Choice Hotels and Johnny Cash 03

Choice Hotels and Johnny Cash 01
Choice Hotels and Johnny Cash 02

This Choice Hotels/Johnny Cash match up shows a family of 4 travelling the country. This one is interesteing because the focus is less on the cities and more on what they are doing at the locations. There is also more "acting" in this one, as the family members "talk" to one another during the song. As such, it is more of a departure from the Johnny Cash version than we've seen in the past.

We've been to Portland
Monterrey
Fresno on the way

Pandas monkeys at the zoo
Taking home a kangroo

Comfort Inn feels like home
Morning, Lisa.
Morning, Joan!

Tasty waffles hey look
Finally something I can cook

County Fare
Salt Lake
Gotta love those funnel cakes

Santa Fe
Grandma's Place
Nice to see her smiling face

Johnny's voice:

I've been everywhere man
I've been every where

Choice Hotels voiceover:

This summer at Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn or
Clarion Hotels, Stay 3 separate times and earn a free $50 gas card
Just make you reservations through choicehotels.com or 800-4Choice

Johnny's voice:

I've been every where

Choice Hotels voiceover:

Choice Hotels. We'll see you there.

Choice Hotels and Johnny Cash 02

For the past few years, Choice Hotels has been "celebrating" the memory of Johnny Cash. For awhile, they used Johnny's rendition of "I've been Everywhere" to promote their various hotel chains. A couple years ago, they began writing their own lyrics.

In February, I posted the transcript from a commercial featuring an older couple singing about their travels across the USA.

Here are the lyrics for the new commercial featuring what appears to be a 20-something couple travelling the USA.

We've been to Dayton

Green Bay

Drive across the USA

Kansas City

Passin' through

Stoppin' for some Bar-B-Que

Need a place to spend the night

Sleep Inn always gets it right

Internet high speed

Thirty emails left to read

66 Detour

Let's just take a couple more

San Jose

had our fun

One last chance

to catch some sun

Johnny's Voice:

I've been every where man

I've been every where

Choice Hotels Voice Over:

This summer at Sleep Inn, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality Inn, or Clarion hotels

Stay 3 separate times and earn a free $50 gas card

Just make your reservations at choicehotels.com or 800-4choice

Choice Hotels. We'll see you there.

Johnny's Voice:

I've been every where

Choice Hotels and Johnny Cash

A couple years ago Choice Hotels International, which includes Sleep Inn, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Clarion, and others began using Johny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" in their ads.

At first, they used Johnny's recording and the original US lyrics (the actual original lyrics referred to towns in Australia). Now, they rewrite the lyrics and have actors pretending to be average travellers sing them

One of the commercials features an older couple travelling around the country and reliving their youth. Here are the lyrics.


We've been to Maryland seashore
Crab cakes to die for

Gainesville, Lake June on
Our second honey moon

Quality took a swim
Ran a mile in the gym
Spent the night Crater lake
Sight of our first date

Roswell on the go
What's that? A UFO?

On the road we will stay
It's vacation everyday

-- Johnny's Voice --
I've been everywhere man, I've been everywhere
-- end JOHNNY'S Voice --

-- Quality Inn Voice Over

-- Johnny's Voice --
I've been everywhere...
-- end-Johnny'S Voice --

Down the Chute -- One Piece at a Time

I got it one piece at a time
And it didn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style
I'm gonna drive everybody wild
'Cause I'll have the only one there is around.

I threw out my desk tonight. It went right down the trash chute.

I had a large O’sullivan L-shaped computer desk that I bought form Office Depot in winter of 2000. It survived from Mt Lake Terrace to Seattle in November of 2001 with minor injuries. One part broke in half, and another was weakened.

It should be noted, that it was a big, heavy piece of particle board furniture, and I moved it in a half-assembled state. I got great service from O’Sullivan. When I contacted them about the large, broken piece, I gave them the part number and they sent me a replacement with in a week, at no charge.

I used the desk for nearly 4 years until July, 2005, when I rearranged some furniture. I wasn’t sure it would survive another move, and I wanted something new, anyway. So I replaced it with a desk I build with Industrial Post Shelving.

