Country Carol Countdown: #3 Children Go Where I Send Thee – Tennessee Ernie Ford

By Bennett Owen

Our favorite Christmas songs of 2011 -

Credit: Western-swing.blogspot.com

It’s impossible to ignore Tennessee Ernie Ford’s rich and booming baritone, but it’s Ford’s son, Brion, who steals the show here, “Bless his little pea picken heart!”

This clip is taken from a 1957 Christmas edition of “The Ford Show”… three guesses which automaker sponsored it … Ford (the singer not the carmaker) was at the height of his popularity, just two years after the smash hit ‘Sixteen Tons’ made him a household name. He turned increasingly to Gospel music over the years and that unmistakable, bone-rattling baritone served him right up until his death in 1991. Unfortunately, Brion, the rambunctious boy who so animates this segment also passed away in 2008.