“Sea of Heartbreak” first became a hit in 1961, when Don Gibson took it all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.
It charted again eleven years later, when Kenny Price took it to #24.
…and again in 1989, when Ronnie McDowell took it to #39, marking three consecutive decades for with Top 40 country status for “Sea of Heartbreak.”
If only Johnny Cash had released it as a single when he recorded it for his 1996 Unchained album, “Sea of Heartbreak” might have charted for four consecutive decades.
He didn’t though, and the streak ended. But that didn’t stop Cash’s daughter Rosanne from taking a run at it herself in 2009.
Well, not exactly by herself. From Cash’s album, The List, here’s “Sea of Heartbreak” with Bruce Springsteen.
Rosanne and Bruce performed “Sea of Heartbreak” together just once, at Rosanne’s show in Durham, North Carolina in 2010. No recording circulates from that performance.
Sea of Heartbreak
Recorded: ?
Released: The List (2009)
First performed: April 15, 2010 (Durham, NC)
Last performed: April 15, 2010 (Durham, NC)
