The Johnny Cash Lovin’ Locomotive Man/I Got Stripe vinyl is a 7-inch single released on Sleazy Records (catalog SR 39), bringing together two early Columbia-era recordings that show Cash working in distinctly different registers within a few years of his career finding its footing.
Johnny Cash in the Early Columbia Years
By the late 1950s, Johnny Cash had already made his name at Sun Records and was building something more durable at Columbia. These two tracks come from that fertile early period at the label, when Cash was sharpening his voice as a songwriter and carving out space across country and pop charts simultaneously. He was not yet the monument he would become, but the craft was fully formed and the ambition was clear. Both sides here are worth understanding on their own terms rather than as footnotes.
What’s on the Johnny Cash Lovin’ Locomotive Man/I Got Stripe Vinyl
“I Got Stripes” is the stronger commercial entry. Released in July 1959 alongside the flood-narrative “Five Feet High and Rising,” it was Cash’s fourth Columbia single and a self-penned prison tale delivered with the kind of dry humor that made his storytelling feel lived-in rather than performed. It climbed into the Top Five on the country charts and crossed into the pop Top 50, a genuine crossover result for the format and the era. “Lovin’ Locomotive Man” is a quieter achievement. Cash recorded railroad material throughout his career, and this sits among that body of work as a minor but honest entry. It did not chart with the same force, but Billboard rated it four stars with a “Very Strong Sales Potential” designation, which is not nothing. The two cuts together give you a useful picture of Cash navigating different material with consistent conviction.
The Pressing and Why It Matters to Collectors
This is a Sleazy Records pressing on the standard 7-inch format, catalog number SR 39. Sleazy Records has put out reissue and licensed material aimed squarely at collectors who want physical access to recordings that otherwise circulate only through compilations or original pressings with prices to match. For someone building a Cash singles collection focused on the Columbia years, this is a practical and legitimate way to have these two cuts on wax without chasing down an original pressing. The pairing is also genuinely interesting. One side is a certified chart hit with a story people still know. The other is a curio with its own small history. That combination, on a single piece of vinyl, is exactly the kind of thing worth keeping in a collection.
Tracklist
1. LOVIN' LOCOMOTIVE MAN 2. I GOT STRIPES
