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!

Billboard Top 5 of 1981

It was an interesting year, that is for sure. In the fall of 1980, my college adviser suggested I would be good for me to further explore my new chosen major, theater. Well, actually it was an English major with a mass media minor, but only because the school didn't offer a theater major. Anyway, to do this, she arranged for me to design the set for the a production at the Reading Community Players, a local amateur theater group. The show was Witness for the Prosecution. It was directed by a good-looking 'older' man, who worked for the city, had a show on public access TV, with a strong desire to go to graduate school with the goal to be a playwright. We laughed, worked and tlaked together, and spent much of 1981 doing the same. We worked on a second show for the Players, Steambath, a play which took place in a New York City steambath, complete with a working shower onstage and a Hispanic attendant who also happened to shower naked, and be, in reality, God. Two years later, Bill and I moved to New York City together.

On the radio, it was hard to escape the #5 song on the Billboard year-end chart, Dolly Parton's 9 to 5, from the movie of the same name. Parton, who was a cross between a kewpie doll and a blow-up doll, with a heart of a drag queen, was a Country music queen who did what many thought no longer possible, and parlayed her inherent talent to create hit songs that not only scored on the Country charts, but also crossed over to the Pop charts as well. It didn't hurt it was the theme song of a hit movie of the same name, starring Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.



Talk about parlaying a career move into a Pop hit, Australian Rick Springfield had been making music for over a decade, but took a detour when he was cast as the heartthrob doctor on a soap opera, General Hospital. In the wake of playing Dr. Noah Drake, he released the album Working Class Dog, and the single, Jessie's Girl. Both gave him success he had never seen before.



Five years after their first hit song, Sara Smile, Daryl Hall and John Oates returned to the top of the charts with the catchy Pop song, Kiss On My List. From the album Voices, it was the third song released from the album, and the first to go to #1. According to Billboard, it was the #3 song for the year.



Coming in at #2, the next entry was unusual and a bit quirky, much like the performing behind it. Kim Carnes sang with a gruff edge and an ear for rock, and made the song written by Donna Weiss and 60s star Jackie DeShannon, Bette Davis Eyes appeared on her album Mistaken Identity.



Born in England and raised in Australia, the woman topping the year-end Billboard chart was no stranger to success, having spent much of the 70s singing her way to the top. Olivia Newton-John was a little bit Country, and a little bit Pop, but in 1981, she was also a little bit Disco when she put out Physical, a sexy and rollicking dance song that was Billboard's #1 for 1981.

Billboard Top 5 - 1981

It was an interesting year, that is for sure. In the fall of 1980, my college adviser suggested I would be good for me to further explore my new chosen major, theater. Well, actually it was an English major with a mass media minor, but only because the school didn't offer a theater major. Anyway, to do this, she arranged for me to design the set for the a production at the Reading Community Players, a local amateur theater group. The show was Witness for the Prosecution. It was directed by a good-looking 'older' man, who worked for the city, had a show on public access TV, with a strong desire to go to graduate school with the goal to be a playwright. We laughed, worked and tlaked together, and spent much of 1981 doing the same. We worked on a second show for the Players, Steambath, a play which took place in a New York City steambath, complete with a working shower onstage and a Hispanic attendant who also happened to shower naked, and be, in reality, God. Two years later, Bill and I moved to New York City together.

On the radio, it was hard to escape the #5 song on the Billboard year-end chart, Dolly Parton's 9 to 5, from the movie of the same name. Parton, who was a cross between a kewpie doll and a blow-up doll, with a heart of a drag queen, was a Country music queen who did what many thought no longer possible, and parlayed her inherent talent to create hit songs that not only scored on the Country charts, but also crossed over to the Pop charts as well. It didn't hurt it was the theme song of a hit movie of the same name, starring Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.



Talk about parlaying a career move into a Pop hit, Australian Rick Springfield had been making music for over a decade, but took a detour when he was cast as the heartthrob doctor on a soap opera, General Hospital. In the wake of playing Dr. Noah Drake, he released the album Working Class Dog, and the single, Jessie's Girl. Both gave him success he had never seen before.



Five years after their first hit song, Sara Smile, Daryl Hall and John Oates returned to the top of the charts with the catchy Pop song, Kiss On My List. From the album Voices, it was the third song released from the album, and the first to go to #1. According to Billboard, it was the #3 song for the year.



Coming in at #2, the next entry was unusual and a bit quirky, much like the performing behind it. Kim Carnes sang with a gruff edge and an ear for rock, and made the song written by Donna Weiss and 60s star Jackie DeShannon, Bette Davis Eyes appeared on her album Mistaken Identity.



Born in England and raised in Australian, the woman topping the year-end Billboard chart was no stranger to success, having spent much of the 70s singing her way to the top. Olivia Newton-John was a little bit Country, and a little bit Pop, but in 1981, she was also a little bit Disco when she put out Physical, a sexy and rollicking dance song that was Billboard's #1 for 1981.