Added: 3 years ago
From: LordEgan
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  • 28 company men

  • I'm sixteen and I can sing this song word for word. :)

  • At 1:15 you can hear someone coughing.

    Fucking asshole ruined this song for generations!

  • Wavygravytrain is an asshole

  • idk y but this song used to scare the crap outta me when i was little lol

  • this hit the charts the same year rock and roll was invented

  • HAHAHA awesome

  • wal-mart is a beautiful job. i bust my ass at labor ready doing your job for minimum wage

  • Company store = ONE PERCENT

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  • this is great!!! :)

  • definition of cool.

  • Classic of The classics, fabulous.

  • This is real workingman's music.

  • Awesome.....this song is immortal!!!!

  • He is so cool....

  • love this song its one of the best.

  • ooooH If yuh see me comin. Better step aside, a lot of men didn't a lot of men died.

    One fist of Iron, the other of Steal. If the right one don't getcha than the left one will.

  • Every time I watch this I want him to say "I owe my soul to the company store Cousin Lucy!"

  • evrytime i hear this song i grow more chest hair

  • Hank Green cover this on the P4a live stream. I think I may be in love with this song, and the brilliant voice of Tenessee Ford x

  • Nowadays it's "I owe my soul to my CEO."

  • encouragable, have you heard marcolin?

    nothin does justice like a doom metal opera GOD, nothin against old Ford here just not the same vocal ability...

  • Great statement that could have been really over done. Kudos for restraint!

  • Wow, I have loved this song for the past 20 years when I used to work 16 hours shifts and would sleep 6 hours and then I would get up for another 12 or 16 hour shift, only people (Guys) who had work hard and had their balls full of sweat would understand this great song.

    

  • Great! Check out "Noriel Vilela" version!

  • Marcolin version is better...

  • @Undamen let me stoop right there. this is the orginal version theres no way in hell any version is better than this

  • 23 people must be white coller

  • Great song! Sing it at work =P

  • we are singing this at our school for choir and i actually love this song

  • He is my cousin. yea Tennesse Ernie Ford!

  • @ilikezappa die and burn

  • There's alot of ingnorant motherfuckers on here :). Just listen to the fucking music. If you don't like it or dont think he's talented, then dont fucking listen to him. That's why there are so many different genres of music. Christ... And who gives a fuck about improper scientific assertions? I didn't know that's what YouTube was about.

  • @thebleeding1993 You potty mouth . Go to your room. You spelled "Ignorant" wrong. Classic

  • @ilikezappa Also "alot" is two words :P

  • Actually , the empirical evidence for St Peter`s consciousness transcending his physical body after his death is not compelling ,but its a great song if you disregard the unscientific assertions.

  • @ilikezappa

    sigh... shut the hell up and enjoy the damn song.

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  • he has a cool voice 

  • i sing this song to myself all the time. its simply a great tune

  • а на видео одни шахтеры... lol

  • i love this song mt dad plays it all the time

  • My father had an original LP of this song. It chaps my butt that my sister sold it after he died.

  • Mr. Koalski Rocks!

  • I'm not sure but this video looks like they were watching a film from 1956 of Tennessee Ernie Ford singing, watching at a dinner that was a later year, that's why Ernie is Black & White and the dinner folks are in color, and if I remember right the dinner was for Ernie.

  • I grew up listening to the great Tennessee Ernie Ford singing this song. I remember seeing him on TV (small screen, black and white) singing this song, but I can't remember the show. I think it was before Ed Sullivan, but I'm not sure! Too many years to count back! Anyway, this will always be my favorite version.

  • anyone notice the croud is shot in color and he's black and white?

  • @andrewmuohio yeah, ruined an otherwise enjoyable video.

  • @andrewmuohio Its because theyre watching a video

    

  • @andrewmuohio What's that supposed to mean? Racist :)

  • @andrewmuohio Crowd? its Ford himself watching his performance from younger years on the screen on a tv show!

