I snapped my fingers all through it. Sometimes I set my own tempo during rehearsal by doing that.
I'd sung Sixteen Tons years before, but it hadn't been any blockbuster, and Merle Travis, who'd written it, had put it in an album of his songs. Nothing happened then either.
Sixteen Tons was written eight years before I recorded it.
They liked Sixteen Tons at Capitol, when I brought it over and suggested that they record it, but nobody threw a fit over it.
We decided to do some of Merle's things with modern instrumentation. We used a flute, a bass clarinet, a trumpet, a clarinet, drums, a guitar, vibes and a piano.
When you do a show five days a week and one night a week, the way I was doing, you use up so much music every day that pretty soon you find yourself hustling for material.
You can keep rummaging around until you find a song you like, but you can't predict whether it'll hit or not.
You can't cheat the public for long.
Ernie's Great Gospel Songs LP with The Jordanaires was 1964's Grammy winner for Best Inspirational Recording.
In September of 1991, Ernie taped an extended television interview in Los Angeles with his long-time friend, Dinah Shore. Sadly, it was to be his last television appearance.
Ernie Ford's early successes as a radio personality led to his signing with Capitol Records in 1949.
Ernie was educated at the Cincinnati Conservatory.
In 1955, Ernie was nominated for an Emmy for Most Outstanding New Personality.
Ernie's book Tennessee Ernie Ford's Book of Favorite Hymns was a best-seller in its fleid when it was published in 1962, and a companion record album on Capitol Records was released later that same year.
Ernie's biggest hit "Sixteen Tons" was credited as being the first Rock & Roll big hit and for kicking off the Rock and Roll era of the Fifties.
Ernie made the first tour of the Soviet Union with a country-western stage show (including Roy Clark) in 1974.
Ernie's remains are buried at Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto, California.
Ernie was married to Betty Heminger from September 1942 until her death in 1989. He didn't remarry.
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