The song was originally recorded by June's sister, Anita Carter, on her Mercury Records album "Folk Songs Old and New" (1963) as "(Love's) Ring of Fire". Mercury released Anita's version as a single and it was a featured "pick hit" in "Billboard" magazine. After hearing Anita's version, Cash claimed he had a dream where he heard the song accompanied by "Mexican horns". Cash said, "[...] I'll give you about five or six more months, and if you don't hit with it, I'm gonna record it the way I feel it." Cash noted that adding trumpets was a change to his basic sound.