"Boy Named Sue"
Single by Shel Silverstein
from the album Boy Named Sue (and His Other Country Songs)
B-side	"Somebody Stole My Rib"
Released	1969
Format	7" single
Label	RCA
Writer(s)	Shel Silverstein
Producer(s)	Chet Atkins, Felton Jarvis

"A Boy Named Sue" is a song written by Shel Silverstein that was made popular by Johnny Cash. Cash was at the height of his success when he recorded the song live at California's San Quentin State Prison at a concert on February 24, 1969. The concert was filmed by Granada Television for later television broadcast; Carl Perkins played guitar on the performance. The audio of the concert was later released on Cash's At San Quentin album. Cash also performed the song (with comical variations on the original performance) in December 1969 at Madison Square Garden. The song became Cash's biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and his only top ten single there, spending three weeks at No. 2 in 1969, held out of the top spot by "Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones. The track also topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts that same year and was certified Gold on August 14, 1969, by the RIAA.

Shel Silverstein's recording was released the same year as "Boy Named Sue", a single to the album Boy Named Sue (and His Other Country Songs), produced by Chet Atkins and Felton Jarvis.

The song tells the tale of a young man's quest for revenge on a father who abandoned him at three years of age and whose only contribution to his entire life was naming him Sue, commonly a feminine name, which results in the young man suffering from ridicule and harassment by everyone he meets in his travels. Because of this, Sue grows up tough, mean and smartens up very quickly, though he frequently relocates due to the shame his name gives him. Angered by the embarrassment and abuse that he endures in his life, he swears that he will find and kill his father for giving him "that awful name".

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