  • Someone showed this to me as a joke because I run a company store. If I allowed my compadres to run a tab and use credit they really would owe their souls to the company store! Lol. Thinking that this is going to be the theme for my store now

  • @dizzleblackizzle It used to be that way. Workers got paid in scrip, which was good only at the company store. That kept them beholden to the company. It's illegal now, but sometimes you see it in movies that take place during that time.

  • @ailurophile111 Wow who knew? I guess that would be one of the lowest points in American labor laws. Kind of puts the issues of today in perspective wouldn’t you say?

  • @dizzleblackizzle Well, I knew.

  • Kill all capitalists

  • He obviously doesn't know what he sings.

  • He's so fucking smooth... I love him dearly.

  • In Mexico the best cover has made by Alberto Vazquez. The voice is very similar.

  • I work in a warehouse. It sucks.

    I sing this song, everything is great.

  • How can any one dislike this?

  • Herman Hollerith received his degree in mining from Colombia University! Yay mining!!!

  • This should be the official song for WALMART. I owe my soul to the company store!!!

  • @WavyGravyTrain1 at least you get paid in dollars. Back then, in the times thissong s abbbout, you got paid in tokens you could only use in the compay store

  • @WavyGravyTrain1 I worked there for 5 years I know the feeling

  • @drf468 15 here

  • @WavyGravyTrain1 ya I know the feelings well had 10 years in and was tossed away like litter in the yard and ya they think like the company bosses of old ( they own you body and soul) I now thank God that I was tossed out of that little peice of hell's litle acre

  • @seppface dude, have you even looked up this guys career? Don't talk out your piehole just to hear yourself.

  • this song was one of my grandfathers favorite songs..and i love to listen to it all the time. even though it makes me sad cause this is one of the last songs he sang to me before he passed away! i miss you dadda!

  • the 20 people who disliked this song should be sent to a coal mine for a few years

  • Awsome.1st heard it on Mad Men. This is basically how even members of middle class feel at these times: Angry, materialistic and in debt.

  • the best fucking song ever

  • Brilliant anthem of the oppressed worker.

  • Back when singers needed talent to be singers..

  • @01001000100

    Correct

  • @01001000100 how is he talented?? people just say that to anything thats old

    he wrote a simple song with simple music and his voice isnt even that great his voice isnt horrible or anything but its not special i

  • @seppface I know right! Everyone says just because it's older it automatically makes them so amazingly talented, he never even wrote this song it was written by Merle Travis!

  • @seppface I suppose you can sing better. And simplicity in my opinion is actually preferrable- when people go over the top with hyped up music it makes me feel as if they're trying too hard or are trying to cover their voice cu they HAVE no talent. Music is all a matter of perspective, but if you really LOVE music in general, please don't disrespect other artists. It makes you look ignorant.

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  • @01001000100 Amen nowadays anybody can be a singer like emenem no real talent but he's a millionare.

  • @carabookid Eminem doesn`t sing , he talks in a whiny voice

  • @01001000100 Amen to that!

  • I'm here because of mad men.Can't belive I didn't know this song.

  • I never realized how much this song sounds like "Fever," the Peggy Lee Song.

  • 19 people weren't raised in the cane-break by an old mama-lion!!!!!

  • thumps up for bing bang theory

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  • tmumps up of reddit/minecraft send you here

  • I love listening to this when i play Minecraft! it's a good song to listen to when your getting chased by 3 creepers, a skelly shooting you and 2 zombies at your door (i made that up. It would be pretty bad luck if that happens O.O).

  • He was a great voice.

  • This song is awesome but just released something with the video. The man who sings the song is in black and white but when the show the audience it's color...

  • @KingSecres e old guy in the audience who snaps his fingers in the beginning, take a closer look at him...)

  • @KingSecres not exactly sure how to explain it, but i will try. back in the 50s when ernie ford was recorded doing the song, it's a projection of the video, but i believe it was part of a tribute that Dinah Shore was doing to him back when he passed on in 1991. if you look up on here, tennessee ernie ford sings 16 tons under one by the name of curleyb3 it should be there.

  • I just wanted to say this was showed to me by my teacher who recently retired. Im 15 and i appreciate all music. and this is a classic and i love this song. major respect.

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  • Joe Versus the Volcano

  • what a player!!

