"9 to 5" is a song written and originally performed by Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton

Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...

 for the 1980

1980 in film

- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....

 film comedy Nine to Five

Nine to Five

9 to 5 is a 1980 American comedy film starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Dabney Coleman. The film concerns three working women living out their fantasy of getting even with, and their successful overthrow of, the company's autocratic, "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical...

, starring Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...

, Lily Tomlin

Lily Tomlin

Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...

, and Parton in her film debut.

The film's title song garnered Parton an Academy Award

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

 nomination and four Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 nominations, winning her the awards for "Best Country Song" and "Best Country Vocal Performance, Female". In addition to appearing on the film soundtrack, the song was the centerpiece of Parton's 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs

9 to 5 and Odd Jobs

Allmusic rated 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs four-and-a-half out of five stars. William Ruhlmann, who reviewed the album, stated that "most of Parton's albums are hard to recommend", but that "[the songs are] enough to put it a notch above most of Parton's RCA catalog." Critic Robert Christgau rated the...

 album, released in late 1980. The song was released as a single in November 1980 and reached number one on both the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 Country Chart and the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 in January and February 1981, respectively. For a time, the song became something of an anthem for office workers in the U.S., and in 2004, Parton's song ranked number seventy-eight on American Film Institute

American Film Institute

The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

's "100 years, 100 songs".

The song—and film—owe their titles to an organization founded in 1973 with the aim of bringing about better treatment for women in the workplace.

Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

 made an educational parody of the song performed by the Anything Muppet parody of Parton herself, Polly Darton

Spoonerism

A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched . It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner , Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency...

, called "Counting 1 to 5". Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespectacled intellectual;...

 covered the song for their 1982 album The Chipmunks Go Hollywood

The Chipmunks Go Hollywood

The Chipmunks Go Hollywood is a 1982 album by Alvin and the Chipmunks, released by RCA Records.- Side one :#"Eye of the Tiger" #"Tomorrow"...

.

It is one of the few Billboard chart songs to feature the clacking of a typewriter. Parton has stated in a number of interviews through the years that when she wrote the song, she devised the clacking typewriter rhythm running her acrylic fingernails back and forth against one another.http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:Lo5Z_zdggvgJ:www.movieweb.com/dvd/news/71/11871.php+%22dolly+parton%22+9+to+5+fingernails&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

With "9 to 5", Parton became only the second woman to top both the U.S. country singles chart and Billboard's Hot 100 with the same single. (The first being Jeannie C. Riley

Jeannie C. Riley

Jeannie C. Riley is an American country music and gospel singer. She is best known for her 1968 country and pop hit "Harper Valley PTA" , which missed becoming the Billboard Country and Pop number one hit at the same time...

, who had done so with "Harper Valley PTA

Harper Valley PTA

"Harper Valley PTA" is a country song written by Tom T. Hall that was a major international hit single for country singer Jeannie C. Riley in 1968. Riley's record sold over six million copies as a single. The song made Riley the first woman to top both Billboard's Hot 100 and the U.S...

" in 1968.)

The song is featured in a musical theater adaptation of the film, featuring a book by the film's original writer, Patricia Resnick, and 20 additional songs written by Dolly Parton. 9 to 5

9 to 5 (musical)

9 to 5: The Musical is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and a book by Patricia Resnick, based on the 1980 movie Nine to Five...

 began previews in Los Angeles on September 9, 2008, and played on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre

Marquis Theatre

The Marquis Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 1535 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan.Situated on the third floor of the Marriott Marquis Hotel, the 1611-seat venue was designed by developer/architect John C. Portman, Jr...

 from April until September 2009 before touring.

A few months after Parton's song and the film, Scottish singer Sheena Easton

Sheena Easton

Sheena Easton is a Scottish recording artist. Easton became famous for being the focus of an episode in the British television programme The Big Time, which recorded her attempts to gain a record contract and her eventual signing with EMI Records.Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with the pop...

 released a single called "9 to 5" throughout much of the world. The Easton song was renamed "Morning Train (Nine to Five)

9 to 5 (Sheena Easton song)

"9 to 5" is the title of a popular song written by British songwriter Florrie Palmer and recorded by Sheena Easton in 1980, becoming her biggest hit...

" to avoid confusion. Easton's single reached the number one spot on Billboards Hot 100 Chart three months after Parton's song left that spot. While Parton's song features an empowered (if challenged) working woman, Easton's song features a passive, love-struck woman waiting around at home all day for her lover to return to her.

