Description
Inarguably a major recording act, Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919-1991) sold an estimated 90 million albums worldwide, and charted 17 Top Ten country singles and four Top Ten pop singles over a 35-year recording career. And he played significant – and pioneering – roles in radio and television broadcasting.
In the early months of 1955, Ford’s version of The Ballad Of Davy Crockett was a top five hit on the country chart as well as on
the pop chart, foreshadowing Ford’s ultimate crossover achievement. Toward the end of that same year, his smash single Sixteen
Tons topped both charts simultaneously, and rose to #1 in the U.K. Selling over four million copies and proving to be one of the
most influential singles of the 1950s. Ford’s signature song, Sixteen Tons was eventually inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of
Fame and into the National Recording Registry