The sole authorship of "Sixteen Tons" is attributed to Merle Travis on all recordings[4] 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;[5] he also at different times claimed to have written the song as "Twenty-One Tons". There is no supporting evidence for Davis's claim. 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[6] and Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian.[7]
The line "another day older and deeper in debt" from the chorus came from a letter written by Travis's brother John.[2] 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.
The eponymous "sixteen tons" refers to a practice of initiating new miners. In the mid-1920s, a miner tended to haul eight to ten tons per day, whereas for new miners, other miners would slack off so the new miner could "'make sixteen' on his very first day."[8]
Frankie 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.[14]
The song has been recorded or performed in concert by a wide variety of musicians:
1955: The Weavers performed the song on their concert album The Weavers at Carnegie Hall.[15]
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.
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: The musical style of Ford's version was used for a mashup with Money for Nothing by Big Daddy on their album Cutting Their Own Groove.
1991: It was featured as a secret track on progressive thrash metal band Confessor's album Condemned.
1992: A parody about golfing called "18 Holes" was written and recorded by John Denver. It was released on a rare single and occasionally performed in concert.
1993: The San Francisco alternative metal band Faith No More covered the song before their cover of the Dead Kennedys' song 'Let's Lynch The Landlord' at their performance at the 1993 Phoenix Festival.
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: 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: 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.
Armand Mestral released a version with French lyrics under the title "Seize Tonnes" in 1956.
Olavi Virta with Triola Orchestra released a version with Finnish lyrics by Reino Helismaa under the title "Päivän työ" in 1956 (Triola, T 4249), for the 1972 album Olavi Virran Parhaat 3. (Sävel, SÄLP 717).
A German version of the song did not translate the original lyrics, but rather rewrote them entirely, under the title "Sie hieß Mary-Ann". This was released in several versions on German record labels in 1956 and 1957, most notably by Ralf Bendix, and Freddy Quinn on his album "Freddy" recorded on Polydor.
Spanish version "16 Toneladas" was recorded by the Spanish singer José Guardiola and became a hit in Spain and Latin America in 1960.[28]
16 tons (Neapolitan version) by Italian American singer Lou Monte recorded in 1961 with both English and Italian verses
Italian version recorded by I Giganti, on the B-side of a 45 RPM vinyl record in 1968.
Brazilian composer Roberto Neves wrote the Portuguese version "Dezesseis Toneladas", first recorded by Noriel Vilela in 1971, this version is a samba with happy lyrics unrelated to the subject of the original.[29][30]
Adriano Celentano released an Italian-language version "L'Ascensore" in 1986.
Polish version, called Szesnaście ton has become popular among the local sea shanty bands. Because of that the song is mistakenly treated as sea shanty classic in Poland.[citation needed]
A Chinese version called "靜心等" (Jìng Xin Deng, "Wait patiently") is a well-known hit in Taiwan, interpreted by Chinese singer 張露 (Chang Loo or Zhang Lu) and by Teresa Teng (鄧麗君, Deng Lijun).
Hungarian punk band Hétköznapi Csalódások recorded a cover version in 1994 called "16 000 kg=1 600 000dkg" on their album Nyaljátok ki (Kiss my).[citation needed]
Hungarian rock band Republic recorded a cover version in 1998 called "Tizenhat tonna feketeszén" ("16 tons black coal") on their album Üzenet (Message).[31][32] Republic's lyrics uses lines from a Hungarian campfire song, a more literal translation of the original ballad.[33]
Hungarian music composer and singer Breitner János recorded and released a cover version in 1960 called "Húsz tonna" on 7 inch record EP. The lyrics is translated from the original, but for the number of syllables the 16 tons is changed to 20 (húsz) tonna.
A slow, jazzy version by Finnish Turo's Hevi Gee appeared on the 1999 album Ei se mitn! as "Velkavankilaulu".
Serbian hard rock band Riblja Čorba recorded a cover version in 1999 called "16 noći" ("16 nights") on their album Nojeva barka.
July 2013, in Ukraine, the song was recorded[34] by ukrabilly (Ukrainian folk) group "Ot Vinta!".[35]
A Mexican group Hermanos Barron from Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico recorded the song in the 1980s as "16 Toneladas".[36]
A Swedish version ("Sexton ton") was recorded 1956 by Cacka Israelsson and released as a B-side on the single "Tro och Kärlek". It was adapted into Swedish by Ingrid Reuterskiöld.
Another Swedish version ("Sexton ton") was recorded in 1970 by Gunnar Wiklund. The song is about a truckdriver who drives 16 tons of wooden crates over the border.
Alex To version in his 2014 concert. He sang both the original version and his mom's (Chang Loo) version.[37]
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.[citation needed] In the season 22South 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]
^Collins, Ace (1996). The Stories Behind Country Music's All-time Greatest: 100 Songs. New York: The Berkeley Publishing Group. pp. 91–93. ISBN1-57297-072-3.
^Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 23. ISBN0-85112-250-7.
^MDQ Merchandising LLC (2010). "Song List" and "Performing Credits". In Million Dollar Quartet (p. 5) [CD booklet]. New York City: Avatar Studios; and Chicago: Chicago Recording Company.