9 to 5 (Dolly Parton song)

Background

The song was written for the comedy film 9 to 5, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton in her film debut; both the song and the film owe their titles to 9to5, an organization founded in 1973 to bring about fair pay and equal treatment for women in the workplace.

The song is also 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. The musical began showing previews in Los Angeles on September 9, 2008, and played on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre from April until September 2009 before touring. In 2012, a UK theatre tour of 9 to 5 began.

A few months before Parton's song and the film, Scottish singer Sheena Easton released a single called "9 to 5" in the UK. When Easton's song was released in the U.S. the following year it was renamed "Morning Train (Nine to Five)" to avoid confusion. Easton's single topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart three months after Parton's song left that spot. Despite similar titles, the two songs differ in lyrical themes. While Parton's song is about a working woman, Easton's song is about a woman waiting at home for her lover to return from work.

Rolling Stone called "9 to 5" Parton's "most transformative song", ranking it at number 7 on its list of the 50 Best Dolly Parton songs.

Commercial performance

"9 to 5" reached number one on the Billboard Country chart in January 1981. In February 1981, it went to number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Adult Contemporary charts, respectively. It became Parton's first and only solo number one entry on the former, as Parton would later team up with Kenny Rogers on their number one duet "Islands in the Stream". The song was certified gold by the RIAA on February 19, 1981, indicating shipment of 1,000,000 physical copies. It was certified platinum on September 25, 2017.

Despite peaking at number 47 on the UK Singles Chart in 1981, it has sold 303,511 digital copies in the UK . , it is Parton's most downloaded track in the UK, totaling 340,800 downloads, while it has also been streamed 8.46 million times. It remains popular on radio and in nightclubs throughout the UK and was spliced between "Independent Women Part 1" by Destiny's Child and "Eple" by Röyksopp for the Soulwax album As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 2.

The track also topped the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart and reached the top 10 in Austria, Belgium, Sweden, South Africa, Oceania and the Netherlands.

Legacy

"9 to 5" is one of the few Billboard chart songs to feature the clacking of a typewriter. Parton has stated in numerous interviews that when she wrote the song, she devised the clacking typewriter rhythm by running her acrylic fingernails back and forth against one another.

With this song, Parton became only the second woman to top both the U.S. country singles chart and the Billboard Hot 100 with the same single; the first was 1968's "Harper Valley PTA" by Jeannie C. Riley, which Parton had coincidentally covered in her 1969 album, In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad).

"9 to 5" served as the theme song for the mid-1980s sitcom 9 to 5 which derived from the film. Phoebe Snow sang the theme for the four-episode premiere season, which aired in March and April 1982; however, Parton would be heard singing the theme for the sitcom's 1982–1983 run and for its 1986–1988 revival.

Songwriters Neil and Jan Goldberg filed a lawsuit against Parton, claiming that "9 to 5" was a copy of their 1976 song "Money World". In December 1985 the court ruled in Parton's favor.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-12-19-mn-30370-story.html|title=Parton's '9 to 5' Is All Her Own, Jury Decides|work=Los Angeles Times|first=George|last=Ramos|date=December 19, 1985|access-date=January 2, 2022

In 1985, the air freight company Emery Worldwide used the tune with advertising lyrics in some TV commercials.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren frequently used the song at campaign appearances during her 2020 presidential campaign, with it often playing when she took the stage. Reacting to the song's use, Parton's manager Danny Nozell said, "We did not approve the request, and we do not approve requests like this of (a) political nature." The song was sung from the public gallery of the New Zealand Parliament by supporters of Green Party MP Jan Logie at the conclusion of her valedictory address, and is thus recorded in Hansard.

In early 2021, Parton recorded a new version of the song titled "5 to 9" for a Squarespace advert in the Super Bowl LV.

The song appeared in the opening scenes of the films The Love Guru performed by Mike Myers on the sitar as his character Guru Pitka and Deadpool 2 with Deadpool himself (Ryan Reynolds) using it in a sequence where he kills a series of people in his mercenary job, even starting the music by declaring "hit it, Dolly" immediately before.

The song was featured in the post-credits scene of the Gravity Falls episode “Summerween”.

It was also featured in The Orville episode "Sanctuary", in which the song was chosen by Haveena (Rena Owen), the leader of female fugitives as an anthem of their attempted revolution.

"9 to 5" was also interpolated into the 2024 song "Powerful Women" by Pitbull, which features Parton herself re-recording the song's chorus alongside adding new lines. Pitbull later declared on X that it was "an honor to be collaborating with one of music's most powerful women".

The song was featured in "After Hours", the first episode of The Penguin.

Personnel

• Dolly Parton – lead vocals, nails
• Jeff Baxter, Marty Walsh – guitars
• Abraham Laboriel – bass
• Larry Knechtel – piano
• Rick Shlosser – drums
• Leonard Castro – percussion
• William Reichenbach – trombone
• Tom Saviano – saxophone
• Kim S. Hutchroft – baritone saxophone
• Jerry Hey – trumpet
• Denise Mainelli DeCaro, Stephanie Spruill, Marty McCall, Joey Scarbury – background vocals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

References

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