"9 to 5" is a song written by and recorded by American country music star Dolly Parton for the 1980 comedy film 9 to 5, as well as in the subsequent TV series of the same name (1982–1983, 1986–1987). In addition to appearing on the film's soundtrack, the song was the centerpiece and opening track of Parton's album 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs, released in late 1980.
Released as a single in November 1980, the song garnered Parton an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 53rd Academy Awards and three Grammy Award nominations including Song of the Year, winning her the awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Vocal Performance, Female at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards. Parton received an additional Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special Grammy nomination for the 9 to 5 soundtrack alongside composer Charles Fox. For a time, it became something of an anthem for office workers in the US, and in 2004, it ranked at number 78 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Songs.
The song was accompanied by a music video that featured footage of Parton and her band performing, intercut with scenes from the film.
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Background
The song was written for the comedy film 9 to 5, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton in her film debut; both the song and the film owe their titles to 9to5, an organization founded in 1973 to bring about fair pay and equal treatment for women in the workplace.
The song is also featured in a musical theater adaptation of the film, featuring a book by the film's original writer, Patricia Resnick, and 20 additional songs written by Dolly Parton. The musical began showing previews in Los Angeles on September 9, 2008, and played on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre from April until September 2009 before touring. In 2012, a UK theatre tour of 9 to 5 began.
A few months before Parton's song and the film, Scottish singer Sheena Easton released a single called "9 to 5" in the UK. When Easton's song was released in the U.S. the following year it was renamed "Morning Train (Nine to Five)" to avoid confusion. Easton's single topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart three months after Parton's song left that spot. Despite similar titles, the two songs differ in lyrical themes. While Parton's song is about a working woman, Easton's song is about a woman waiting at home for her lover to return from work.
Rolling Stone called "9 to 5" Parton's "most transformative song", ranking it at number 7 on its list of the 50 Best Dolly Parton songs.
Commercial performance
"9 to 5" reached number one on the Billboard Country chart in January 1981. In February 1981, it went to number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Adult Contemporary charts, respectively. It became Parton's first and only solo number one entry on the former (and her final top 40 hit on the pop charts), as Parton would later team up with Kenny Rogers on their number one duet "Islands in the Stream". The song was certified gold by the RIAA on February 19, 1981, indicating shipment of 1,000,000 physical copies. It was certified platinum on September 25, 2017. The song has accrued 500,000 digital downloads as of February 2019 in the United States after it was made available for download in the 21st century.
The song originally peaked at number 47 on the UK Singles Chart in 1981, but following Parton's death in 2026, it reached the UK Top 40 for the first time, reaching number 12. The following week, it climbed to number 5, reaching a new peak. It remains popular on radio and in nightclubs throughout the UK and was spliced between "Independent Women Part 1" by Destiny's Child and "Eple" by Röyksopp for the Soulwax album As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 2. It had sold 303,511 digital copies in the UK as of July 2014. According to a report by the Official Charts Company in August 2026, "9 to 5" is Parton's most downloaded and streamed track in the UK, totaling 396,000 downloads and 239.4 million streams, respectively. It has amassed 2,433,372 total units in the UK since 1994, and is her biggest-selling song in the country.
The track also topped the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart (2 weeks), #1 on the Canadian Country chart, and reached the top 10 in Austria, Belgium, Sweden, South Africa, Oceania, and the Netherlands.
Legacy
"9 to 5" is one of the few Billboard chart songs to feature the clacking of a typewriter. Parton stated in numerous interviews that when she wrote the song, she devised the clacking typewriter rhythm by running her acrylic fingernails back and forth against one another.
With this song, Parton became only the second woman to top both the U.S. country singles chart and the Billboard Hot 100 with the same single; the first was 1968's "Harper Valley PTA" by Jeannie C. Riley, which Parton had coincidentally covered on her 1969 album, In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad).
"9 to 5" served as the theme song for the mid-1980s sitcom 9 to 5, which derived from the film. Phoebe Snow sang the theme for the four-episode premiere season, which aired in March and April 1982; however, Parton sang the theme for the sitcom's 1982–1983 run and for its 1986–1988 revival.
Songwriters Neil and Jan Goldberg filed a lawsuit against Parton, claiming that "9 to 5" was a copy of their 1976 song "Money World". In December 1985 the court ruled in Parton's favor.
In 1985, the air freight company Emery Worldwide used the tune with advertising lyrics in some TV commercials.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren frequently used the song at campaign appearances during her 2020 presidential campaign, with it often playing when she took the stage. Reacting to the song's use, Parton's manager Danny Nozell said, "We did not approve the request, and we do not approve requests like this of (a) political nature." The song was sung from the public gallery of the New Zealand Parliament by supporters of Green Party MP Jan Logie at the conclusion of her valedictory address, and is thus recorded in Hansard.
In early 2021, Parton recorded a new version of the song titled "5 to 9" for a Squarespace advert in the Super Bowl LV.
The song appeared in the opening scenes of the films The Love Guru performed by Mike Myers on the sitar as his character Guru Pitka and Deadpool 2 with Deadpool himself (Ryan Reynolds) using it in a sequence where he kills a series of people in his mercenary job, even starting the music by declaring "hit it, Dolly" immediately before.
2022 re-recording
In 2021, Parton personally invited fellow American singer Kelly Clarkson to re-record "9 to 5" to promote the documentary film Still Working 9 to 5, which was produced by the Lane twins, Regina K. Scully, Geralyn Dreyfous and Shane McAnally to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the original film and explore the challenges faced by women in the workplace. Their version, produced by McAnally with Sasha Alex Sloan and King Henry, was re-arranged to a midtempo pop ballad to fit in the atmosphere of the documentary. The track charted at number 15 on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart. Parton and Clarkson later performed a live rendition of the song on Clarkson's eponymous variety talk show on December 1, 2022.