While the song is usually attributed to Merle Travis, to whom it is credited on his 1947 recording, George S. Davis, a folk singer and songwriter who had been a Kentucky coal miner, claimed on a 1966 recording for Folkways Records to have written the song as “Nine-to-ten tons” in the 1930s. Davis’ recording of his version of the song appears on the albums George Davis: When Kentucky Had No Union Men and Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian.
According to Travis, the line from the chorus “another day older and deeper in debt” was a phrase often used by his father, a coal miner himself. This and the line “I owe my soul to the company store” is a reference to the truck system and to debt bondage. Under this scrip system, workers were not paid cash; rather they were paid with non-transferable credit vouchers which could be exchanged for only goods sold at the company store. This made it impossible for workers to store up cash savings. Workers also usually lived in company-owned dormitories or houses, the rent for which was automatically deducted from their pay. In the United States the truck system and associated debt bondage persisted until the strikes of the newly formed United Mine Workers and affiliated unions forced an end to such practices.
“Sixteen Tons” is a song about the life of a coal miner, first recorded in 1946 by American country singer Merle Travis and released on his box set album Folk Songs of the Hills the following year. A 1955 version recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford reached number one in the Billboard charts, while another version by Frankie Laine was released only in the United Kingdom, where it gave Ford’s version competition.
A version called “靜心等” (Wait patiently) is a well-known hit in Taïwan, interpreted by Chinese singer 張露 (Chang Loo) and by Teresa Teng (鄧麗君) who she recorded this song in 1968 at age of 15.
Personally, I like The Platters~~~
Tennessee Ernie Ford
The Platters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smC4BTsl5F8
張露
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMR5x23bhCk
16 Tons Lyrics
Another older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company storeBorn one morning it was drizzle and rain
Fightin’ and Trouble are my middle name
I was raised in a canebrake by an old mama lion
And no high-toned woman make me walk the line
A lot of men didn’t and a lot of men died
I got one fist of iron and the other of steel
And if the right one don’t get ya, the left one willBorn one mornin’ when the sun didn’t shine
Picked up a shovel and I walked to the mine
I hauled Sixteen Tons of number 9 coal
And the straw-boss said, “Well, bless my soul”