Five Good Covers: “Sixteen Tons” (Merle Travis / Tennessee Ernie Ford)

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

Merle Travis may have brought “Sixteen Tons” into the world, but it was Tennessee Ernie Ford who made it immortal. The song’s arrangement – clarinets didn’t often get the spotlight, but one sure did here – was spare and distinctive. Ford’s bass baritone and his finger-snapping, both casual and menacing, hooked listeners in both the pop and country worlds, taking the song to number one on both charts. In a 1960 TV appearance together, Travis told Ford, “The song never amounted to much until you sung it.” Ford replied, “I never amounted to much until I sung it, either.”

A lot of people who have amounted to a lot have covered the song over the years. Bo Diddley, Harry Nilsson, Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones – and that was just in the ’60s! Even Chevy Chase took a crack at it (play at your own risk). To make my search easier to manage, I limited the five good covers to the 21st century. Even with that guideline, I was spoiled for choice.

Eels – Sixteen Tons

In 2003, Eels dropped in on KCRW’s famed Morning Becomes Eclectic show. There, they performed a set that came out a couple years later as Sixteen Tons (Ten Songs). The sorta-title track gets the indie rock treatment that takes it a long, long way from the coal mines.

ZZ Top feat. Jeff Beck – Sixteen Tons

A YouTuber put together a mashup video of ZZ Top, Jeff Beck, and Tennessee Ernie Ford performing “Sixteen Tons.” When Billy Gibbons saw the video, he figured it was by “someone who obviously had too much time on his hands.” When Beck saw it, he said, “Bloody hell, we can do this!” And so it was that the two made fiction into reality, performing a live version together. “It’s a mega meta kinda thang,” Gibbons said.

Nina Hagen – Sixteen Tons

As I researched this, my wife asked me, “Didn’t any women sing this song?” A fair few, it turns out. But it’s safe to say that when you go looking for a woman’s “Sixteen Tons,” you do not expect a presentation like Nina Hagen’s. The Godmother of German Punk has been at it since the ’70s, and her 2022 album Unity, featuring her cover of “Sixteen Tons,” shows her theatrical style to still be full throated and in full flower.

Clay Hess – Sixteen Tons

Clay Hess got his start playing guitar for Ricky Skaggs; he quickly moved on to be one of the top bluegrass players in the country. He says “Sixteen Tons” was “the first song I remember hearing as a kid in southeastern Ohio. My grandpa was a Merle Travis man through and through, that is the version I heard.” He gives it a slower reading here, with Skaggs joining in on mandolin.

Geoff Castellucci – Sixteen Tons

To say Geoff Castellucci sings bass is like saying Mt. Everest is a little on the tall side. This “simple guy that likes to sing and make videos” (his words) can drop his voice to Mariana Trench depths and look good doing it. His video for “Sixteen Tons” is coming up fast on twenty million views, and with that arrangement, it’s no wonder. If you like this, check out his YouTube playlist of covers.

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