9 to 5 (Sheena Easton song)

Background

Easton had released one single prior to "9 to 5": "Modern Girl". This had failed to chart highly, but after exposure on the BBC documentary The Big Time: Pop Singer, both "9 to 5" and "Modern Girl" were propelled into the top ten at the same time, making her the fourth female artist (after Ruby Murray, Shirley Bassey, and Donna Summer) to achieve this feat. "9 to 5" became a top three UK hit and was one of the best-selling singles of the year.

Release and writing

Early in 1981, EMI Records decided to launch Easton in the US and released "9 to 5" as her debut single. Easton's song went to #1 on both the U.S. pop and adult contemporary charts; it remained at the top for two weeks on Billboards pop chart, becoming Easton's only chart-topper. On Billboard 1981 year-end charts, it came in as the twelfth-biggest pop and thirteenth-biggest AC hit of the year 1981. It topped the RPM magazine pop and AC charts in Canada, and also reached #1 in New Zealand.

The song is about a woman who waits at home all day for her man to come home from work. The music video was filmed on the Bluebell Railway, a heritage line running between East and West Sussex in England. The video stars London and South Western Railway No. 488, a preserved LSWR 0415 Class locomotive.

In popular culture

The documentary John Peel's Record Box revealed that British radio DJ John Peel loved the record so much that he kept two copies of it in a small wooden box of his 142 favourite singles.

The song was featured twice in the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It first appeared in a scene from the season 8 episode "The Bizarro Jerry"', in a montage of Kramer's "work" experience. Its second appearance was in the season 9 episode "The Butter Shave", where George Costanza 'commutes' to work at Play Now.

In 2004, Easton recorded an advert for Australian Railway Company Connex Melbourne. It featured passengers singing the song in the train carriage, which pulls up to Burnley railway station, where Easton boarded the train.

The song also appears in the 2004 teen comedy EuroTrip. Two of the film's protagonists played by Scott Mechlowicz and Jacob Pitts enter a fictional British pub called the Fiesty (sic) Goat in London, unaware that it is a private Manchester United football supporters' bar. They are forced to sing the song when confronted by a group of football hooligans and their leader, performed by Vinnie Jones. The original song is also played during the scene.

It was briefly sung by Eric Cartman in the South Park season 5 episode "Kenny Dies".

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Other versions

Easton re-recorded the song ("El Primer Tren") for her Spanish-language album Todo Me Recuerda a Tí, in 1983 for the Latin markets.

Swedish-born Norwegian singer Elisabeth Andreassen covered the song in Swedish, as "Han pendlar varje dag" ("He commutes every day") with the new lyrics by Olle Bergman, on her 1981 album Angel of the Morning. This version also stayed at Svensktoppen for nine weeks from 21 February to 18 April 1982, with a chart peak of #4.

Bulgarian-French megastar in Europe singer Sylvie Vartan covered the song with altered lyrics as "L'amour c'est comme une cigarette" in 1981. The song reached number one for weeks in France and Belgium.

Idols South Africa winner Anke Pietrangeli covered the song on her album Tribute to the Great Female Vocalists in 2009.

References

References

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