Shortly after serving as a captain in the U.S. Army and earning a master’s degree at Oxford University, Kris Kristofferson was living in a run-down tenement in Nashville, Tennessee, and working as a janitor for Columbia Records when he wrote one of his biggest hits. At the time, Kristofferson turned down a higher rank in the military to pursue a career as a songwriter.
Before “Sunday Morning Coming Down” made its way to Johnny Cash, it was first recorded first by Ray Stevens. “Nobody had ever put that much money and effort into recording one of my songs,” said Kristofferson in 2009. “I remember the first time I heard it – he’s a wonderful singer – I had to leave the publishing house and I just sat on the steps and wept because it was such a beautiful thing.”
Stevens added “He [Kristofferson] was very talented, very smart, and right on time with his style. A lot of people since then have copied those songs that he put out so at this point in time it doesn’t seem all that different. It still is of course. There are very few writers who get that spark at the right time.”
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[RELATED: 10 Songs You Didn’t Know Johnny Cash Wrote for Other Artists]
In Flight
Though Stevens had a first crack at the song, Kristofferson also had Cash in mind to record it. A trained pilot in the military, Kristofferson also worked as a commercial helicopter pilot in Nashville and, according to legend, flew his National Guard helicopter to Cash’s home to hand deliver a demo tape of the sobering “Sunday Morning Coming Down.”
“I knew John before then,” said Kristofferson in 2008. “I’d been his janitor at the recording studio, and I’d pitched him every song I ever wrote, so he knew who I was. But it was still kind of an invasion of privacy that I wouldn’t recommend.”
Kristofferson added, “To be honest, I don’t think he was there. He had a whole story about me getting out of the helicopter with a tape in one hand and a beer in the other.”
The Hangover
The song was written about a hangover after a long Saturday night and coming down from it on a Sunday after. All the lows and loneliness of the morning come to the surface within the lyrics.
Well, I woke up Sunday mornin’
No way to hold my head that didn’t hurt
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad
So I had one more for dessert
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt
Washed my face, combed my hair
Stumbled down the stairs to meet the day
In the park I saw a daddy
With a laughin’ little girl who he was swingin’
And I stopped beside a Sunday school
Listened to the song they were singin’Then I headed back for home
Somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin’
And it took back to somеthing
That I lost somehow somewherе along the way
On the Sunday mornin’ sidewalk
Wishin’, Lord, that I was stoned
‘Cause there’s somethin’ in a Sunday
Makes a body feel alone
[RELATED: 5 Songs You Didn’t Know Kris Kristofferson Wrote for Other Artists]
‘The Johnny Cash Show’
“Sunday Morning Coming Down” was released on Cash’s 35th release The Johnny Cash Show in 1970 and went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It marked the first Country No. 1 for Kristofferson as a songwriter and shifted the trajectory of his career.
“I’m just real grateful for that song because it opened up a whole a lot doors for me,” said Kristofferson of his hit in 2013. “So many people that I admired, admired it,” “Actually, it was the song that allowed me to quit working for a living.”
In 1970, Kristofferson also recorded the song on his namesake debut album.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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