Sixteen Tons

The sole authorship of "Sixteen Tons" is attributed to Merle Travis on all recordings[5] beginning with Travis's own 1946 record and is registered with BMI as a Merle Travis composition. George S. Davis, a folk singer and songwriter who had been a Kentucky coal miner, claimed on a 1966 recording for Folkways Records to have written the song as "Nine-to-ten tons" in the 1930s;[7] he also at different times claimed to have written the song as "Twenty-One Tons". There is no supporting evidence for Davis's claim.[8] Davis's 1966 recording of his version of the song (with some slightly different lyrics and tune, but titled "Sixteen Tons") appears on the albums George Davis: When Kentucky Had No Union Men[9] and Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian.[10]

According to Travis, the line "another day older and deeper in debt" from the chorus was a phrase often used by his father, a coal miner himself.[11] This and the line "I owe my soul to the company store" are a reference to the truck system and to debt bondage. Under this scrip system, workers were not paid cash; rather they were paid with non-transferable credit vouchers that could be exchanged only for goods sold at the company store. This made it impossible for workers to store up cash savings. Workers also usually lived in company-owned dormitories or houses, the rent for which was automatically deducted from their pay. In the United States the truck system and associated debt bondage persisted until the strikes of the newly formed United Mine Workers and affiliated unions forced an end to such practices.

Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded "Sixteen Tons" in 1955 as the B-side of his cover of the Moon Mullican standard "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry". With Ford's snapping fingers and a unique clarinet-driven pop arrangement, it quickly became a million seller.[5] It hit Billboard's country music chart in November and held the No. 1 position for ten weeks, then crossed over and held the number 1 position on the pop music chart for eight weeks,[12] besting the competing version by Johnny Desmond. In the United Kingdom, Ford's version competed with versions by Edmund Hockridge and Frankie Laine. Nevertheless, Ford's version was the most successful, spending four weeks at number 1 in the UK Singles Chart in January and February 1956.[13][14]

Laine's version was not released in the United States but sold well in the UK. Ford's version was released on 17 October, and by 28 October had sold 400,000 copies. On 10 November, a million copies had been sold; two million were sold by 15 December.[15]

Child coal miners in West Virginia, 1908

The song has been recorded or performed in concert by a wide variety of musicians:

• 1955: Sung live by Elvis Presley in his early 1950s concerts, but never recorded.
• 1955: The Weavers performed the song on their concert album The Weavers at Carnegie Hall.[16]
• 1955: Red Sovine recorded the song, released on the Brunswick label.
• 1955: B.B. King & His Orchestra recorded on RPM Records.
• 1955: Larry Cross recorded on the Embassy label
• 1955: Marvin & The Chirps recorded on the Tip Top label.[17]
• 1956: Ewan MacColl with Brian Daly[18]^:2 recorded on Topic Records.
• 1956: Michael Holliday recorded the song on the Columbia.
• 1956: Eddy Arnold version released on the compilation album Dozen Hits, RCA Victor .
• 1957: The Platters recorded the song, released on the Mercury Records EP Millioniéme.
• 1958: Chang Loo recorded a Chinese version that was re-released in 2017 on album Songs by Chang Loo Universal Records.
• 1960: Bo Diddley released a version on his album Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger.[19]
• 1961: Lou Monte recorded a version titled "16 tons (neapolitan version)" and it contained verses in both English and Italian in his famous style.
• 1961: Jimmy Dean recorded a cover on his Big Bad John and Other Fabulous Songs and Tales album.
• 1963: Alberto Vazquez, Mexican bass-baritone singer, covered this song for the market in Mexico.
• 1964: Dave Dudley covered the song on his album Songs About The Working Man.[20]
• 1964: Louis Neefs, Belgian singer, played and recorded the song live in Belgium.
• 1964: Harry Nilsson recorded a version for Tower Records.[21][22]
• 1965: Lorne Greene version recorded in the album The Man.
• 1965: Tennessee Ernie Ford released another version of the song, "Sixteen Tons '65" (with largely the same lyrics as his first recording of the song, but with a substantially different musical arrangement) on a French EP of the same name.
• 1966: Stevie Wonder recorded a version influenced by Motown and soul music on his Down to Earth album.
• 1967: Tom Jones's version with a rock edge, on his album Green, Green Grass of Home.
• 1967: James & Bobby Purify version as the B-side to their single "I Take What I Want".[23]
• 1967: Johnnie Taylor covered the song on his 1967 album Wanted: One Soul Singer.
• 1968: Bobby Darin performed the song on the Jerry Lewis Show (Feb. 1968)[24]
• 1970: A psychedelic rock version by Freeman Sound as the B-Side to their unique single "Singing My Own Song".
• 1971: Mylon LeFevre version recorded on the album Mylon with Holy Smoke.
• 1972: A blues-rock version was recorded by CCS.
• 1973: Jerry Reed recorded a version for his Hot A' Mighty! album.
• 1974: Steve Goodman played it live at Columbia studios.
• 1976: A country rock version by the Don Harrison Band peaked at #47 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1976.[25] and number 53 in Australia.[26]
• 1984: Recorded by the Montreal band Deja Voodoo on their 1984 album Cemetery.
• 1984: As part of a medley recorded live by Dutch singer Lee Towers on his 1984 album Gala Of The Year.
• 1986: A version by English punk band The Redskins on their 1986 album Neither Washington Nor Moscow.
• 1986: Anna Domino recorded the song on her eponymous 1986 album.
• 1987: Johnny Cash released a country version on his album Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town.
• 1987: Frank Tovey performed the song on his album Tyranny & the Hired Hand.
• 1989: The Gas House Gang (quartet) recorded a barbershop arrangement, written by David Wright (arranger), for their album Our "Rough and Tumble" Best, featuring their bass Jim Henry (singer); he would later sing this arrangement with another quartet, Crossroads (quartet).
• 1990: A rendition of the song by Eric Burdon was used for the opening to the comedy film Joe Versus the Volcano. Recorded in the early 1980s, it was not released until 1998 on the album Nightwinds Dying which is a different arrangement from the one heard in the film. In 1992 he recorded another version, which was released as the only studio track on the live album Access All Areas in 1993.
• 1991: It was featured as a secret track on progressive thrash metal band Confessor's album Condemned.
• 1993: The San Francisco alternative metal band Faith No More covered the song before their cover of the Dead Kennedy's song 'Let's Lynch The Landlord' at their performance at the 1993 Phoenix Festival.
• 1993: The Swedish doom metal band Memento Mori recorded a version of this song as a hidden track on their debut album Rhymes of Lunacy.
• 1995: Tuff, a hard rock band, included a version on their album Religious Fix.
• 1995: A traditional roots country version was released by Corb Lund on the album Modern Pain.
• 1996: Western Flyer did a live comical version for their album Back in America (1996).
• 1998: Hank Wilson (pseudonym of Leon Russell) included his version on Hank Wilson, Vol. 3: Legend in My Time.
• 1998: Chicago band Hello Dave did a rendition on their 16 Tons album.
• 1999: A slow, jazzy version by Stan Ridgway appeared on the album Anatomy.
• 2005: A rock version released by Eels was on their live album "Sixteen Tons (10 Songs)".
• 2005: Punk band This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb included it on their album Dance Party with...[27]
• 2007: Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich's rendition of the song on 8 January received fairly widespread TV coverage.
• 2007: Lawrence "Lipbone" Redding recorded the song for his album Hop The Fence.
• 2010: Lance Guest, portraying Johnny Cash, on the original Broadway cast recording of Million Dollar Quartet.[28]
• 2011: Tom Morello, political activist and guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and The Nightwatchman; on the EP "Union Town", released by NewWest Records.[29]
• 2012: The Dandy Warhols, released a version of it on their 2012 album This Machine.
• 2012: LeAnn Rimes was performing the song as part of her live show as of 2012.
• 2012: Tim Armstrong recorded a version as a part of his Tim Timebomb and Friends project.[30]
• 2013: Robbie Williams included it on the deluxe edition of his Swings Both Ways album.
• 2014: Gary Clail released a break-beat/dub version on his comeback album Nail It To The Mast.
• 2019: Old Crow Medicine Show released a version on a Live album Live at The Ryman

