Born in Bristol, Tennessee, to Clarence Thomas Ford and Maud Long, Ford began his radio career as an announcer at station WOPI in Bristol, leaving in 1939 to study classical music and voice at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. 1st Lieut. 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, Calif. In San Bernardino, hired as a radio announcer, Ernest J. Ford did the news and general announcing. He was assigned the job of hosting an early morning country music disc jockey programme titled "Bar Nothin' Ranch." 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.
At KXLA he 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. 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 television star as the star of Stone's popular Southern California "Hometown Jamboree" television show. He released almost fifty country singles through the early 1950s, several of which made the charts. Many of his early records, including "The Shot Gun Boogie", "Blackberry Boogie", and so on were exciting, driving boogie-woogie records featuring exciting 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.
Ford eventually ended his KXLA morning show and in the early 1950s, moved on from Hometown Jamboree. He took over from bandleader Kay Kyser as host of the television version of the NBC quiz show "College of Musical Knowledge" when it returned briefly in 1954 after a four-year break. He also portrayed the country bumpkin Cousin Ernie on I Love Lucy.
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. 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 primetime variety programme, The Ford Show, which ran on NBC from 1956 to 1961. Ford's programme 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. It quickly became the most popular segment of the show. He earned the nickname "The Ol' Pea-Picker" becafter his catch-phrase, "Bless your pea-pickin' heart!"
In 1956 he released Hymns, his first gospel album, which remained on Billboard's "Top Album" charts for a remarkable 277 consecutive weeks; his album Great Gospel Songs won a Grammy Award in 1964. After the NBC show ended, Ford moved his family to Northern California and from 1962 to 1965, hosted a daytime talk show The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show from San Francisco, broadcast over the ABC TV network.
Over the years, Ford has been 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.
Ford, who offstage contended with a serious alcohol problem that never affected his professional work, began suffering increasing liver problems in the 1980s that worsened in 1990, the year he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He fell ill in 1991 after leaving a state dinner at the White House hosted by President George Bush, and died in a Virginia hospital on 17th October, exactly thirty-six years after "Sixteen Tons" was released and one day shy of the first anniversary of his induction into the Hall of Fame.
Ford was posthumously recognized for his gospel music contributions by being added to the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1994.
You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry
Tennessee Ernie Ford Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All you need is for love to go wrong
You don't have to be a baby to cry
Or to lie awake the whole night long
When you leave me
My golden rainbow disappears
And you leave me a broken heart
These ain't rainbows in my eyes
Why should I lie
You don't have to be a baby to cry
When you leave me
My golden rainbow disappears
And you leave me a broken heart
That's full of tears
These ain't rainbows in my eyes
Why should I lie
You don't have to be a baby to cry
You don't have to be a baby to cry
You don't have to be a baby to cry
Tennessee Ernie Ford's song "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry" is a country ballad that talks about the emotional pain of a failed relationship. The song describes how you don't have to be a child or young to cry, but all you need is a broken heart caused by love gone wrong. The lyrics of the song highlight the intense emotional pain that one has to go through when a loved one leaves.
The song's chorus "You don't have to be a baby to cry" is a metaphorical expression that implies that anyone can experience heartbreak irrespective of their age, gender or status. The gold rainbow disappearing in the song means that the joy and happiness of the relationship ends when love is lost. The lines "These ain't rainbows in my eyes, why should I lie" reflects the intensity of the emotional pain that the singer feels, and there is no use in pretending to be happy when your heart is broken.
In a way, this song also reminds us that pain is a universal experience that everyone feels, and it's okay to shed tears when you are hurting. It is a sentiment that is relatable, and the song proves to be a classic even after all these years.
Line by Line Meaning
You don't have to be a baby to cry
Crying is not limited to just infants
All you need is for love to go wrong
The reason for tears could be a result of a failed relationship
Or to lie awake the whole night long
Sadness can keep a person awake at night
When you leave me
The song's protagonist is addressing someone who has left him
My golden rainbow disappears
The joy and happiness in his life disappears when his loved one leaves him
And you leave me a broken heart
He feels a deep sadness and pain when his loved one leaves him
That's full of tears
He cries a lot when his loved one leaves him
These ain't rainbows in my eyes
The tears in his eyes are not a sign of happiness or joy
Why should I lie
He's being truthful about how he feels
You don't have to be a baby to cry
Repeating the chorus as a reminder that anyone can cry
Contributed by Liam W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.