Johnny Cash - The Essential Johnny Cash

The Essential Johnny Cash is a compilation album by American country singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, originally released in February 2002 via Columbia Records.

This compilation album was compiled to commemorate Johnny Cash's 70th birthday.

The double album concentrates mainly on Cash's first fifteen years as a recording artist with Sun Records and Columbia Records, and contains only eight post-1970 selections, and no selections from Cash's work with Rick Rubin for American Recordings: Cash's final hit single, the cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt", was released ten months after the release of this album.

As a testimony to Cash's wide sphere of influence on country, rock, and other modern music, and his wide fan base, the liner notes feature testimonials and 70th birthday greetings from a wide array of artists; from friends and collaborators like Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Petty, ex-stepson-in-law Nick Lowe, and wife June Carter Cash, and also from Keith Richards, Elvis Costello, Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan of Slipknot, Metallica's Kirk Hammett, and Henry Rollins.

This double album is a 2016 reissue on black vinyl, pressed in Europe via Columbia Records.