An amazingly hot, swinging Tennessee Ernie Ford list......don't miss this one, kids.... :)

Tennessee Ernie Ford

Ernest Jennings Ford (February 13, 1919 – October 17, 1991), better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres.

Born in Bristol, Tennessee, to Clarence Thomas Ford and Maud Long, Ford began his radio career as an announcer at WOPI-AM in Bristol, Tennessee. In 1939, he left the station to pursue classical music and voice at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in Ohio. First Lieutenant 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, California. In San Bernardino, Ford was hired as a radio announcer. He was assigned to host an early morning country music disc jockey program titled Bar Nothin' Ranch Time. To differentiate himself, he created the personality of "Tennessee Ernie," a wild, madcap exaggerated hillbilly. He became popular in the area and was soon hired away by Pasadena's KXLA radio.

Ford also did musical tours. The Mayfield Brothers of West Texas, including Smokey Mayfield, Thomas Edd Mayfield, and Herbert Mayfield, were among Ford's warmup bands, having played for him in concerts in Amarillo and Lubbock, Texas, during the late 1940s. At KXLA, Ford 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. Cliffie 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 show. RadiOzark produced 260 15-minute episodes of The Tennessee Ernie Show on transcription disks for national radio syndication.

He released almost 50 country singles through the early 1950s, several of which made the charts. Many of his early records, including "The Shotgun Boogie", "Blackberry Boogie," and so on were exciting, driving boogie-woogie records featuring 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. A duet with Ella Mae Morse, False Hearted Girl was a top seller for the Capitol Country and Hillbilly division, and has been evaluated as an early tune. 

Ford eventually ended his KXLA morning show and in the early1950s, 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 became a household name in the U.S. largely as a result of his hilarious portrayal of the 'country bumpkin,' "Cousin Ernie" on three episodes of I Love Lucy. He called Ricky Ricardo "Cousin Rickido".

In 1955, Ford recorded "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" (which reached number 4 on the country chart) with "Farewell to the Mountains" on side B.

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 prime-time variety program, The Ford Show, which ran on NBC television from October 4, 1956, to June 29, 1961. In an ironic play of words, the show was named not after Ernie, but rather, the sponsor—Ford automobiles. Ford Theatre, an anthology series, had run in the same time slot on NBC in the preceding 1955-1956 season. 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. This became the most popular segment of his show. 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.

In 1956 he released Hymns, his first gospel music album, which remained on Billboard's Top Album charts for 277 consecutive weeks; his album "Great Gospel Songs" won a Grammy Award in 1964. After the NBC show ended, Ford moved his family to Portola Valley in Northern California. He also owned a cabin near Grandjean, Idaho on the upper South Fork of the Payette River where he would regularly retreat.

A photo of Ford with country singer Hank Thompson and Dallas nightclubs owner Jack Ruby appeared in the 1988 book, The Ruby-Oswald Affair, by Alan Adelson.

From 1962-65, Ford hosted a daytime talk/variety show, The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show (later known as Hello, Peapickers) from KGO-TV in San Francisco, broadcast over the ABC television network.

Ford was the spokesman for the Pontiac Furniture Company in Pontiac, Illinois in the 1970s.

Ford's experiences as a navigator and bombardier in World War II led to his involvement with the Confederate Air Force (now the Commemorative Air Force), a war plane preservation group in Texas. He was a featured announcer and celebrity guest at the annual CAF Airshow in Harlingen, Texas, from 1976 to 1988. He donated a once-top-secret Norden Bombsight to the CAF's B-29 bomber restoration project. In the late 1970s, as a CAF colonel, Ford recorded the organization's theme song "Ballad of the Ghost Squadron."

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, both Ford and wife Betty contended with serious alcohol problems; Betty had the problem since the 1950s. Though his drinking worsened in the 60's, he worked continuously, seemingly unaffected by his heavy intake of Cutty Sark whiskey. By the 1970s, however, it had begun to take an increasing toll on his health and ability to sing. After Betty's substance abuse-related death in 1989, Ernie's liver problems, diagnosed years earlier, became more apparent, but he refused to reduce his drinking despite repeated doctors' warnings. In 1990, 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. His physical deterioration by then was quite obvious.

Ford received posthumous recognition for his gospel music contributions by adding him to the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1994.

Ford was married to Betty Heminger from September 18, 1942, until her death on February 26, 1989; they had two children - Jeffrey Buckner “Buck” Ford (born January 6, 1950) and Brion Leonard Ford (born September 3, 1952 in San Gabriel, California - died Friday, October 24, 2008 in White House, Tennessee, of lung cancer at age 56). Less than four months after Betty's death, Ford married again. On September 28, 1991, he fell into severe liver failure at Dulles Airport, shortly after leaving a state dinner at the White House hosted by then President George H. W. Bush. Ford died in H. C. A. Reston Hospital Center, in Reston, Virginia, on October 17—exactly 36 years after "Sixteen Tons" was released, and one day shy of the first anniversary of his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.  Ford was interred at Alta Mesa Memorial Park, Palo Alto, California, Plot: Lot 242 Sub 1, Urn Garden. His second wife, Beverly Wood Ford (1921–2001), died ten years after Ernie and her body was interred with her husband's.

 Probably one of my favourite singers in the whole world, I can't believe I hadn't got around to doing a list of him until now.

I honestly believe that he is one of the least understood and under-appreciated singers of the last century.  The man had an amazing voice and performance style.  He could've done well in almost  any genre of music....he really was that good, IMHO.

In doing this list, I have decided to stick to his secular songs. The huge amount of gospel recordings by Ford are good enough to constitute a list of their own, and perhaps I may get around to it, considering what response that this list gets.

I also decided to make this a uptempo list, for the most part.  Ford's ballads and folk songs are great, but I wanted this reflect his humorous, swinging side.....and GOD, does this list swing hard.

I highly recommend giving this one a listen, especially if you are unfamiliar with his work. You just might find yourself in love, and unable to stop listening.....I really think it's that good. See for yourself. Enjoy :)

Ain't nobody's business but my own (w/ Kay Starr) 1950
Anticipation blues
Blackberry boogie
Blue Canadian Rockies (w/  (Cliffie Stone And His Hometown Jamboree Gang))
Blues stay away from me (w/ Cliffie Stone's Band, Merle Travis & Eddie Kirk)
Bright lights and blonde haired women  (w/ The Starlighters)
Catfish boogie 1953
Celebratin' (studio take)
Cool cool kisses (w/ Helen O'Connell)
Country junction
Cry of the wild goose
Dark as a dungeon
False hearted girl (w/ Ella Mae Morse)
Happen no more
Heart of my heart (w/ Helen O'Connell) from b'cast
Hey good lookin' (w/ Helen O'Connell)
Hey, Mr. Cotton Picker
Hog-tied over you (w/ Ella Mae Morse) studio take
I don't hurt anymore
I don't know
If you love me (from b'cast)
I'll never be free (w/ Kay Starr) 1950
I'm a bad man (w/ Tex Williams)
In the middle of an Island 1957
It's all in the game
It's the talk of the town  (w/ The Starlighters)
Kiss me big

http://www.4shared.com/file/gHXqM4Oc/tennessee_ernie_ford_1.html

Rootin' tootin' Santa Claus
Kissin' bug boogie
Milk 'em in the morning blues
Milk 'em in the morning blues 2
Mister and Mississippi
Mule train
Nine pound hammer  
Ocean of tears (w/ Kay Starr)
Put your arms around me
Rattlesnake daddy w/ The Everly Brothers
River of no return 1
Rock City boogie (w/ The Dinning Sisters)
She called me baby (w/ Glen campbell)
She's my baby
Shot gun boogie
Sixteen tons
Sixteen tons (live at the 1960 Indiana State fair)
Smokey Mountain boogie
Stack-o-lee
Sunday Barbecue
Sweet dreams
Tailor made woman
Take me back and try me one more time
Tennessee waltz
Tennessee border
Tennessee local
Tennessee waltz (live at the 1960 Indiana State Fair)

http://www.4shared.com/file/sPaAo1Rm/tennessee_ernie_ford_2.html

Battle hymn of the republic
Call me darling call me sweetheart call me dear
Christmas dinner
Dim lights thick smoke (w/ Merle Travis,  Molly Bee)
Don't be ashamed of your age (from TV)
Fatback Louisiana USA
Funny how time slips away
Hicktown
Honey eyed girl
Old cape cod
Rainy night in Georgia
River of no return
Stonewall Jackson's way
Streamlined cannonball (w/ The Dinning Sisters)
That's all
The ballad of Davy Crockett
The bonny blue flag
The honeymoon's over (w/ Betty Hutton)
The rovin' gambler
This must be the place (w/ Betty Hutton)
Trouble in mind (w/ Glen Campbell)
Watermelon song
We're-a growin' up (w/ Molly Bee)
Work song
You can tell a Texan ev'ry time (w/ Tex Williams)
You don't have to be a baby to cry
You're my sugar (w/ Kay Starr)

http://www.4shared.com/file/r1yl_f4y/tennessee_ernie_ford_3.html