Tennessee Ernie Ford
November 26, 1955: Tennessee Ernie Ford's recording of "Sixteen Tons" is listed at Number 1 on Billboard magazine's Top 100 record chart.
In 1946, country singer Merle Travis was asked to gather songs about mining. He said he couldn't find any, which, at that point, would have been ridiculous. At any rate, he wrote "Sixteen Tons," about a miner living in a "company town," where, instead of cash or a paycheck, he gets paid in credit to the "company store."
In order to "break even" each day, he had to shovel 18 tons of coal. That's too much, so he ends up owing the store:
You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go.
I owe my soul to the company store.
In the 2nd verse, the miner says, "I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal, and the straw boss said, 'Well, damn your soul!'" Pretty rough language for a 1947 American song.
In 1955, singer and actor Ernest Jennings Ford -- from the Tennessee side of the State Line-crossing city of Bristol, so he could easily have been nicknamed "Virginia Ernie" as "Tennessee Ernie" -- then a 36-year-old music superstar and a veteran bomber pilot of World War II, recorded the song. At the time, with his bass voice and finger snaps telling a brooding tale that flew in the face of "Hit Parade" pop fluff and the early rock and roll songs, it hit Number 1, and stayed there for 6 weeks.
Ernie was then regarded as America's premier recorder of Protestant hymns, and decided he had to change the song's most troublesome lyric: He had the straw boss say, "Well, bless my soul," which makes little sense.
On Christmas Eve, at Carnegie Hall in New York, with a live album recorded of the concert, Pete Seeger of The Weavers had no qualms about having the straw boss be the company stooge, and tell the narrator the original version.
Indeed, pretty much every singer who was considered even slightly country recorded "Sixteen Tons." Elvis Presley never did, but Lorne Greene, star of Bonanza and with a voice that, as a radio announcer in World War II, earned him the nicknames "The Voice of Canada" and "The Voice of Doom," recorded it for the Bonanza cast album.
From 1956 to 1961, The Ford Show ran on NBC. It was a variety show, hosted by Tennessee Ernie Ford. But this was the era when sponsors ruled television, so the show was named for the main sponsor, the Ford Motor Company, first, and the host second. He became known for his catchphrase: "Bless yer little pea-pickin' hearts!"
Merle Travis died in 1983; Tennessee Ernie Ford, in 1991.
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November 26, 1955 was a Saturday, the one in Thanksgiving Weekend when major college football rivalries tend to be played. On the Thursday, the games included Texas upsetting Number 8 Texas A&M, 21-6 in College Station. On the Saturday, these were among the rivalries played:
* Number 1 Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State, 53-0 at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma.
* USC upset Number 5 Notre Dame, 42-20 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
* Number 7 Texas Christian University (TCU) beat Southern Methodist University (SMU), 20-13 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.
* Number 9 Georgia Tech beat Georgia, 21-3 at Grant Field in Atlanta.
* Number 10 Auburn beat Alabama, 26-0 at Legion Field in Birmingham.
* Army upset Number 11 Navy, 14-6 at Municipal Stadium (later John F. Kennedy Stadium) in Philadelphia.
* Number 14 Miami beat Florida, 7-6 at Burdine Stadium (later renamed the Orange Bowl) in Miami.
* Number 15 Mississippi (Ole Miss) beat Mississippi State, 26-0 at Scott Field (now Davis Wade Stadium) in Starkville, Mississippi.
* Tennessee upset Number 19 Vanderbilt, 20-14 at Shields-Watkins Field (now Neyland Stadium) in Knoxville, Tennessee.
* Boston College beat the College of the Holy Cross, 26-7 at Fenway Park.
* Tulane University and Louisiana State University (LSU) played to a tie, 13-13 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
* Colorado A&M (soon to be renamed Colorado State) beat Colorado, 10-0 at Colorado Field in Fort Collins.
* Arizona beat Arizona State, 7-6 at Goodwin Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.
* And in New Jersey, Rutgers completed its season the week before.
There were 4 games in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the Syracuse Nationals, 100-99 at the old Madison Square Garden.
* The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Fort Wayne Pistons, 87-82 at the Philadelphia Civic Center.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Rochester Royals, 104-103 at the Rochester War Memorial (now the Blue Cross Arena).
* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 104-95 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.
And there were 2 games in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum. And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 7-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings did not play.
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