"The Dollar" is the title of a song written and recorded by American 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...

 artist Jamey Johnson

Jamey Johnson

Jamey Johnson is an American Grammy Award nominated country music artist. Signed to BNA Records in 2005, Johnson made his debut with his single "The Dollar," the title track to his 2006 album The Dollar...

. It was released in late 2005 as Johnson's debut single, as well as the title track from his debut album (2006's The Dollar

The Dollar

-Personnel:As listed in liner notes.*Wayd Battle - electric guitar*Jim "Moose" Brown - piano, B-3 organ, Wurlitzer*Pat Buchanan - electric guitar*J. T. Corenflos - electric guitar*Chad Cromwell - drums*Dan Dugmore - steel guitar, Dobro*Steven A...

). The song reached #14 on 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...

 Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 charts in early 2006, and was the only chart single from its album.

Background and writing

Johnson was inspired to write the song after taking a job as a construction worker, thus causing him to be away from his own young daughter for two months.

Content

The song is a mid-tempo accompanied largely by acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

 and steel guitar

Steel guitar

Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...

. Its central character is a child who, upon seeing his father leaving for work, asks his mother why the father has to go to work. The mother then explains that, at work, they "pay him for his time", thus encouraging the boy to gather a dollar's worth of coins from his personal collection, in an attempt to buy some time from his father. After the young boy in the song has gathered his money, the mother calls up the father, telling him that he "[doesn't] have to chase that dollar" because the son "has one here at home".

Chart performance

"The Dollar" debuted at number 50 on Billboards Hot Country Songs chart for the chart week of September 3, 2005. The single reached its peak of number 14 for the week of March 14, 2006, where it stayed there for two consecutive weeks. >

Chart (2005-2006)	Peak position
US 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...  Bubbling Under Hot 100	101