Morning Train (Nine To Five) by Sheena Easton

Album: Sheena Easton (1980)

Charted: 3 1

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While Easton may be a liberated, independent woman, in this song she sings about how dull her life is while she's waiting for her man to come home and show her a good time. The song presents an odd vision of suburban happiness, as the man takes the train into work, does his eight hours, then returns home and entertains his wife with movies, dancing or anything else she wants. Then they make love. It's not the vision of romance portrayed in many love songs, but Easton here seems thrilled to have a man who is gainfully employed.

There is quite a disconnect between the character Easton plays in this song and the real Sheena (she didn't write it). When the song was released, she was 20 years old, recently divorced, and on her way to becoming a global superstar. Easton had a talent for taking on any role, so she had no problem becoming a dance diva ("Strut"), sex kitten ("Sugar Walls") or even a Bond singer ("For Your Eyes Only").
Sheena Easton was perhaps the first star to emerge from a reality TV show. In 1980, she appeared on a BBC show called The Big Time, which followed ordinary people on their quests for success. Easton was going to school at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and got the gig when the show's producers contacted one of her teachers looking for a suitable subject. Easton was granted a made-for-TV audition with EMI, which turned real when they realized that she was stunningly beautiful and could really sing.

EMI released Easton's first single, "Modern Girl," before the episode aired, and it peaked at #56. "9 To 5" was released after the show was broadcast, and the exposure helped send it up the UK charts, where it peaked at #3. To capitalize on the sudden interest in Easton, EMI re-released "Modern Girl," which this time made it to #8, making her one of the few British female singers to have two songs in the UK top 10 at the same time.
Outside of the United States, this was released as "9 To 5," but the title was altered in America to avoid confusion with the Dolly Parton hit. Parton's song came from a movie she starred in of the same name, where she played a rebellious working woman struggling to find satisfaction with her job - quite a different storyline than Easton's song. Parton's "9 To 5" spent the last two weeks of February 1981 at #1 in America; Easton's was at the top for the first two weeks of May.
This was written by a female songwriter named Florrie Palmer (sometimes spelled "Florri"). She also wrote Easton's songs "When He Shines" and "Take My Time," as well as Agnetha Fältskog's "The Heat Is On."
This was used in the movies Eurotrip and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and also appeared in the TV series Seinfeld.
The song peaked in the UK in August 1980, but didn't reach it's zenith in America until May 1981. By the time she caught on in America, Easton had become more refined and media savvy, which helped her promotional endeavors stateside. At the Grammy Awards in 1982, she won for Best New Artist.

Comments: 9

Padraig from Nowhere In ParticularThis is quite a bizarre song that manages to be heartwarmingly cute and naggingly disturbing at the same time, and it is precisely its outward ordinariness that makes it so bizarre.

A young woman recently got married and settles down with her husband in what is obviously suburbia. She is happy, because she got married to a man she loves, and who loves her back and cares for her. He goes to work - well, he takes the train to get to work - and she waits for him all day long until he gets back home and they do "everything she wants" together using his hard-earned income. Afterwards, at night, they make passionate love. How cute! How heartwarmingly cute!

And yet, you somehow want to shout at her: "Girl what you're doing? Why settle for a suburban housewife's life before you even are one? Don't just wait for your man to come home! Get out! Educate yourself! Do something useful with your time! It's now or never!" Because: why do they make love at night? To get her pregnant, of course. For her to consequently become a stay-at-home mum.

Now, the song implies that there is nothing wrong with preparing for a stay-at-home mum life. That it is wonderful, that it is as it should be. Or does it?

Because, even in its superficial cheerfulness there is a, how shall I put this, ... darkness in there - and this is what elevates the song beyond its outwardly simple message. She is mind-numbingly bored all day. There are no kids yet, so she cannot perform the mum duties her marital arrangement has predestined her for. You can't help but wonder if, during the long hours before her man comes back, she does not secretly question her choice, her destiny, and the way the lyrics are written it is very much implied that she does. The hidden message is this: she is outwardly cheerful all the time and would never show to be anything but ... but is she really?

We don't know. And maybe she made the right choice. Maybe she is now, 45 years later, a happy grandmother looking back at a life full of love and caring-sharing. Maybe that is not exactly the case, but life is never perfect, and it was, after all, a better choice than any possible alternative. Maybe.
How Dare They from New York StateDoes anybody know the name of the man in the video?
Suga from Australia"I'm makin' a fool, a fight"
Misheard lyric - it's:
"Amazingly full of fight"
Barry from Sauquoit, NyThe week that Sheena Easton's "Morning Train (9 to 5)" peaked at #1 on Billboard's Top 100 chart, Dolly Parton's completely different "9 to 5" was at #51 the Top 100 chart, ten weeks earlier it had peaked at #1 {for 2 non-consecutive weeks}.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn March 28th 1981, Sheena Easton performed "Morning Train (Nine to Five)" on the ABC-TV program 'American Bandstand'...
At the time the song was at #14 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; and on April 26th, 1981 it would peak at #1 for two weeks...
{See second post below}.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn November 17th 1984, Sheena Easton performed "Strut" on the ABC-TV program 'American Bandstand'...
At the time the song was at #8 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; the very next day on Nov. 18th it peaked at #7 {for 1 week}...
It was the fifth of her eight Top 10 records; her first Top 10 hit was "Morning Train {Nine to Five)".
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn February 7th 1981, "Morning Train (Nine to Five)" by Sheena Easton entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at #74; and on April 26th it peaked at #1 (for 2 weeks) and spent 21 weeks on the Top 100 (and for 6 of those 21 weeks it was on the Top 10)...
And on the same day it reached #1 on the Top 100 it also peaked at #1 (again for 2 weeks) on Billboard's Adult contemporary Tracks chart...
It also reached #1 in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand...
The two weeks it was at #1 on the Top 100, the #2 record for both those weeks was "Just The Two Of Us" by Grover Washington Jr. (with Bill Withers)...
Ms. Easton, born Sheena Shirley Orr, will celebrate her 55th birthday in two months on April 27th (2014).
Esskayess from Dallas, TxPlease don't remind us of that pathetic Prince product. He should have been slapped silly for writing it.
Tanya from La Verne, CaA sweet tune by the same woman that, in a couple of years, would invite you into her "Sugar Walls".

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