Friday Night Working Ladies

Clockwise: Dolly Parton & Melissa Etheridge; The Four Vagabonds; Destiny's Child; and Donna Summer.

I thought I would kick off the holiday weekend with a tribute to working ladies through time. Now, get your mind out of the gutter, I am not talking about ladies of the night, I am looking to highlight the ladies who have to go to work every day to bring home the bacon, to put bread on the table. And I will start with a song from 1942, all about the first real working woman, Rosie The Riveter. The song was written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb, all about the women who, for the first time, were heading out of the house and working in the factories because the men were gone to foreign lands, fighting for the country. So here is Rosie The Riveter, sung by the group The Four Vagabonds.



58 years later, the ladies of Destiny's Child sang a song for the Charlie's Angels movie that became a huge hit. Independent Women Part 1 was a celebration of all that women could do, from working to taking care of their business.



In 1983, Donna Summer was busy singing some great songs, all of which were making the charts. Summer had, and still has a magnificent voice, perfect for the Rock/Dance mix of the song. Here is Summer's tribute to the women who live paycheck-to-paycheck, barely scraping by, She Works Hard For The Money.



Now, one of the biggest crossover acts from Country to Pop in 1980 was the little lady with the huge talent, Dolly Parton. While appearing in a movie celebrating the secretarial and support staff of a company run by awful men with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Parton wrote a song that went on to become the theme song. It was also a huge hit. Now I found the most intriguing video of a Country Crossroads episode, with Parton and Melissa Etheridge. So here is Melissa singing Dolly's 9 To 5, with Parton's support.



Have a great weekend!