In 1981, Kikki Danielsson

Kikki Danielsson

Ann-Kristin "Kikki" Danielsson is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she also plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She is also famous for yodeling in some songs. Kikki Danielsson gained her largest popularity in the Nordic region from the late 1970s until...

 covered

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 the song on her album Just Like a Woman

Just Like a Woman (Kikki Danielsson album)

Just Like a Woman is a 1981 studio album from Swedish country and pop singer Kikki Danielsson. The last track, God morgon, was performed by the pop group Sweets n' Chips as their Swedish Melodifestivalen 1981 entry, a group where Kikki Danielsson was a member.At the Swedish album chart, the album...

, and the song remains one of her most famous country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 recordings. The song was also covered by Swedish punk band Millencolin

Millencolin

Millencolin is a punk rock band that was formed in October 1992 by Nikola Šarčević, Mathias Färm, and Erik Ohlsson in Örebro, Sweden. In early 1993, drummer Fredrik Larzon joined the band...

 and included in their 1999 compilation album The Melancholy Collection

The Melancholy Collection

The Melancholy Collection is a compilation album by the Swedish punk rock band Millencolin, released on July 29, 1999 by Burning Heart Records. The album combines the band's first two EPs, b-sides from their singles, and other rare and unreleased tracks...

, a collection of b-sides and rarities. Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson (dancer)

Mark Wilson is a professional Australian ballroom dancer and dance teacher. He is best known for being a judge on the reality TV show Dancing with the Stars ....

 also sang "9 to 5" on It Takes Two with Rachael Beck

Rachael Beck

Rachael Beck is an Australian stage and television actress.-Career highlights:Beck's best known role is that of Martin Kelly's niece, Sam, on the popular sitcom, Hey Dad...!....

. "9 to 5" was performed with sitar

Sitar

The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

 accompaniment in the opening scenes of the 2008 film The Love Guru

The Love Guru

The Love Guru is a 2008 comedy film, directed by Marco Schnabel and starring Mike Myers and Jessica Alba along with Romany Malco and Justin Timberlake. In addition to starring in the film, Myers wrote The Love Guru with Graham Gordy and produced it with Gary Barber. The film was released by...

, sung by the titular character played by Mike Myers

Mike Myers (actor)

Michael John "Mike" Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage...

; this version appears on the film's soundtrack album.

Although the Parton recording only reached #47 in the UK, it remains a popular song on radio and in nightclubs through Britain and was spliced between "Independent Women Part 1" by Destiny's Child

Destiny's Child

Destiny's Child was an American R&B girl group whose final line-up comprised lead singer Beyoncé Knowles alongside Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. Formed in 1997 in Houston, Texas, Destiny's Child members began their musical endeavors in their pre-teens under the name Girl's Tyme...

 and "Eple

Eple

"Eple" is a song by Norwegian duo Röyksopp, released as their second single. In 2003, it was re-released as the duo's third single from their first album Melody A.M..- Commercial Use :...

" by Röyksopp

Röyksopp

Röyksopp is a Norwegian electronic music duo from Tromsø, formed in 1998. Since their inception, the band's line-up has included Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland....

 for the Soulwax

Soulwax

Soulwax, headed by David and Stephen Dewaele, are an alternative rock/electronic band from Ghent, Belgium. Next to the Dewaele brothers, Soulwax consists of bassist Stefaan Van Leuven and drummer Steve Slingeneyer. They were first noticed after the release of their album Much Against Everyone's...

 album As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 2

As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt. 2

As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 2 is the first album to be released by Soulwax alter-egos 2 Many DJs. It consists of 45 remixed tracks by a series of diverse artists including Dolly Parton, Basement Jaxx and 10cc. While some of the tracks are simply remixes, most tracks are mashup collages with the...

.

In popular culture

The song appears on the game Karaoke Revolution Country.
It can also be heard in American Dads Season 2 episode "Bush Comes to Dinner".

Chart performance

Chart (1981)	Peak position
Austria Top 40	5
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	1
Canadian RPM Top Singles	1
Dutch Top 40	15
German Singles Chart	46
New Zealand Singles Chart	9
Swedish Singles Chart	9
UK Singles Chart	47
US Billboard Hot Country Singles	1
US Billboard Hot 100	1
US Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	1

External links

• 9 To 5 lyrics at dollyon-line.com