The Lonely Sunday That Turned Despair Into a Country Classic

In 1970, Kris Kristofferson was still struggling to establish himself as a singer and songwriter. Years earlier, he had written a deeply personal song about waking up alone, hungover, broke, and haunted by everything he had lost.

Kristofferson later described it as probably his most directly autobiographical song. The loneliness came from his own life at the time, including the loss of his family and the difficult years he spent trying to survive as a songwriter.

Then Johnny Cash recorded it.

When Cash performed the song on The Johnny Cash Show, television executives wanted him to change the controversial line about being “stoned.” Cash refused and sang Kristofferson’s original words on television.

The decision mattered. Cash’s version reached No. 1 on the Billboard country chart in October 1970 and won the CMA Song of the Year award.

For Kristofferson, the song became a breakthrough. What began as a brutally honest portrait of loneliness had finally found an audience—and helped announce the arrival of one of country music’s most important singer-songwriters.