Johnny Cash's Forgotten 1990s Fast Food Chain Jingle

Sometimes it's difficult to conceive of the fact that two cultural icons interacted, let alone existed at the same time. Pablo Picasso and Ozzy Osbourne were working at the same time, as one comedian pointed out. And believe it or not, Johnny Cash and Taco Bell were both on our televisions at the same time. In the same commercial.

That's right. Johnny Cash performed a jingle for a Taco Bell commercial in 1992. "Where else are you gonna get so many choices with just a little Cash?" he asks during the spot, donning his signature black suit and wielding his guitar while a giant screen behind him flashes close-ups of bean and cheese burritos and hard-shell tacos. No, we're not kidding. Here, take a look.

Now, you may be asking yourself: How? Why? What exactly was going on in 1992 that allowed this instantly ironic collaboration to take place? By 1992, Johnny Cash was a living legend. He'd been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame 12 years prior. He was two years away from winning a Best Contemporary Folk Album Grammy for "American Recordings." And he knew food. Johnny Cash had a famous chili recipe, for goodness sake. So, in other words, it was the perfect moment to perform a hit jingle for an affordable fast-food menu from a titan of its own industry: Taco Bell.

Possibly the second most shocking thing about this ad, apart from the fact that it exists at all, are the prices of the value menu items it's promoting. "We're talking under a dollar!" Cash exclaims in the commercial. Prices like 59 cents, 79 cents, and 99 cents flash on the screen. What a time to be alive. But in the Taco Bell timeline, the Johnny Cash commercial hit while the Mexican-inspired chain was riding high. 

Taco Bell has taken some big swings in its time, like the 1980s-era Seafood Salad that is unlikely to return to menus. But some of those big swings worked. The value menu, which was introduced in 1990, was one of them, and was already bringing in the big bucks for the Bell when Cash signed on to sing about it. After Taco Bell began selling tacos, tostadas, and even burritos for as low as 59 cents, the chain's yearly earnings increased 25%.

Of course, Cash isn't the only iconic (and effective) Taco Bell ad campaign. "Yo querio Taco Bell," anyone? If you immediately pictured the Chihuahua responsible for uttering that phrase in Taco Bell commercials, congratulations. You're old. That four-legged icon named Gidget graced our small screens between 1997 and 2000 and became a legend of the TV commercial world, right next to Clara Peller of Wendy's iconic "Where's the beef?" ad and the Pillsbury Doughboy. Since then, Taco Bell has directed customers to "think outside the bun" and "live mas," both slogans that effortlessly entered the zeitgeist and cemented the restaurant's position as everyone's favorite Mexican-inspired fast-food chain.