Noted for his rich bass-baritone voice and down-home humor, he is remembered for his hit recordings of "The Shotgun Boogie" and "Sixteen Tons".

He was assigned to host an early morning country music disc jockey program, Bar Nothin' Ranch Time.

RadiOzark produced 260 15-minute episodes of The Tennessee Ernie Show on transcription disks for national radio syndication.

A duet with Ella Mae Morse, "False Hearted Girl" was a top seller for the Capitol Country and Hillbilly division.

He took over from bandleader Kay Kyser as host of the TV version of NBC quiz show College of Musical Knowledge when it returned briefly in 1954 after a four-year hiatus.

[11] In 1955, Ford recorded "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" (which reached number 4 on the country music chart) with "Farewell to the Mountains" on the B-side.

Ford scored an unexpected hit on the pop chart in 1955 with his rendering of "Sixteen Tons", a sparsely arranged coal-miner's lament.

[12] The song's fatalistic tone and bleak imagery were in stark contrast to some sugary pop ballads and rock & roll also on the charts in 1955: You load sixteen tons, what do you get?

Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go; I owe my soul to the company store...[13][14] With Ford's snapping fingers[13][14] and a unique clarinet-driven pop arrangement by Ford's music director, Jack Fascinato, "Sixteen Tons" spent ten weeks at number one on the country chart and seven weeks at number one on the pop chart.

The Ford Theatre, an anthology series also sponsored by the company, had run in the same time slot on NBC in the preceding 1955–1956 season.

He also owned a cabin near Grandjean, Idaho, on the upper South Fork of the Payette River, where he would regularly retreat.

In the late 1970s, as a CAF colonel, Ford recorded the organization's theme song "Ballad of the Ghost Squadron".

After Betty took her own life in 1989 because of prescription drug abuse, Ernie's liver problems, diagnosed years earlier, became more apparent, but he refused to reduce his drinking despite repeated doctors' warnings.

His last interview was taped on September 23, 1991, by his long-time friend Dinah Shore for her TV show, and was later aired on December 4 that year.

On September 28, 1991, he suffered severe liver failure at Dulles Airport, shortly after leaving a state dinner at the White House, hosted by then-President George H. W. Bush.

[21] Ford was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Epsilon Zeta chapter at East Tennessee State University as well as the Bohemian Club.