Posted on 09/20/2025 1:34:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Tennessee Ernie Ford wasn’t the first to record ‘Sixteen Tons,’ but he made it his signature song in 1955, and the title track of an album released in 1960.
Tennessee Ernie Ford wasn’t the first artist to record “Sixteen Tons,” but he made it his signature. The song, inspired by the travails of the real-life coal miners of Kentucky, was first recorded by one of his forerunners on the Capitol label, Merle Travis, in 1947.
That popular version, of a song that bore Travis’ songwriting credit from then on, didn’t show up on the Billboard charts on the day, even though Travis was emerging with other hits at the time. By 1955, it was ripe for a remake – and would later become the title of one of Ford’s Capitol albums.
Ernest Jennings Ford, from Bristol, Tennessee, had been having big country hits in the US since the late 40s. Recording as Tennessee Ernie, he racked up no fewer than 14 country chart entries in four years after debuting with the jaunty, accordion-toting “Tennessee Border” in 1949.
All but one of those singles made the Top 10, but none crossed over to the pop market, and neither did the first release to bear his surname, “River Of No Return.” It came from the movie of that name starring Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe. Then the year of Ford’s crossover arrived.
Tennessee Ernie in Disneyland
In 1955, he made both the country and pop Top 10 with “Ballad Of Davy Crockett,” from the Disneyland TV series. Ford hit even bigger with his “Sixteen Tons” remake, which spent ten weeks atop the country chart and eight on the pop side. For the rest of the decade, he would see more action in the pop market, and scored several major gospel-themed albums, including Hymns, Spirituals and Nearer The Cross.
Curiously, Sixteen Tons the album didn’t arrive until 1960, and, even more surprisingly, was not a chart item, even though Ford was in the middle of a ten-year run on TV with his own variety show. Nevertheless, leading off with the title track, it became a vinyl salute to his triumphs of the decade that had just ended. The LP included his earlier country No.1s, with “Mule Train” and his own composition “The Shot Gun Boogie.”
More country hits
Also included was 1950’s “The Cry Of The Wild Goose,” which, like “Mule Train,” saw Ford scoring the country hit with a song taken into the pop charts by Frankie Laine. Sixteen Tons also sported the country top tenners “Smokey Mountain Boogie” and “Blackberry Boogie.”
“The Old Pea Picker,” as Ford was known, returned to the country chart in the mid-60s with the hit “Hicktown,” making further appearances in the 70s and recording into the 80s. He died at the age of 72 in 1991, but Sixteen Tons is a fine testament to a much-loved inductee of the Country Music Hall Of Fame..
This song and Ford’s rendition tears at me as well.
I worked in MN’s Iron Range taconite mines before I went on to a rewarding and rewarded career in biomedicine.
The beat of “Working on a chain gang” also gets to me. Echoes using a spiking maul on a track gang. Then I got to the point where i could use one maul in each hand; so all melodic bets were off. [Sounds better than it was. Usually used one maul for spikes across the rail ‘cause the foreman got pissed if you broke a handle by missing the spike head]
I’m getting too damn old when I reminisce in public.
My father used to play this. Ford’s voice has such a depth to it. This song always made me think of how hard dad worked to giving his life for our family.
I can never hear it without thinking of dad and all those dads who slave away for their wife and kids. Those dads.
You’re welcome:
A stack of 16 tons of coal would be roughly the same volume as a room approximately 8 feet wide, 8 feet long, and 10 feet high, based on the approximation of 40 cubic feet per ton.
Too tired to type more now...
I was 11 years old when that came out and I can still put myself in the living room shouting the song along with the radio. Great music years.
Definitely
He can do it all! Have you seen the video where he sings ‘all the parts’ of a song while five or six of him are standing RIGHT THERE in line? (Yes, I know it’s an ‘effect.’) I remember them being in front of a big fireplace...
I think it’s a Christmas song/medley. Can’t remember...
Blew my mind. What a GIFT that man has been given!
And I thought falling in love with Andrea Bocelli was a life-altering moment! ;)
With inflation it’s 20 tons.
My formative years were spent listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford and Arthur Godfrey. I love this song and possibly still know all the words 70 years later.
Thanks for the memory.
There are mosaics in Ravenna from the 6th century showing Jesus and the apostles—for some reason Peter is shown with white hair although he would still have been young in the 30s A.D.
Gen X and this wasn’t getting any airplay in my northeast area in the 80s. I probably hear some of the original on TV shows maybe. I was tuned to the rock stations so I wasn’t hearing old Tennessee Ernie Ford recordings.
^^^THIS. Still remember singing along to this song as a child. Didn’t understand it then but I sure do now.
Six times within three hours, of which were two separate instances by the same young woman doorkeeper: once after she let Peter into the waiting room of Annas' meetng hall; the second instance just after she let him out into the portico linking the residence of Annas with that of his neighbor Caiaphas, who was then acting as High Priest.
Lol. Love it!
Interesting things I never heard.
Long before his death, the volume THE GOSPELS: A Precise Translationclick here was published, of which a PDF copy of it can be downloaded, or a hard copy mailed to you; both freely at your request.
The little feature that I mentioned is explained in the chronology of Jesus' ministry, a supplement in the volume, very adequarely supported by the Greek text.
Thank you.
We had some Pea Pickin’ record of his.
Courtesy of Del Monte or Birdseye, I think.
A great privilege for me to share this with you, Framk!
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