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...