"9 to 5" is the title of a popular song recorded by Sheena
Easton in 1980, becoming her biggest hit. It peaked at number
three in the United Kingdom in August 1980 and was released in
the United States in February 1981 (retitled Morning Train to
avoid confusion with a similarly named song), where it reached
number one.
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, , both "9 to 5" and "Modern Girl" were
propelled into the top ten at the same time, making her the
first female artist to achieve this feat. "9 to 5" became a top
three hit and was one of the best-selling singles of the
year.
Early in 1981, EMI Records decided to launch Easton in the
US and released "9 to 5" as her debut single. The title of the
song was changed to "Morning Train (Nine to Five)" to avoid
confusion with the Dolly Parton song of the same name. 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 Billboard's pop
chart.
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.
The tune was featured in the 2004 movie
EuroTripas the Manchester United Supporters Club theme
and was also played as part of a montage in two episodes of
Seinfeld: "The Bizarro Jerry" episode in which Kramer
finds himself working 9 to 5 at Brand/Leland, and "The Butter
Shave" episode in which George fakes a handicap at Play Now. Of
note, David Mandel has writing credits on EuroTrip and the two
Seinfeld episodes. Alec Berg holds writing credits on EuroTrip
and "The Butter Shave."
The song also features in a sketch in
Not The Nine O'Clock News, in which Pamela Stephenson
sings it in relation to her "husband", Rowan Atkinson.
Atkinson, having come home from work, corrects Stephenson's
lyrics ("I don't take the train, I've taken the bus for fifteen
years!", Stephenson obligingly changes the lyrics), before
revealing that "he spends all day with a whore" (again sung by
Stephenson) and attempting to kill her. The sketch ends with
Stephenson singing "and then he tries to strangle me".
In an episode of
South Park("Kenny Dies"), Eric Cartman briefly sings the
song as he happens upon a truck that went off the side of a
road.
In an episode of the 1997 sitcom
Soul Man, Anthony Clark's character begins to play the
song on a church organ.
On the season 26 finale episode of
Saturday Night Live(host: Christopher Walken; musical
guest: Weezer), in a "Mango" sketch, Mango (Chris Kattan) sings
"Morning Train" as he's working out in his dressing room.
In the
Drawn Togetherepisode "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a
Tree", Jimmy Kimmel sings the song during a story in which
Spanky Ham has left the Drawn Together house and taken a 9 to 5
job as a hostage negotiator.
The song was also featured in a 2004 television commercial
for Connex Melbourne where a trainload of passengers take turns
in singing a line from the song while the train pulls up at
Burnley railway station where a woman boards the train. One of
the passengers says "Sheena!" and the woman is then revealed to
be Easton who responds with a scream; the ad concludes with all
the passengers singing the chorus of the song as the train is
shown leaving the station.
Swedish-born Norwegian singer Elisabeth Andreasson covered
the song in Swedish, as "Han pendlar varje dag" (which means
"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 9 weeks during the period 21
February-18 April 1982, with a 4th place as best result there
.
Sylvie Vartan remade "Morning Train" for the French market
as "L’amour c'est comme une cigarette" ("Love is like a
cigarette"): the lyrics were written by Michel Mallory who
reworked a number of English language hits for Vartan. The
concept of Vartan's version was echoed in the Dutch remake by
Benny Neyman: "Liefde is als een sigaret", which reached #49 in
the Netherlands in 1982.
It was revealed in the documentary John Peel's Record Box
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.
In the 7th episode of the mini-series Generation Kill (Bomb
in the Garden), Corporal Josh Ray Person sings this song while
waiting to move into combat.