[78-L] 16 Tons of Urban Legend?

[David Lennick]

I remember at the time hearing or reading that someone raced over to Ford with 
a copy of the Merle Travis album and said something like "You gotta record 
this". Per Whitburn, Ford's disc was charted November 12, 1955 and Johnny's on 
November 18th. The Desmond platter was waxed on October 14th, per Ruppli. And 
you say Billboard reviewed the Ford biscuit on October 15th.

Trivia..my folks were playing the Merle Travis record on their program in 1953.

dl

On 3/6/2011 8:31 PM, Michael Biel wrote:
> OK, I'll drop the other shoe.  The reason I asked about Capitol A sides
> is that there is a archive web site that you would think should be
> fairly reliable that in a discussion of the Merle Travis original of 16
> Tons mentioned that the Tennessee Ernie Ford recording had been issued
> as the B side to "You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry" and that "two
> months later it was the greatest selling single of all time."
>
> That's why I have been looking thru late 1955 Billboards.  I found the
> review in the Oct 15 issue which listed the 16 Tons side first, the
> first ad for the record in the Oct 22 issue BEFORE the record had hit
> any charts, and the ad is definitely for 16 Tons, and in the Oct 29
> there is a huge ad and a review for Johnny Desmond's (!!) cover of 16
> Tons on Coral and the review mentions that Ford's original is starting
> to move.  It doesn't hit the charts for another week, so it is obvious
> the Desmond recording was in the pipeline before Ford's record was released.
>
> So I don't believe it was meant to be the B side, nor that it became the
> greatest selling single of all time by Jan 56.  Any comments?
>
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com