The 2008 presidential election year seems like a fitting time to recommend an MP3 playlist honoring America’s working class people and our nation’s troops. It is highly recommended that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain download the 25 work-related songs onto their iPods and faithfully listen to the work songs while traveling on their campaign trails.
Top 25 Work Songs Number 1: Take This Job and Shove It
David Allan Coe wrote this work song, but sold it when he needed money to pay IRS debts. Johnny Paycheck made this work song famous in 1976 with the release of his Biggest Hits album.
“You better not try to stand in my way
As I walk out the door
Just take this job and shove it
Cause I ain’t workin’ here no more.”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 2: We Gotta Get Out of This Place
The Animals released this work song in 1965 on their Animal Tracks album. Although the song is about a young couple trying to avoid the fate of a working class city, the hit work song was most popular with military troops fighting in Vietnam. It was the most requested song on Armed Forces Radio according to Adrian Cronauer, whose life is the basis of the movie Good Morning Vietnam.
“Watch my daddy in bed dyin’
Watched his hair been turnin’ grey
He’s been workin’ and slavin’ his life away
Oh yes I know it”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 3: Nine to Five
Dolly Parton received an Oscar nomination for writing this work song to accompany her 1980 acting debut in the movie 9 to 5. Dolly Parton received two Grammy awards for the work song Nine to Five: Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
“They let you dream
Just to watch ’em shatter
You’re just a step
On the boss-man’s ladder
But you got dreams
He’ll never take away”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 4: Working Man
Rush released this work song on their 1975 album Rush.
“I get up at seven, yeah
And I go to work at nine.
I got no time for livin
Yes, Im workin all the time.”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 5: Working on the Highway
Bruce Springsteen released this work song in 1984 on the Born in the U.S.A. album.
“Working on the highway laying down the blacktop
Working on the highway all day long I don’t stop
Working on the highway blasting through the bedrock
Working on the highway, working on the highway”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 6: Workin’ Man Blues
The Doc Watson and Frosty Morn version of Merle Haggard’s Working Man Blues is on Bruce Springsteen’s iPod playlist. Watson and Morn recorded this work song on their Round The Table Again album. Haggard recorded this work song on his Working Man’s Journey album, but it was first released as a single in 1969.
“Hey hey, the working man, the working man like me
I ain’t never been on welfare, that’s one place I won’t be
Cause I’ll be working long as my two hands are fit to use”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 7:WorkWork Work
Leo Sayer recorded this work song in 1979 on his album, Leo Sayer Here.
“Wherever I go it’s always the same
I work a little longer
And make up my pay
But when the check comes along
They’ve taken half of it away
All this work, work, work, work
Who needs it”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 8:Working Class Hero
This John Lennon work song was released in 1970 on the John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band album. John Lennon was the only Beatle raised in an upper middle-class home, but he thought of himself as the leader of the working class. The fact that Lennon became known as the working class hero was just one of the many rants between Lennon and the other Beatles.
“There’s room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 9: Salt of the Earth
The Rolling Stones released this work song in 1968 on their Beggar’s Banquet album. This work song features Keith Richards as lead singer and is a cynical tribute to the working class people who will never have any power. Salt of the Earth was performed at the 2001 Concert for New York after the World Trade Center attacks to honor all those workers who helped in the rescue, care, and recovery of those in need.
“Raise your glass to the hard-working people
Let’s drink to the uncounted heads
Let’s think of the wavering millions
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 10: Bang the Drum All Day
Todd Rundgren released this work song on his 1982 album The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect.
“Listen to this
Every day when I get home from work
I feel so frustrated
The boss is a jerk
And I get my sticks and go out to the shed
And I pound on that drum like it was the boss’s head”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 11:Five O’ Clock World
This work song was written by Allen Reynolds and released in 1965 by The Vogues on The Vogues’ Greatest Hits album. Don’t be fooled: there is a CD released titled Five O’ Clock World with a picture of The Vogues on the cover, but the music is not performed by the original Vogues. This work song was used as the theme song for some seasons of the popular television show, The Drew Carey Show.
“Up every morning just to keep a job
I gotta find my way through the hustlin’ mob,
The sounds of the city poundin’ in my brain
While another day goes down the drain.”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 12: Takin’ Care of Business
Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO) released this hit work song in 1973 on their Bachman-Turner Overdrive II album.
You get up every morning from your alarm clock’s warning
Take the 8:15 into the city
There’s a whistle up above
And people pushin’, people shovin’
And the girls who try to look pretty
And if your train’s on time
You can get to work by nine
And start your slaving job to get your pay”
Top 25 Work Songs Number 13:Don’t Talk To Me About Work by Lou Reed
Top 25 Work Songs Number 14:She Works Hard for the Money by Donna Summer
Top 25 Work Songs Number 15:Just Got Paid by ZZ Top
Top 25 Work Songs Number 16:Maggie’s Farm by Bob Dylan
Top 25 Work Songs Number 17:Ballad of the Green Berets by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler and Robin Moore
Top 25 Work Songs Number 18:She’s A Working Mom by Dean Friedman
Top 25 Work Songs Number 19:Workin’ For The Man by Roy Orbison
Top 25 Work Songs Number 20:Cleaning Windows by Van Morrison
Top 25 Work Songs Number 21: Factory by Bruce Springsteen
Top 25 Work Songs Number 22:Workin’ for a Livin’ by Huey Lewis and The News
Top 25 Work Songs Number 23:Working for the Weekend by Loverboy
Top 25 Work Songs Number 24:Chain Gang by Sam Cooke
Top 25 Work Songs Number 25:Money for Nothing by Dire Straits