  • 19 people must be management.

  • Chuck me! :)

  • 16 tons/what'll you get?/Another day older and/deeper in...oh

  • 18 people have sold their soul to the company store.

  • This reminds me of this games with a bunch of blocks with chickens, cows, pigs, squids, creepers, zombies, skeletons, slimes, and you had to gather wood as a main material  with your bare fist. I think it rhymes with Linecraft...

  • the manliest song ever :D

  • It was my fathers favorit when I was a child - was on what we at home called '"the yellow LP" - I love the song - it remember of cosyness and what we in Denmark call "Hygge"

  • @Gitte237 Hyggelig Gitte det sier vi i Norge å.

  • This is my favourite song to listen to when im high. Its amazing. best song ever.

  • 16 tons has always reflected a very left wing attitude about labor relations and was well understood, and approved of where I grew up. Today I doubt few people would even appreciate the significance of "company store". Nobody much reads Steinbeck anymore. But it was also just a great song and my family always stopped to listen when it came on the radio.

  • I love these old songs from the 50's and 60's. I help but try to think of a song from my generation that ill be playing to my kids when im older. Nelly - Its hot in here? Some snot from the BEP? today's artists seem talentless compared to the classics......

  • @shaunbaker1982 Really? There's tonnes of talent in this age. No, it can't beat the classics, but not all music is horrid and untasteful.

  • i can't stop , ths song is contagous¡¡¡

  • Why the fuck is barney love song in the suggestions?

  • @azerothblood because people are WEIRD in their clicking from one thing to the next. Seriously weird.

  • BRILLIANT! Back in the day (when I first heard this song) Disney use to have DTV. They used this song over some of their animation, and I gotta admit it was so cool.  Of course that's back when Disney didn't stink, and they didn't screw with their classic characters and make them all CGI. Ugh! Disney come back to your roots. Speaking of which, The Roots of Goofy would be nice to see again, and UNCUT!!

  • @zangazoo2007 Yeah we need some good regression, they should bring back blackface too, what happened to blackface. FUck you trying to hijack this songs comment board for some bullshit about Disney. Get the fuck out,Trash can.

  • Recently I was working at Wal-mart... Every day on my way to work I'd listen to this song....

  • @lithodora That's probably the modern equivalent. At least it only crushes your soul instead of your soul and your body. That's progress.

  • well thank you for loading this song this was one of the songs that my dad use to sing to me before died hearing the real song mean alot to me thank You

  • Hello r/Minecraft

  • Did anyone else start snapping with him?

  • You know i did!

  • @Cyclops303 yeah

    

  • @Cyclops303 He's lip-synching his hit studio recording. That was extremely common in those days. It's for sale on iTunes, and while the speed isn't quite the same, every last detail of expression and arrangement are.

  • @Cyclops303

    I can't snap so I fucking headbang.

  • Minecraft

  • Minecraft!

  • @ledraps22 whoah, what does minecraft have to do with this song? I <3 minecraft

  • @ledraps22 FALLOUT!

    

  • @ledraps22 playing minecraft right now :D

  • @ledraps22 faggot

  • Magic!

  • coming from someone who was born and raised in west virginia and a coal miners daughter.... this is not just a lifestyle but a way of life

  • Who's here because they heard this song on The Cinema Snob?

  • @vfmc77 god bless that cinema snob

  • 15 people owe thier soul to the company store

  • @turdvomit

    That, or they have no soul to begin with - which explains them not feeling the soul in the song in the first place.

  • This guy also looks like the classic dad figure hehe

  • So, the people that are bashing lady gaga and Justin Beiber? Why? I'm not supporting them, but you've been doing this for what? 3 years? 4 years? Does it never get old for you? Cause it's old for everyone else. Hell, it was old 3 years ago.

  • haha cool this is music up yours lady gaga

  • Trying covering this one Justin Beiber! YOU CAN'T.

  • Haha, ok, maybe I got it wrong... It is

    Noriel Vilela - 16 toneladas

  • Amazing !

    It's also worthed to check out the brazilian version ´~;D

    Noriel Vilela - 66 toneladas

  • my Dad's from WV, and this song has meaning.

