"Sixteen Tons" is a song about the life of a coal miner, first recorded in 1946 by American country singer Merle Travis and released on his box set album Folk Songs of the Hills the following year. A 1955 version recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford reached number one in the Billboard charts, while another version by Frankie Laine was released only in Western Europe, where it gave Ford's version competition.
Read more about Sixteen Tons: Authorship, Cover Versions, Foreign Language Versions, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words sixteen and/or tons:
“I dont suppose theres a man going, as possesses the fondness for youth that I do. Theres youth to the amount of eight hundred pound a-year, at Dotheboys Hall at this present time. Id take sixteen hundred pound worth, if I could get em, and be as fond of every individual twenty pound among em as nothing should equal it!”
—Charles Dickens (18121870)
“Mozart starved, but you allow Thalberg and Liszt make tons of gold: Of course, you may think that someone immortal cannot die of hunger.”
—Franz Grillparzer (17911872)