ("The Long Black Veil," "Orange Blossom Special," "It Ain't Me Babe"), it certainly rates as one of Cash's finer non-greatest-hits releases. If for nothing else, it would have historical importance for the inclusion of three Bob Dylan covers, at a time when Dylan was just starting to get heavily covered by pop musicians (and not often covered by country ones). "It Ain't Me Babe," with duet vocals by June Carter, was the most notable of them, although hearing it these days, some may be taken aback by the mariachi horns. Ditto for "Mama, You Been on My Mind" (which Dylan himself had not released when Cash recorded it), where it's startling to hear Boots Randolph's yakety sax come in for a bit. "The Long Black Veil," though, is an ageless classic, and the title cut one of his best train-oriented songs. The rest of the album is respectable and diverse, if not as outstanding, including the stark Cash original "You Wild Colorado"; more duet vocals from Carter on the Johnny Horton cover "When It's Springtime in Alaska," a bouncy rendition of the Carter Family's "Wildwood Flower"; the spiritual "Amen"; and, less successfully, a sentimental reading of "Danny Boy." The 2002 CD reissue adds three bonus tracks that were previously unavailable in the United States (and had been included on the Bear Family box set The Man in Black: 1963-1969), among them an acoustic cover of A.P. Carter's "Engine 143" and a different version of "Mama, You Been on My Mind" (this time with mariachi horns!). Richie Unterberger