The Styrous® Viewfinder: 45 RPMs 91: Tennessee Ernie Ford ~ Sixteen Tons

Tennessee Ernie Ford ~ Sixteen Tons sheet music

Ernest Jennings Ford, born on February 13, 1919, known professionally as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American singer and television host who enjoyed success in the country and western, pop, and gospel musical genres. Noted for his rich bass-baritone voice and down-home humor, he is remembered for his hit recordings of The Shotgun Boogie and Sixteen Tons.

Ford was born in Fordtown, Tennessee, and spent much of his time in his early years listening to country or western musicians, in person or on the radio. In his high school years, taking an interest in radio and began his radio career as an announcer at WOPI in Bristol, Tennessee in 1937, being paid 10 dollars a week. In 1938, the young bass-baritone left the station and went to study classical music at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in Ohio.

Ford served in the United States Army Air Corps in World War II as the bombardier on a B-29 Superfortress.

B-29 Superfortress

After the war, he worked at radio stations in San Bernardino and Pasadena, California. At KFXM, in San Bernardino, Ford was hired as a radio announcer. He was assigned to host an early morning country music disc jockey program, Bar Nothin' Ranch Time. To differentiate himself, he created the personality of "Tennessee Ernie", a wild, madcap, exaggerated hillbilly.

Cliffie Stone, a part-time talent scout for Capitol Records, brought him to the attention of the label. In 1949, while still doing his morning show, he signed a contract with Capitol where he released almost 50 country singles through the early 1950s, several of which made the Billboard charts. He recorded a duet with Capitol Records pop singer Kay Starr, became a huge country and pop crossover hit in 1950. A duet with Ella Mae Morse, False Hearted Girl was a top seller for the Capitol Country and Hillbilly division.

He replaced bandleader Kay Kyser as host of the TV version of NBC quiz show College of Musical Knowledge when it returned briefly in 1954 after a four-year hiatus. He became a household name in the U.S., largely as a result of his portrayal of "Cousin Ernie" in the I Love Lucy episodes "Tennessee Ernie Visits", "Tennessee Ernie Hangs On" (both 1954) and "Tennessee Bound" (1955). In 1955, Ford recorded The Ballad of Davy Crockett (which reached number 4 on the country music chart)

Ford scored a major hit on the pop chart in 1955 with his rendering of Sixteen Tons, a sparsely arranged coal-miner's lament. The song's fatalistic tone and bleak imagery were in stark contrast to some sugary pop ballads and rock & roll also on the charts in 1955:

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go;
I owe my soul to the company store...

With Ford's snapping fingers and a clarinet-driven pop arrangement by Ford's music director, Jack Fascinato, Sixteen Tons spent ten weeks at number one on the country chart and seven weeks at number one on the pop chart. The record sold over two million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The song became a gold record made Ford a crossover star, and became his signature song.

The song, written by Merle Travis about a coal miner, is based on life in the mines of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Travis first recorded the song at the Radio Recorders Studio B in Hollywood, California, on August 8, 1946. Cliffie Stone played bass on the recording. It was first released in July 1947 by Capitol on Travis's album Folk Songs of the Hills.

There have been many versions of Sixteen Tons, Paul Robeson, Johnny Cash, B. B. King and there is a fairly recent cover of it by Southern Raised a bluegrass band from the Ozarks.

Tennessee Ernie Ford ~ Sixteen Tons

45 RPM, side 1

Tennessee Ernie Ford ~ You Don't Have To Be a Baby To Cry

45 RPM, side 2

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A - Sixteen Tons, written by Merle Travis - 2:34

Side 2:

B - You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry, written by Bob Merrill, Terry Shand - 2:10

Companies, etc.

    Manufactured By – Capitol Records, Inc.
    Pressed By – Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Los Angeles
    Mastered At – Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Los Angeles
    Published By – American Music, Inc.
    Published By – Frank Music Corp.

Credits:

Conductor [Orchestra] – Jack Fascinato

Notes:

Trailing 1, 2, 4, and ✩ are stamped in the runouts, all other data is etched.

    Rights Society: BMI
    Rights Society: ASCAP
    Matrix / Runout (Label A): 45-14296
    Matrix / Runout (Label B): 45-14297
    Matrix / Runout (Runout A variant 1): 45-14296-D1 4 ✩
    Matrix / Runout (Runout B variant 1): 45-14297-D4 1 ✩
    Matrix / Runout (Runout A variant 2): 45-14296-D5 2 ☆
    Matrix / Runout (Runout B variant 2): 45-14297-D1 2 ☆
    Matrix / Runout (Runout A variant 3): 45-14296-D1 2 ☆
    Matrix / Runout (Runout B variant 3): 45-14297-D1 1 ☆

Originally released by Capitol on Oct., 17th 1955 with "You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry" as A side an "Sixteen Tons" as B side. Later pressings switched the sides cause of the big success of "Sixteen Tons".
See http://www.ernieford.com/SIXTEENTONS.html :"On October 17, Capitol shipped the new record nationwide, and to deejays around the country, confident that "Baby" would be a hit. But, inexplicably, radio stations coast to coast began 'flipping' the single and playing the B side (...) In eleven days following its release, 400,000 singles are sold. Demand for the song was so great, that Capitol geared all its pressing plants nationwide to meet the deluge of orders."

Barcode and Other Identifiers

Matrix / Runout (Side A): F1-693-D3
Matrix / Runout (Side B): F2-693-D10

"Tennessee" Ernie Ford* – Sixteen Tons
Label: Capitol Records – F3262
Format: Vinyl, 7", Single, 45 RPM, Los Angeles Pressing
Country: US
Released: 1955
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Pop Rock, Vocal

Viewfinder links:

Johnny Cash

Tennessee Ernie Ford

B. B. King

Kay Kyser

Ella Mae Morse

Paul Robeson
Kay Starr

Sixteen Tons lyrics

Net links:

YouTube links:

Sixteen Tons ~

Jeff Beck and ZZ Top

Johnny Cash

Geoff Castellucci