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Sixteen Tons

"Sixteen Tons" is a song written by Merle Travis about a coal miner, based on life in the mines of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.[2] 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.[3] The song became a gold record.

For other uses, see Sixteen Tons (disambiguation).

"Sixteen Tons"

"Dark as a Dungeon"

June 1947 (1947-06)

August 8, 1946

Radio Recorders, Los Angeles

Folk

2:54

Capitol Americana[1]

Merle Travis

Lee Gillette

"You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry"

October 1955

September 20, 1955

Country, traditional pop

2:34

Capitol

Merle Travis

Jack Fascinato

1955: performed the song on their concert album The Weavers at Carnegie Hall.[15]

The Weavers

1955: recorded the song, released on the Brunswick label.

Red Sovine

1955: & His Orchestra recorded on RPM Records.

B.B. King

1955: Larry Cross recorded on the label.

Embassy

1955: Marvin & The Chirps recorded on the Tip Top label.

[16]

1955: Sung live by on December 17, 1955, at the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport Louisiana, but never recorded.

Elvis Presley

1956: with Brian Daly[17]: 2  recorded on Topic Records.

Ewan MacColl

1956: recorded the song on the Columbia label.[18]

Michael Holliday

1956: version released on the compilation album Dozen Hits, RCA Victor.

Eddy Arnold

1957: recorded the song, released on the Mercury Records EP Millioniéme.

The Platters

1958: Chang Loo recorded a Chinese version that was re-released in 2017 on album Songs by Chang Loo .

Universal Records

1960: released a version on his album Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger.[19]

Bo Diddley

1961: recorded a version titled "16 tons (neapolitan version)" and it contained verses in both English and Italian in his famous style.

Lou Monte

1961: recorded a cover on his Big Bad John and Other Fabulous Songs and Tales album.

Jimmy Dean

1964: , Belgian singer, played and recorded the song live in Belgium.

Louis Neefs

1965: version recorded in the album The Man.

Lorne Greene

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 of the same name.

EP

1966: recorded a version influenced by Motown and soul music on his Down to Earth album.

Stevie Wonder

1967: version with a rock edge, on his album Green, Green Grass of Home.

Tom Jones's

1967: version as the B-side to their single "I Take What I Want".[20]

James & Bobby Purify

1967: covered the song on his 1967 album Wanted: One Soul Singer.

Johnnie Taylor

1968: performed the song on the Jerry Lewis Show (Feb. 1968)[21]

Bobby Darin

1970: A psychedelic rock version by Freeman Sound as the B-Side to their unique single "Singing My Own Song".

1971: version recorded on the album Mylon with Holy Smoke.

Mylon LeFevre

1972: A version was recorded by CCS.

blues-rock

1976: A version by the Don Harrison Band peaked at #47 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1976.[22] and number 53 in Australia.[23]

country rock

1984: Recorded by the Montreal band on their 1984 album Cemetery.

Deja Voodoo

1984: As part of a medley recorded live by Dutch singer on his 1984 album Gala of the Year.

Lee Towers

1986: A version by English punk band on their 1986 album Neither Washington Nor Moscow.

The Redskins

1986: recorded the song on her eponymous 1986 album.

Anna Domino

1987: released a country version on his album Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town.

Johnny Cash

1987: performed the song on his album Tyranny & the Hired Hand.

Frank Tovey

1989: The 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).

Gas House Gang (quartet)

1990: A rendition of the song by 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.

Eric Burdon

1991: The musical style of Ford's version was used for a mashup with by Big Daddy on their album Cutting Their Own Groove.

Money for Nothing

1991: It was featured as a secret track on progressive thrash metal band 's album Condemned.

Confessor

1992: A parody about golfing called "18 Holes" was written and recorded by . It was released on a rare single and occasionally performed in concert.

John Denver

1993: The San Francisco alternative metal band covered the song before their cover of the Dead Kennedys' song 'Let's Lynch The Landlord' at their performance at the 1993 Phoenix Festival.

Faith No More

1994: The Swedish doom metal band recorded a version of this song as a hidden track on their second album Life, Death and Other Morbid Tales.

Memento Mori

1995: , a hard rock band, included a version on their album Religious Fix.

Tuff

1995: A traditional roots country version was released by on the album Modern Pain.

Corb Lund

1996: Serbian retro-swing rockabilly singer Srdjan Popov recorded a swing version of the song. It appears in Turkish documentary "16 Tons" directed by .

Ümit Kıvanç

1996: did a live comical version for their album Back in America (1996).

Western Flyer

1998: Hank Wilson (pseudonym of ) included his version on Hank Wilson, Vol. 3: Legend in My Time.

Leon Russell

2005: Punk band included it on their album Dance Party with...[24]

This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb

2007: Presidential candidate 's rendition of the song on 8 January received fairly widespread TV coverage.

Dennis Kucinich

2010: Lance Guest, portraying , on the original Broadway cast recording of Million Dollar Quartet.[25]

Johnny Cash

2011: , guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and The Nightwatchman; on the EP "Union Town", released by NewWest Records.[26]

Tom Morello

2012: recorded a version as a part of his Tim Timebomb and Friends project.[27]

Tim Armstrong

In literature and the arts[edit]

Eric Burdon's version of "Sixteen Tons" is the opening song of the 1990 American film Joe Versus the Volcano.


Songwriter Rupert Holmes cited "Sixteen Tons" 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.


The song remained popularly recognized through the 20th and early 21st centuries, used or referenced in a number of works. 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, and in The Simpsons episode "Bart Gets an Elephant", "Sixteen Tons" is being played on the radio as Bart is forced by Marge to do housework. In Fallout 76, Ford's version of "Sixteen Tons" is one of the songs featured on the in-game Appalachia Radio. It is also part of the soundtrack for Season 5, Episode 3 of the TV show Fargo_(TV_series).[38]

Coleman, Rhonda Janney (April 2001). . West Virginia Historical Society Quarterly. XV (2). Archived from the original on December 21, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2014.

"Coal Miners and Their Communities in Southern Appalachia, 1925–1941, Part 1"

Coleman, Rhonda Janney (July 2001). . West Virginia Historical Society Quarterly. XV (3). Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.

"Coal Miners and Their Communities in Southern Appalachia, 1925–1941, Part 2"

Bibliography

at SecondHandSongs

Sixteen Tons