FRANKIE LAINE - SIXTEEN TONS

[theonlymoo5e]

This version was tied with Ford's version for #1 in Australia for 6 weeks

[toogawnjawn]

I was born in 1955 and when I was knee high to a grassr my mother strum3e the gee-tar and sang this song to me, loved then love it know.

[NewAthensDemocracy]

In my country, you have to pay taxes to work, to buy cloathes or food. You have to pay taxes to own property. If you dont pay up you ultimately get jailed. We haven't come very far

[rockape560]

tennesse had a deper voice but frankie was suited to the record albums its all down to who yoo think is the best

[dabreu]

Well, I live in Brazil and have heard this version. As a matter of fact, I got it. It came out in an lp with several Frankie's hits like Granada, My Little one etc. My older sister bought it around 59.

[maurimorado]

Where can I download this song because the one that I have is not this one?

[TheLang0lier]

I always smile when I hear other singers tring to make their own cover of this song. The original by Merle Travis is also uncomparable to Frankies version. I really can not understand how can people like Eranie Ford's version more when it's so much weaker. And a fact i found out now by you that the song was not released in the states. The only way I can resolve this mystery is that Frakie sings the song with much meaner voice and this is a song which was not comfortable for the gov.of that time

[cooligalgirl]

great singer , like this song ,brings back memories .

[akytilop]

I was born into a family of Pennsylvania coalminers and this song is our anthem. I never hear this version until now.

[markalson1938]

@akytilop Not many Americans would have heard this version as it was never put out in the U.S., only in Europe. It did apear on an LP inan uptempo version that wasn't as good.

[Tonithenightowl]

@akytilop Coal miners' grand daughter here and you didn't find a tougher bunch of guys. Put someone in the dark for 12 to 16 hrs and let them inhale coal dust and work like a mule, then figure out why some were saints and some satan. Can I get an amen?

[sidelis]

!!!

[siklingman]

good song, great video presentation , bring back a lot of childhood memories ------ in HongKong.....................

[spectertracy]

I know this recording well, my granfather loves Frankie Laine. I know many of Mr. Laine's recordings well.

[buzzdaly]

ernie was good..but frankie was GREAT!!!

[MaryNGG]

Lately I've been having fun finding different versions of songs I like, and that led me to this video and then your channel. I visited your website, and it makes me very glad there are people like you who have this music and take the time to share it. I enjoyed your opinion page on your website...that was a good idea.

[markalson1938]

@MaryNGG I'm glad you enjoyed my web page, when I made it there was very little on frankie except for sites selling his records. Even Frankie's own site does not list his recordings and what they list for hits is only a partial and it is wrong. I two collect diferent versions of songs as you can see on YT i have several versions of the same song listed. But only songs I like Like this one.

[78smusicman]

@markalson1938 He recorded another faster version also that is very good !!!  :)

[markalson1938]

@78smusicman Yes he did, this version was only put out in England where it was a top ten hit. In the States he recorded the more up tempo version on an album called "The Balledteer" in 1959. I think this the single was better

but I think Columbia didn't want it to go against Tenn. Ernia Ford's which was already a Big Hit in the U.S.

[78smusicman]

@markalson1938 Thanks for the info and the Video !! :)

[Cleareye10]

Very cool. I've been a Frankie Laine fan since the 40s and did not know he recorded this.

[markalson1938]

@Cleareye10 Else you lived in the U.K. not many knew of this recording. He recorded it for Columbia in 1956 but

for some reason only issued in England. There it was a top 10 hit. He also made another recording of it in 1959 for an album but I don't think that version was as good.

[MegaParzifal]

Grande!

[petereuropa]

Now I don't miss it. Now I listen to this great voice and to this great song that shows the hard working people building the tracks across the USA and in other countries around the world. Thank's a lot!

[petereuropa]

Frankie Lane had a fantastic voice! I miss one song from my childhood: Terrier song. He was one of the hard guys (= his voice, tough but soft).This, his version, is very nice.

[markalson1938]

@petereuropa So you miss the "Tarrier Song" from your youth?

or what the true title of this old folk song was "Drill Ye Tarroers, Drill"

well I just added it to You Tube Hope it;s as good as you remember it.