  • Ya know, they say guys are ''hot'' and ''pretty'' now, no one calls guys handsome anymore, and if they do their deffination is a sickingly skinny boy in thihghts with dyed hair and pink highlights. But, this man was TRUELY handsome.

  • 1:21 a giggle?

    

  • This is pure fucking talent. NO auto tune or any of that shit. This is what I want to hear.

    If a man sang to me like that I would get on my knees and proclaim my undying love.

    Any disrespect deserves an ass beating.

  • @WTFMurderousMarie You sound real easy.

  • Why are there thumbs down? It's hard to find this video compared to others so why bother looking for it if you don't like it?

  • Real talent right here. Thanks for the upload!.

  • One of my favorite songs! Nice to see him sing it live. Thanks for sharing

  • OMG - darkangel29687 - MY beloved beautiful Mother, born and raised in Monrovia, Alabama, and working on the Oak Ridge Project in TN (and now in Heaven) dated Tennessee Ernie Ford when she was young! Once she and Ernie were in the front seat of a car, and unbeknownst to them, my Daddy had hidden in the badk seat, and jumped out and ran off Tennessee Ernie Ford! My Fahter was born and raised in Maben, Mississippi.

  • This amazing man was my cousin. He had such a deep powerful voice.

  • A classic tune originally written by Merle Travis.

  • thumbs up if you sing along to this tune every time you hear it.

  • @healthyfire

    And then some!

    A friend in college made me memorize it and sing it with her,

    and my dad sang it to me when I was little.

    All time favorite!

  • 2:33 YouTube video: Tennessee Ernie Ford singing Sixteen Tons [1956]

    February 13, 1919: birth of Tennessee Ernie Ford, American musician (d. 1991)

  • I wondered about the figure "16 tons" myself. I am only guessing but I would presume that it is the quantity that a single worker or crew would be able to extract in a year's time. Maybe, it is a day's time. Even so, there is a funny Russian reference. It is the weight of a bomb that might be dropped on another country. Ok, not so funny, but there is a Russian club called "16 tons."

  • back then mining companies paid the workers off with their own money , the only place the workers could use it is in the company stores 

  • @glerb46 Young kids...

    Back when, the company would charge the workers for what supplies they used. You need to load 16 tons of ore today, buddy. Need gloves and a shovel? Go buy 'em in the company store. Some days you will spend more than you earn. Hence, another day older and deeper in debt.

  • 16 tons might be the daily quata the Mining company required of you, I think it's about 42 carts a day?

  • did anyone notice that the "old man" snapping was tennessee? I bet you didnt! Now your checking back to see for yourself. Why dont you trust me? D:

  • Just curious how they come up with the number 16?

  • the company store forced miners to buy from them .My uncle opened his own store for the miners and mine company tried to kill him but they got their ass full of buc shot and that store is still there today.God bless the miners.

  • thumbs up if mad men brought u here!

  • LIKE ME if you CLICKED YOUR FINGERS while hearing the song

  • = MODAL TY = = = 4 Mamma Lion +

  • Time passes , taste & styles change , but some things are eternal , this song being among them >:-]

  • capitalism wins again

  • I may be only 16 years old and this is way before my time, but this song is true music. It relates hardship between people and appeals to everyone. If only music today was like this.

  • @TheBKlick amen. Blues, Metal, Jazz, Classical, Funk, etc. is a billion times better than new stuff. Amazing song btw

  • I remember hearin this on my father's radio, ah those were the good day. Songs these days just are not good, horrible tunes combined with bad meaning.

  • It makes you wanna talk politics

  • 12 idiots, sheesk

  • Billboard's 5th #1 song of the rock era. RIP, Ernie. God bless your little ole pea-pickin' heart!

  • amazing voice and song.

  • can u please help me out i lost my favorite cassette tape and had these songs

    Tennessee ernie ford - 16 Tons

    Harper Valley P.T.A. movie clip / singer Jeannie C. Riley

    Bobbie Gentry - Ode To Billy Joe

    Willie Nelson - On the Road Again

    cassette tape white tan color golden something