Sixteen Tons
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Johnny Cash's version of "Sixteen Tons" was first released on his 1987 album Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town.
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"'''Sixteen Tons'''" is a song about the misery of [[coalmining]]. Although generally credited as being written in [[1947]] by [[United States|U.S.]] [[country music|country]] singer [[Merle Travis]], it has also been claimed that the Travis version was actually plagiarized from an earlier song called "Nine-to-ten tons", written by a singer called [[George S. Davis]] in the 1930s<ref>George Korson, Coal Dust on the Fiddle, Hatboro, PA, 1965, pp. 72-73</ref>. A [[1955]] version recorded by [[Tennessee Ernie Ford|'Tennessee' Ernie Ford]] was on the [[b-side]] of his cover of the [[Moon Mullican]] standard, "[[You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry]]". However, it was Ford's "Sixteen Tons" that reached number one in the [[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] charts, besting the performance of the competing version by [[Johnny Desmond]]. Another competing version by [[Frankie Laine]] was released only in the [[U.K.]] where it gave Ford's version some stiff competition on the charts. On [[October 17]], it was released and, by [[October 28]], it sold 400,000 copies. On [[November 10]], a million copies had been sold. The record had sold two million copies by [[December 15]].
The well-known chorus runs:
:You load sixteen tons, and 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]]...
The line from the chorus "another day older and deeper in debt" was a phrase often used by Travis's father, a [[coalminer]] himself.{{Fact|date=June 2007}}
This and the line "I owe my soul to the [[company store]]" is a reference to the [[truck system]] and to [[debt bondage]]. Under this system workers were not paid cash; rather they were paid with unexchangeable credit vouchers for goods at the company store (usually referred to as [[scrip]]). This made it impossible for workers to store up cash savings. Workers also usually lived in company-owned dormitories or apartment buildings, the rent for which was automatically deducted from their pay.
In the [[U.S.]] the truck system and associated debt bondage persisted until the [[Strike action|strike]]s of the newly-formed [[United Mine Workers]] and affiliated [[labour union|union]]s forced an end to such practices.
The song has been covered by a wide variety of musicians. In 1955 it was recorded by [[Tennessee Ernie Ford]] and hit [[Billboard]]'s [[Country Music]] charts in November and held the #1 position for ten weeks, then crossed over and held the #1 position on the [[pop music]] charts for eight weeks.<ref>{{cite book
| first=Ace
| last= Collins
| year= 1996
| title= The Stories Behind Country Music's All-time Greatest: 100 Songs
| edition=
| publisher= The Berkeley Publishing Group
| location=New York
| pages= pp 91-93
| id=ISBN 1-57297-072-3 }}</ref> Other examples include a rock version released by [[Eels (band)|Eels]] on their live album "Sixteen Tons (10 Songs)" ([[2005]]), a country version released by [[Johnny Cash]] on his album "Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town" ([[1987]]), a version with a rock edge by [[Tom Jones (singer)|Tom Jones]] that became a hit in [[1967 in music|1967]], a blues-rock version recorded in 1972 by [[C. C. S. (pop group)|CCS]], a slow, jazzy version released by [[Stan Ridgway]] on the album Anatomy ([[1999]]), a cumbia version by nuclear polka band [[Brave Combo]], and a traditional roots country version released by [[Corb Lund]] on the album Modern Pain ([[1995]]). A folk-punk version was also performed by [[This Bike is a Pipe Bomb]]. Swedish doom metal band [[Memento Mori_(band)|Memento Mori]] recorded a version of this song as a hidden track on their 1993 debut album [[Rhymes of Lunacy]]. The song can be found if the listener allows the CD to remain playing several minutes after the final listed song ends. Serbian hard rock band [[Riblja Čorba]] recorded a cover version called "16 noći" (Trans. "16 nights"), which appeared on their 1999 album ''[[Nojeva barka]]''.
It was also featured as a secret track on progressive thrash metal band [[Confessor]]'s 1991 release, [[Condemned]].
The 1990 rendition of the song by [[Eric Burdon]] was used for the memorable opening to the comedy ''[[Joe Versus the Volcano]]''. The song is also sung in the undersea horror movie ''[[Leviathan]]''.
Presidential candidate [[Dennis Kucinich]]'s rendition of the song on [[January 8]], [[2007]] received fairly widespread media play on a variety of television stations and on the popular website [[YouTube]].<ref name=article>"[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGmYhTYLbno Dennis Kucinich sings "Sixteen Tons."]," ''YouTube'', 2007. Retrieved [[31 March]], [[2007]].</ref>
In [[Russia]], [[Moscow]]'s venue [http://www.16tons.ru/ "Sixteen Tons"] is named after the song by Merle Travis. "Sixteen Tons" track is a house song and can be heard before each concert held in the club.
In Russia this song has been famous since the [[Soviet]] era, but in the [[Platters]]' version. The song was so influential, that in the [[USSR]] several cover versions were made in Russian. In one of the Russian versions the words in the chorus were about US plans to attack the USSR with 16 tons bombs:
:Sixteen tons, the the heavy load
:Planes are flying to bomb the Soviet Union
:The planes are flying to the East
:To bomb a simple Soviet village
In 2005, [[General Electric]] ran a series of ads for its new "clean coal" campaign featuring the song.
{{start box}}
{{succession box
| before = "[[Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (song)|Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing]] by [[The Four Aces]]
| title = [[Number-one hits of 1955 (USA)|Billboard Top 100 number one single]]<br>([[Tennessee Ernie Ford|Tennessee Ernie]] version)
| years = [[December 3]], [[1955]] (6 weeks)
| after ="[[Memories Are Made of This]]" by [[Dean Martin]]
}}
{{end box}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
* ''The Billboard Book of Number One Hits'' (fifth edition)
* In [[Brazil]], Noriel Vilela recorded a Portuguese version of "Sixteen Tons" with his [[Louis Armstrong]]-like voice and a "[[Samba]]" feel.
== External links ==
* [http://www.ernieford.com/SixteenTons.htm Sixteen Tons - the history behind the legend]
*''West Virginia Historical Society Quarterly'', Volume 15, Nos. 2 and 3, "Coal Miners and Their Communities in Southern Appalachia, 1925-1941" by Rhonda Janney Coleman.
:Part 1: http://www.wvculture.org/HiStory/wvhs1502.html
:Part 2: http://www.wvculture.org/HiStory/wvhs1503.html
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6m1qgnUw74 Eric Burdon performing 'Sixteen Tons'] (YouTube).
* [http://www.16tons.ru/ Moscow club "Sixteen Tons"]
* [http://video.google.com/videosearch?client=opera&rls=en&q=ge+sexy+miners&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv GE advertizement.]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20050519/ai_n14640891 Article describing GE campaign.]
*http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/sixteen2.html Page about 16 Tons, George Davis and the history of the Company Store
[[Category:1947 songs]]
[[Category:1955 singles]]
[[Category:Merle Travis songs]]
[[Category:Tennessee Ernie Ford songs]]
[[Category:Number-one singles in Australia]]
[[Category:Billboard Top 100 number-one singles]]
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