"16 Tons"

[richardp69]

I've been thinking about my Mom and Dad a lot lately. Seems I do that a lot now that I'm older. My Mom (and Sister) were/are both great musicians and both were music teachers. My Dad could play multiple instruments and had a superb voice..

We used to sit around the TV as a family and watch some of the old favorites.. My dad loved Andy Williams, Bing Crosby and Tennessee Ernie Ford and he especially like "16 tons. He'd sit there and snap his fingers then the whole family would join in and pretty soon we had a good backup for that song.

A friend of mine and I are doing it for an upcoming thing and I came across this one on u tube. You may have seen it and there are several other very cool versions of this out there but this one grabbed me and yes, I think the singer more than did it justice.

Just as a side note, for any of you younger members that still have your folks living I'd urge you to have some of those meaningful discussions with them. I never really did and regret it today. Anyway, here's the version i really like.

 

[Opsimath]

Wow! Thank you for posting that - really good!

 

[Guildedagain]

We hum that around the house a lot. My voice can go real low. I'd love to cover it, kareoke.

Always like the Oak Ridge Boys because of the low voice. Elvira, if y'all can remember when that was on the radio.

6 Days on The Road another favorite.

My "country" is showing ;]

 

[walrus]

I've been thinking about my Mom and Dad a lot lately.

Just as a side note, for any of you younger members that still have your folks living I'd urge you to have some of those meaningful discussions with them. I never really did and regret it today.

Richard, this is excellent advice. My parents both died relatively young and quite suddenly. I wish I had said more to them, and more importantly, listened to them more.

walrus

 

[Cougar]

A friend of mine and I are doing it for an upcoming thing and I came across this one on u tube.

Ha! Good one! "Another day older and deeper in debt..."

 

[Brad Little]

My mother liked "16 Tons" (and Ernie Ford) a lot, so we went looking for his record of "16 Tons." At the time, we only had my little kids 78 rpm record player, and 78s had been discontinued (record store even checked to see if it was a distributor's issue). Upshot, next Christmas we got a Magnavox (IIRC) 4 speed record player. Mom never did get a copy of "16 tons," though.

 

[wileypickett]

"Sixteen Tons" was written by (Guild user) Merle Travis.

Tennessee Ernie Ford had a massive hit with it, which helped make Merle a rich man.

After that whenever Travis performed the song live he changed the line, "I owe my soul to the company store," to "I owe my soul to Tennessee Ernie Ford."