Sixteen Tons - Cover Versions

Cover Versions

Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded Sixteen Tons in 1955 as the b-side of his cover of the Moon Mullican standard, "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry". It hit Billboard's Country Music charts in November and held the #1 position for ten weeks, then crossed over and held the number 1 position on the pop music charts for eight weeks, besting the competing version by Johnny Desmond. In the United Kingdom, Ford's version competed with versions by Edmund Hockridge and Frankie Laine. Laine's version was not released in the United States but sold well in the UK: it was released on October 17 and by October 28 had sold 400,000 copies. On November 10, a million copies had been sold; two million were sold by December 15.

The song has been covered by a wide variety of musicians:

• 1955 Sung live by Elvis Presley in his early '50s concerts, but never recorded.
• 1955 The Weavers performed the song on their concert album The Weavers at Carnegie Hall.
• 1960: Bo Diddley released a version on his album Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger.
• 1960: The song was released in Spanish by the Catalan singer José Guardiola
• 1963: Alberto Vazquez, mexican bass-baritone singer, covered this song for the market in Mexico.
• 1964: Louis Neefs, Belgian singer, played and recorded the song live in Belgium
• 1966: Stevie Wonder recorded a version influenced by Motown and soul music
• 1967: Tom Jones's version with a rock edge, on his album Green, Green Grass Of Home
• 1968 A samba rock version was recorded in Brazil by Noriel Vilela
• 1972: A blues-rock version was recorded by CCS
• 1973: Jerry Reed recorded a version for his Hot A' Mighty! album
• 1976: A country rock version by the Don Harrison Band made the lower reaches of the charts in Australia
• 1984: Covered by the Montreal band Deja Voodoo (Canadian band) on their 1984 album Cemetery (album)
• 1986: A version by English punk band The Redskins on their 1986 album Neither Washington Nor Moscow
• 1986: Anna Domino covered the song on her eponymous 1986 album
• 1987: Johnny Cash released a country version on his album Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town
• 1987: Melbourne hip hop duo Mighty Big Crime released a hip-hop version.
• 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. In 1992 he recorded another version, which was released as the only studio track on the live album "Access All Areas" in 1993.
• 1991: It was featured as a secret track on progressive thrash metal band Confessor's album Condemned
• 1993: The Swedish doom metal band Memento Mori recorded a version of this song as a hidden track on their debut album Rhymes of Lunacy.
• 1993: Country band The Cactus Brothers recorded a version on their self-titled debut album. They also recorded a video for the song, during the video, you see footage of Tennessee Ernie Ford performing the song.
• 1995: Tuff, a hard rock band, released a cover version on their album Religious Fix
• 1995: A traditional roots country version was released by Corb Lund on the album Modern Pain
• 1996: Western Flyer did a live comical cover version for their album Back in America (1996)
• 1998: Chicago band Hello Dave did a rendition on their 16 Tons album.
• 1998: Hungarian rock band Republic recorded a cover version called "Tizenhat tonna feketeszén" ("16 tons black coal") on their album Üzenet (Message).
• 1999: Serbian hard rock band Riblja Čorba recorded a cover version called "16 noći" (Trans. "16 nights") on their album Nojeva barka
• 1999: A slow, jazzy version by Stan Ridgway appeared on the album Anatomy
• 2005: A rock version released by Eels was on their live album "Sixteen Tons (10 Songs)
• 2005: Punk band This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb included a cover version on their album Dance Party With...
• 2007: Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich's rendition of the song on January 8 received fairly widespread TV coverage, and appeared on YouTube
• 2007: Lawrence "Lipbone" Redding covered the song on his album, Hop The Fence
• 2010: Lance Guest, portraying Johnny Cash, on the original Broadway cast recording of Million Dollar Quartet
• 2011: Tom Morello, political activist and guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and The Nightwatchman; on the EP "Union Town", released by NewWest Records
• 2012: The Dandy Warhols, released a cover on their 2012 album, "This Machine".
• 2012: The first ever Hip Hop version was released by Navid Najafi with his live band Evasive Species featuring Dion "Boogie" Scott recorded at Soul Sound Hawaii by Shawn Livingston Mosley. It is available on his debut album "Illnomadic"
• 2012: Hank Green, known as one of the founders of the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers, covered it on his channel Hankschannel
• 2012: LeAnn Rimes was performing the song as part of her live show as of 2012.

Also:

• Brave Combo recorded a cumbia version
• Rehab covered it on the independently released album Cuz We Can
• Rockapella recorded an a cappella version
• This Bike is a Pipe Bomb made a folk-punk version
• Sung on a weekly basis for the last 25 years by the Mobil Lounge Softball Team & Beer Swillers Club (aka MLST&BSC). Up-to-date team win/loss stats were substituted for the "lotta men died" section. Lyrics modified to include "Chucky", "P" (aka Mr. P), and "A Barber Named Mo".