Inarguably a major recording act, Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919-1991) sold an estimated 90 million albums worldwide, and charted 17 Top Ten country singles and four Top Ten pop singles over a 35-year recording career. And he played significant - and pioneering - roles in radio and television broadcasting. All the secular-themed studio recordings from the first dozen years in the career of one of the most important crossover acts in the history of American popular music. Five CDs containing 154 tracks and a 120-page book with newly written essays, track-by-track album notes, a discography, label scans, and many rare photographs and illustrations. Early country hits including the chart-topping Mule Train (1949) and Ford's pioneering 'hillbilly boogie' smash The Shotgun Boogie (1950), as well as Ford's first major crossover hit, the 1950 duet (with Kay Starr) I'll Never Be Free. It also includes classics such as Rock City Boogie (with the Dinning Sisters, 1951) and Blackberry Boogie (1952) as well as overlooked delights as the train song Tennessee Local (1952), his 1952 interpretation of Willie Mabon's rhythm and blues hit I Don't Know. This boxed set includes two never-before-released songs (Slow Down and Small World), numerous Ford singles and album tracks not previously reissued on CD, and several rarities, including Ford's 1955 recitations of Davy Crockett tales, as well as Ford's 1958 public service jingles to promote the U. S. Marine Corps 'Toys for Tots' charitable program. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1150/thumbnail.jpg

Excerpt: In 1955, Tennessee Ernie Ford (born Ernest Jennings Ford on February 13, 1919, in Bristol, Tennessee) was an established recording star who could claim several major country hits as well as a few minor pop hits to his name.