"You Tell Me" is a song originally recorded by Johnny Cash. It was written for him by Roy Orbison.[2][3]
"You Tell Me" | |
---|---|
Single by Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two | |
A-side | "You Tell Me" "Goodby Little Darlin'" |
Released | 1959 (1959) |
Genre | country |
Label | Sun 331 |
Songwriter(s) | Roy Orbison[1] |
The song was recorded by Cash at Sun Records in May 1958.[2][3] and released as a single (Sun 331, with "Goodby Little Darlin'" on the opposite side) in September 1959,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] when he already left the label for Columbia.
It was during this [May 1958 "The Story of Broken Heart"] session that Cash recorded “You Tell Me,” his first Roy Orbison penned ballad. Along with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins, legendary singer-songwriter Roy Orbison also started his career at Sun. He enjoyed his first charting single, “Ooby Dooby,” in 1956 while working at Sun. Cash and Orbison formed a lifelong friendship, and this song by Orbison started it all. It almost feels incomplete, however, and while Cash tries to inhabit it, it does remain simply a noble attempt in his canon of songs.
— John M. Alexander. The Man in Song: A Discographic Biography of Johnny Cash[2]
Goodbye Little You Tell Me Sun 331.
Goodbye Little Darling You Tell Me.
September
Sun records release “You Tell Me”/ “Goodbye, Little Darlin” (Sun 331) and it registers on the country charts for just four weeks with a high of #22.