• Disney animated the Ford version in a short music video with Donald Duck playing the part of a coal miner.
• In the season 22 South Park episode "Unfulfilled", Ford's version of "Sixteen Tons" plays in the background of a montage of an Amazon Fulfillment Center.
• In The Simpsons episode Bart Gets an Elephant, 'Sixteen Tons' was being played on the radio as Bart was forced by Marge to do housework.
• In the pilot of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the first band shown in the comedy club the Gaslight is playing "Sixteen Tons."
• In the game Fallout 76, set in a post-apocalyptic West Virginia, the song can be heard on one of the in-game radio stations.
• In Season 2 of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon sings a verse.
• Eric Burdon's version of "Sixteen Tons" is used as the opening song of the Tom Hanks film Joe Versus the Volcano.
• Dwight Schultz sings a verse of the song in the first episode of the fifth season of The A-Team TV series.
• Morecambe and Wise danced with other dancers in a comedy parody beat music style routine, using this song as the backing track, on black and white TV in the UK in the 1960s.
• A reference to the song is made in the show Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode 912 “The Screaming Skull.” The reference is made early during the Gumby short “Robot Rumpus” by Tom Servo.
• In season 3 episode 7 of Mad Men the song can be heard during the credits.
• In the movie Back To The Future, Marty (Michael J. Fox) is seen in front of the record store in 1955 with a sign on the sidewalk that is advertising the Tennessee Ernie Ford records "The Ballad Of Davy Crockett" & "Sixteen Tons."
• Songwriter Rupert Holmes has cited "Sixteen Tons," in conjunction with the TV cooking program The Galloping Gourmet, as an inspiration for his song "Timothy", about a pair of miners who are implied to have cannibalized their fellow miner when the three are trapped following a mine collapse.

Notes

Bibliography

• Coleman, Rhonda Janney (April 2001). "Coal Miners and Their Communities in Southern Appalachia, 1925–1941, Part 1". West Virginia Historical Society Quarterly. XV (2). Archived from the original on December 21, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
• Coleman, Rhonda Janney (July 2001). "Coal Miners and Their Communities in Southern Appalachia, 1925–1941, Part 2". West Virginia Historical Society Quarterly. XV (3). Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
• "Heineken - The Odyssey Film (16 Toneladas / 16 Tons)" (in Portuguese). YouTube. Wieden + Kennedy (Amsterdam, Netherlands). February 5, 2014.
• O'Connor, L. H. (May 28, 2011). "Merle Haggard, He's Not". Roothog Radio. Retrieved April 3, 2014.