B-side "Moody (My Love)" Recorded 1980 Length 3:20 | Format 7" | |
Released 16 May 1980 (UK)February 1981 (US) | ||
"9 to 5" or "Morning Train" is the title of a popular song written by British songwriter Florrie Palmer and recorded by Sheena Easton in 1980, becoming her biggest hit. It peaked at number three in the United Kingdom in August 1980 and was certified gold. It was released in the United States in February 1981, where it reached number one.
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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 second female artist (after Ruby Murray) 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, which charted nearly simultaneously with Easton's record. 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. On Billboard's 1981 year-end charts, it came in as the twelfth-biggest pop and thirteenth-biggest AC hit of the year 1981. It also topped the RPM magazine pop and AC charts in Canada, reigning over the former for two weeks in May 1981.
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.
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 9 weeks during the period 21 February-18 April 1982, with a chart peak of #4.
Also in 1981, the Bulgarian-French singer Sylvie Vartan recorded a French cover of the song entitled "L'amour, c'est comme une cigarette" (Love is like a cigarette), with lyrics entirely unrelated to the Easton original.
The song was featured in the 8th and 9th seasons of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. In "The Bizarro Jerry"' Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) accidentally begins working at a financial services company. The song is played during a montage of Kramer's "work" experience. In "The Butter Shave". George Costanza (Jason Alexander) gets a job at a playground equipment company and the boss thinks he's handicapped due to his use of a cane as he had learned to walk again following the events in "The Summer of George". George takes advantage of this and the song is played during a montage.
Idols South Africa winner Anke Pietrangeli covered the song on her album Tribute to the Great Female Vocalists in 2009.
John Peel's Record Box
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.