[cooligalgirl]

If one was living in the depression years they would understand this song very well life was a battle, life was hard.and the company store owned you.

[educamex]

es bueno

[Tanopeligroso]

The pictures of the miners are really impressive. Very good video and very good performance.

[DingoMonkey]

I love this, almost as much as Ernie Ford. Kind of a Rat Pack, big band flavor on the song. Great

[aprilliaprilton]

hmmm...

honestly i didnt like him change the lyrics.

i mean "Saint Peter" into "brother".

this is a great song depicting old, hard days of the States.

this is a song having a soul of its own.

i would better keep it original...

[Revillpoetry]

ya that lyrical change takes a lot of meaning out of the song

[zerstorer335]

I agree. It's the difference between (here) telling someone he can't do something because of his debt and (in other versions) saying to St. Peter he can't even DIE because of what he owes to "the company store".

[highnrising]

It's not the only time Frankie removed a religious reference from a song. When he did "Road to Mandalay" he changed Kipling's--and Sinatra's-- "Ship me somewhere's east of Suez.....Where there are no Ten Commandments" to "Where there are no regulations."

That wasn't as bad as this change, but i definitely was not good.

[MrPetjack]

The lyrics for this song and others were changed because the BBC would not broadcast a song with' disrespectful'religious content'. That's why Frank's answer me lord above was banned by the BBC as was 'Kid's last fight' as it referred to " the golden ropes of the big ring in the sky" and Fords version of 16ton was not aired on BBC

[MrPetjack]

Blame the BBC, a lot of songs were changed in the 50s because of the 'irreverent' use of religious concepts. St Peter was out and Oh Brother was OK. So Frank recorded an acceptable version and got into top 20 whereas Tennessee Ernie did not.

[Inkkariful]

Suomen kielinen kommentti,eklantini on huonoa,sama vimma oli Olavillakin tässä kipaleessa!Molemmat laulajat maailman huippuja.Kumpi sitten BEST?

[acla9000]

I knew the Tennessee Ernie Ford version which was really delightful, but this one by Frankie is also great! Thanks for posting!!

[kabeja61]

powerful song.

[acla9000]

!Sí, puede estar seguro! / Yes, you can be sure!

[MrGualtieromarcello]

Those were times... !!!!This was a voice....!! Simply wonderful

[anthuan86]

cuando estaba joven la escuchava con alberto vasquez no tenia la idea de la letra..habla un poco de la esplotacion de los mineros de eeuu que realmente es mundial

[laghimaghi]

Great!

[Chamelionroses]

Know the history and born in a coal country. Very rough messing in robber baron politics. Child labor then as well. Wow glad things have changed.

[Terry5135]

Oh man, you're breakin' my heart! So true! No one learns and it's like everyone can't wait to bring on those sorrowful times again. It's like no one ever learns what the rich are like.

[chowmein911]

deep tune!!!! :D

[dimges]

nice clip, world HIT with great history, beginning with Merle Travis1946, 'Tennessee' Ernie Ford 1955, later Franki Laine with his version, The Platters in 1957, Tom Jones in 1967 and many other...

[alinapala]

I'm from Argentina, and so is my father, and the only version he knew during his youth was this one! :-)

[zaaritha]

Not the best version--but good--anyway!

[Etnalleb]

Frankie Laine the Greatest Singer of Western Songs Ever but this one belongs to T.E.Ford, Just like RawHide and OK Corral belong to Laine.Like ciroalb3 said it takes guts to sing a song owned by another singer and Laine had plenty of guts and did the song good.

[markalson1938]

Times change, back in the 50's and before if a song was on the way to being a hit, every record company would put out there own record of it. That why there was many hits of the same song. Frankie recorded this before ernie's was such a big hit. But before it hit the market the record was a blockbuster. So Columbia pulled it back and only put it out in

the UK where Ernie wasn't well known and Frankie's version was a top 10 recording.