But now I had this large desk to get rid of. I didn’t relish the thought of putting it in the car and hauling it to the dump. And since I live in an apartment building, I couldn’t really leave it at the curb or in the dumpster. Besides, it was heavy. So I disassembled it and put it in my closet.

Every couple of weeks after that, I would pull a piece out of the closet, stuff it in a bag, and throw it down the trash chute.

After a while, all the small pieces were gone and it was time to tackle the large panels. These I leaned on the steps and split by jumping on them. Then one piece went back in the closet, and the other went down the chute.

Finally, I was left with the big, extra thick pieces. They wouldn’t break no matter how much I jumped on them.

I don’t own an actual saw so I reverted back to a technique from childhood.

Have you ever tried to throw out dirt in a city? I don’t mean to scatter it, I mean to get rid of large quantities? It’s not easy.

When I was in grade school, my father decided to pave over the back yard with asphalt.

To do that, we had to remove 2-3” of dirt from the entire surface of the yard and get rid of it. Rather than try to get the Sanitation department to haul it away, we buried the dirt under the pantry. To do that, we had to cut a hole in the floor. How do you cut a whole in a surface when you are starting in the middle? You use a drill.

We drilled a series of holes in the floor in the shape of a square. Then we used a jigsaw in a game of power-tool connect-the-dots. The floor opened right up and over the next few days, we dumped dirt underneath the floor of the pantry.

Over the past few weeks, I took my drill to the large pieces, and made a line of holes across their width to weaken them. Then I jumped on the panels to split them.

And tonight -- 17 months after I began-- I dropped the last piece of the desk down the trash chute.

No one ever said I can’t complete a project.

So we drove up town just to get the tags
And I headed her right on down main drag
I could hear everybody laughin' for blocks around
But up there at the court house they didn't laugh
'Cause to type it up it took the whole staff
And when they got through the title weighed sixty pounds.

I Haven't Been Everywhere -- Yet

I found the lyrics for the well know Johnny Cash song on Twin-Music.Com.

I haven't finished the list yet, but I've been to a distrubingly large number of these place.

The places in red are where I may have trod in Johnny's footsteps. Right now, I've got about 27 out of 90 (30%), though I may have missed a few. I think I've got a destination or two not on his list, as well.

Next week: The Comfort Inn version of the song.

Johnny Cash
I've Been Everywhere
Written by - Geoff Mack
From - Unchained


I was totin' my pack along the long dusty Winnamucka road
When along came a semi with a high canvas covered load
If your goin' to Winnamucka, Mack, with me you can ride
And so I climbed into the cab and then I settled down inside
He asked me if I'd seen a road with so much dust and sand
And I said, 'Listen! I've traveled every road in this here land'

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Travel...I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere

I've been to
Reno
Chicago
Fargo
Minnesota
Buffalo
Toronto
Winslow
Sarasota
Wichita
Tulsa
Ottawa
Oklahoma
Tampa
Panama
Mattua
La Paloma
Bangor
Baltimore
Salvador
Amarillo
Tocapillo
Pocotello
Amperdello
I'm a killer

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Travel...I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere

I've been to:
Boston
Charleston
Dayton
Lousiana
Washington
Houston
Kingston
Texas County
Monterey
Fairaday
Santa Fe
Tollaperson
Glen Rock
Black Rock
Little Rock
Oskaloussa
Tennessee
Tinnesay
Chickapee
Spirit Lake
Grand Lake
Devil's Lake
Crater Lake
For Pete's sake

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Travel...I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere

I've been to
Louisville
Nashville
Knoxville
Omerback
Shereville
Jacksonville
Waterville
Costa Rock
Richfield
Springfield
Bakersfield
Shreveport
Hackensack
Cadallac
Fond du Lac
Davenport
Idaho
Jellico
Argentina
Diamondtina
Pasadena
Catalina
See what I mean

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Travel...I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere

I've been to
Pittsburgh
Parkersburg
Gravelburg
Colorado
Ellisburg
Rexburg
Vicksburg
El Dorado
Larimore
Adimore
Habastock
Chadanocka
Shasta
Nebraska
Alaska
Opalacka
Baraboo
Waterloo
Kalamazoo
Kansas City
Sioux City
Cedar City
Dodge City
What a pity

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Travel...I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere