Sixteen Tons

Summary

Sixteen Tons is a musical work/composition^[1]. It ranks in the top 2% of musical_work_composition entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (3,113 views/month).^[2]

Key Facts

• Sixteen Tons's instance of is recorded as musical work/composition^[3].
• Sixteen Tons's composer is recorded as Merle Travis^[4].
• Sixteen Tons's genre is folk music^[5].
• Among the performers on Sixteen Tons was Merle Travis^[6].
• Among the performers on Sixteen Tons was Tennessee Ernie Ford^[7].
• Sixteen Tons's language of work or name is recorded as English^[8].
• Sixteen Tons was released on 1946^[9].
• Sixteen Tons's lyricist is recorded as Merle Travis^[10].
• Sixteen Tons's tonality is recorded as E minor^[11].
• Sixteen Tons's title is recorded as {'lang': 'en', 'text': 'Sixteen Tons'}^[12].
• Sixteen Tons's different from is recorded as Q137959606^[13].
• Sixteen Tons's first line is recorded as {'lang': 'en', 'text': 'Some people say a man is made outta mud'}^[14].
• Sixteen Tons's form of creative work is recorded as song^[15].

Product Details

The following facts are restated verbatim from public-domain and CC0 open-data sources — every line is independently verifiable against the named source's catalog.

MusicBrainz — CC0 open music encyclopedia

• Release type: Song^[16]

• Community tags: coal mining^[17]

• MusicBrainz ID: 4fe4cfb8-8aae-3f55-a900-f669bc796ab7^[18]

Body

Authorship and Creation

Performers include Merle Travis^[6] and Tennessee Ernie Ford^[7].

Publication

Sixteen Tons was published on 1946^[9]. Its language of work or name is recorded as English^[8]. Its genre is folk music^[5].

Why It Matters

Sixteen Tons ranks in the top 2% of musical_work_composition entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (3,113 views/month).^[2] It has Wikipedia articles in 11 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.^[19] It is known by 5 alternative names across languages and contexts.^[20]