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Ernest Jennings Ford (February 13, 1919 – October 17, 1991), better known by the stage name Tennessee Ernie Ford, was a pioneering U.S. recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country & western, pop, and gospel musical genres.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Sixteen Tons 3 Discography 4 Footnotes 5 References 6 External links

Born in Bristol, Tennessee to Maud Long and Clarence Thomas Ford,^[1] Ford began his radio career as an announcer at station WOPI in Bristol, leaving in 1939 to study classical music and voice at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. 1st Lieut. Ford served in World War II as the bombardier on a B-29 Superfortress flying missions over Japan. After the war, Ford worked at radio stations in San Bernardino and Pasadena, Calif. In San Bernardino, hired as a radio announcer, Ernest J. Ford did the news and general announcing. He was assigned the job of hosting an early morning country music disc jockey program titled "Bar Nothin' Ranch." To differentiate himself, he created the personality of "Tennessee Ernie," a wild, madcap exaggerated hillbilly and recorded songs such as The Bonnie Blue Flag. He became popular in the area and was soon hired away by Pasadena's KXLA radio.

At KXLA he continued doing the same show and also joined the cast of Cliffie Stone's popular live KXLA country show "Dinner Bell Roundup" as a vocalist while still doing the early morning broadcast. Stone, a part-time talent scout for Capitol Records, brought him to the attention of the label. In 1949, while still doing his morning show, he signed a contract with Capitol. He also became a local TV star as the star of Stone's popular Southern California Hometown Jamboree TV show. He released almost 50 country singles through the early 1950s, several of which made the charts. Many of his early records, including "Shotgun Boogie," "Blackberry Boogie," and so on were exciting, driving boogie-woogie records featuring exciting accompaniment by the Hometown Jamboree band which included Jimmy Bryant on lead guitar and pioneer pedal steel guitarist Speedy West. "I'll Never Be Free," a duet pairing Ford with Capitol Records pop singer Kay Starr, became a huge country and pop crossover hit in 1950.

Ford eventually ended his KXLA morning show and in the early 1950's, moved on from Hometown Jamboree. He took over from bandleader Kay Kyser as host of the TV version of NBC quiz show Kollege of Musical Knowledge when it returned briefly in 1954 after a four-year hiatus. He also portrayed the 'country bumpkin' "Cousin Ernie" on I Love Lucy.

Ford scored an unexpected hit on the pop charts in 1955 with his rendition of Merle Travis' "Sixteen Tons," a sparsely arranged coal-miner's lament that Travis wrote in 1946, based on his own family's experience in the mines of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Its fatalistic tone contrasted vividly with the sugary pop ballads and the rock and roll just starting to dominate the charts at the time:

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt.

Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go;

I owe my soul to the company store...

With a unique clarinet-driven pop arrangement by Ford's musical director, Jack Fascinato, "Sixteen Tons" spent ten weeks at number one on the country charts and eight weeks at number one on the pop charts, and made Ford a crossover star. It became Ford's 'signature song.'

Ford subsequently helmed his own primetime variety program, The Ford Show, which ran on NBC from 1956 to 1961. Ford's program was notable for the inclusion of a religious song at the end of every show; Ford insisted on this despite objections from network officials who feared it might provoke controversy. He earned the nickname "The Ol' Pea-Picker" due to his catch-phrase, "Bless your pea-pickin' heart!" He began using the term during his disc jockey days on KXLA.

There is a photo of Ford with country singer Hank Thompson and Dallas nightclubs owner Jack Ruby in the 1988 book, "The Ruby Oswald Affair" by Alan Adelson.

In 1956 he released "Hymns", his first gospel album, which remained on Billboard's "Top Album" charts for a remarkable 277 consecutive weeks; his album "Great Gospel Songs" won a Grammy Award in 1964. After the NBC show ended, Ford moved his family to Northern California and from 1962-65, hosted a daytime talk show The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show from San Francisco, broadcast over the ABC television network.