[Etnalleb]

You may very well be right about Laine recording this before T.E.F then it was his record company that screwed up by not releasing it in the USA allowing T.E.F'ds version to come out . All in All i think Ford was tailor made for this song he had the deep bass and it was perfect for the song where as Laine a Tenor didn't quite sound as good for this particular song although he did a great job on it.

[markalson1938]

No Ford did record it first and at the first sign that it was going to be a hit, Columbia rushed Frankie into the studio for his cover.

But before it went on the market Ford's was such a big hit they desided not to compete.

Yes Ford did do a better job on it. But Ford went head to head with Frankie on two other songs and lost by wide margins.

[Etnalleb]

and those 2 songs would be?? Referring to your previous comment you did say "Frankie recorded this before ernie's was such a big hit" Now you say " No Ford did record it first" It really doesn't matter who did it 1st .Ford's version is the one that made him famous and deservingly so.

[markalson1938]

The two songs were In 1949 "Mule Train" Frankie's was #1 on the charts. Ernie's was #9

In 1950 "Cry Of The Wild Goose" Frankie's #1

Ernie's #15. Ernie was well known before "Sixteen Tons". He had several Top 40 hits plus an Afternoon TV show. But with "Sixteen Tons" his popularity grew. He got a Weekly TV evening show that ran for 10 years. But he never had another recording that came close to what "Tons" did. His last Top Forty hit was in 1957 with "In The Middle Of An Island" At #23.

[Etnalleb]

agreed 'Mule Train' was owned by Laine as was "Cry of the Wild Goose" Laine also made it big with "Rawhide" and countless other western songs in which he was untouchable ,Laine was the best there was no doubt about it. As for T.E.Ford half the people didn't know who he was until he came out with '16 Tons" that made him a superstar in his day.

[highnrising]

This song was written by Merle Travis--a country picker who was a long-time compadre of TEF. So certainly Ernie was going to be the one to popularize it.

[markalson1938]

But Merle wrote the song 9 years before Ford recorded it. He wasn't even planning to record it

in 1955. But he was performing at a State Fair that year and happen to sing that song. He got such a big reaction from the crowd on it that his record Co desided to put it out on the "B" side of a record. I don't think anyone can remember what the "A" side was supose to be. By the end of the year he had sold well over 2 million copies.

[highnrising]

Travis put it out in the '40s on "Folk Songs of the Hills". That album also included another great song of his called "Dark as a Dungeon"--It came out on CD in the '90s. I think Travis plays on TEF's recording of "16 Tons."

It's not unusual that a song become a bigh hit on a second or third recording. I believe Terry Gilkyson put "Wild Goose" out some years before Frankie made it into a No. 1 hit. I'm not sure, but I suspect that Frankie was not the first to cut "Lucky Old Sun" either.

[ciroalb3]

it takes guts to do a song that another singer owns. This song just swept the nation when EF did it, but I think Laine's version is just as good.

[mauriciox123x]

exelent mexico also had its version by alberto vasquez

[highnrising]

Excellent version, but you can't say it beats Ernie's. TEF's "16 Tons" is an iconic piece of Americana, up there with Bing's "Brother Can You Spare A Dime" and Robeson's "Ol' Man River."

I see Frankie changed "St. Peter don't you call me" to "Oh brother don't you call me"--just like on "Road to Mandalay" he changed "where there are no Ten Commandments" to "where there are no regulations". Sounds like he was being pc--by not being irreverent. The modifications weaken the lyrics in both cases.

[rileyjeffs]

Sixteen Tons and Mule Train are the only 2 songs where I will rate somebody above Frankie.The background rhythm on TEF's Mule Train has been a BIG favourite of mine from being a youngster, it gave me the impression it was recorded in a tunnel, the echo-y sound in the background.Cheers to all FL fans, Ernie,Merseyside

[starbank2]

Always preferred this version over Ernie Ford's,I have this on volume 2 of the Frankie

Laine collection, issued in 2004,,cheeers,,Mick...

[markalson1938]

Frankie's singles version was good, but I think this one of two songs that someone else did better than he did. That's the reason I think Columbia never issued it. The other song was "The Wayward Wind" Both Gogi's and Tex Ridder's version was better than his.