Over the years, Ford was awarded three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for radio, records, and television. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990.

Offstage, Ford contended with a serious alcohol problem. While it never affected his professional work, it took an increasing toll on his health. He began suffering increasing liver problems in the 1980s that worsened in 1990, the year he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. His last interview was taped in September 1991 by his old friend Dinah Shore for her TV show.

In October 1991, he fell ill after leaving a state dinner at the White House hosted by President George H. W. Bush. Ford died in a Virginia hospital on October 17, exactly thirty-six years after "Sixteen Tons" was released and one day shy of the first anniversary of his induction into the Hall of Fame.

Ernest Jennings Ford, aka "Tennessee Ernie" was laid to rest at Alta Mesa Memorial Park, Palo Alto, California. Plot: Lot 242 Sub 1, urn Garden. His wife, Beverly Wood Ford (b. 1921) passed away in 2001 and was laid to rest with her husband.

Ford was posthumously recognized for his gospel music contributions by adding him to the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1994.

He is mentioned in the Tom Waits song "First Kiss".

• 1948 Keep Lookin' Up - Word
• 1955 This Lusty Land! - Capitol
• 1956 Hymns - Capitol
• 1957 Ol' Rockin' Ern' - Capitol
• 1957 Spirituals - Capitol
• 1958 Nearer the Cross - Capitol
• 1958 The Star Carol - Capitol
• 1959 Gather 'Round - Capitol
• 1960 Come to the Fair - Capitol
• 1960 Sixteen Tons - Capitol
• 1960 What a Friend We Have - Capitol
• 1961 Civil War Songs of the North - Capitol
• 1961 Hymns at Home - Capitol
• 1962 Book of Favorite Hymns - Capitol
• 1962 Here Comes the Mississippi Showboat - Capitol
• 1962 I Love to Tell the Story - Capitol
• 1963 Long, Long Ago - Capitol
• 1963 The Story of Christmas - Capitol
• 1965 Sing We Now of Christmas - Capitol
• 1966 Bless Your Pea Pickin' Heart! - Pickwick
• 1966 My Favorite Things - Capitol
• 1967 Civil War Songs of the South - Capitol
• 1967 Aloha from Tennessee Ernie Ford - Capitol
• 1968 Tennessee Ernie Ford Deluxe Set - Capitol
• 196? I Love You So Much It Hurts Me - Pickwick
• 1970 America the Beautiful - Capitol
• 1970 Sweet Hour of Prayer - CEMA
• 1973 Country Morning - Capitol
• 1975 Ernie Sings & Glen Picks - Capitol
• 1975 Make a Joyful Noise - Capitol
• 1975 Precious Memories - Capitol
• 1976 For The 83rd Time - Capitol
• 1977 He Touched Me - Word
• 1978 Swing Wide Your Golden Gate - Word
• 1981 Tell Me the Old, Old Story - Word
• 1991 Sings Songs of the Civil War - Capitol
• 1991 Red, White & Blue - Capitol
• 1991 The Heart of Christmas - Capitol
• 1992 Favorite Hymns - Vanguard
• 1992 My Christmas Favorites - CEMA
• 1994 Showtime A Touch Of Magic
• 1995 What a Friend We Have in Jesus - Arrival
• 1995 Christmas with Tennessee Ernie Ford & Wayne Newton - Cema Special Markets
• 1995 Christmas - Cema Special Markets
• 1995 Favorite Songs of Christmas - Cema Special Markets
• 2004 For the New Crop - Heartcore
• 2006 The HoneyMoon's Over - Pegasus

• Whiteside, Johnny (1998). "Tennessee Ernie Ford". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 176-7.

• Official Website
• Sixteen Tons - The Story Behind the Legend
• Tennessee Ernie Ford at All Music Guide
• Tennessee Ernie Ford at the Internet Movie Database