Only someone as winning and magical as Dolly Parton could make hyping up a forthcoming advertising campaign exhilarating and charming. The singer, composer, actress, author, and not-inconsequential funding resource of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, has cleverly reworked a classic tune for a commercial, and got into the details on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Friday.
The ad for Squarespace will debut during Sunday’s Super Bowl. She described the website making service as great for people with a “side hustle,” a group she considered herself part of now that she is selling perfume. (Jimmy Fallon went bananas for the punny name, Scent From Above.)
As such, re-wording her hit “9 to 5” as “5 to 9” seemed appropriate in multiple ways, both for entrepreneurs who keep unorthodox hours, and for folks getting glammed up for a night out.
A clip from the ad and some of the new lyrics were heard during their conversation.
The original “9 to 5” comes from the opening credits of the 1980 comedy 9 to 5, in which Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda, square off against their “sexist, egotist, lying hypocritical bigot” boss, played by Dabney Coleman.
The song went to the number one spot on Billboard‘s Country, Adult Contemporary and Hot 100 charts, and has been certified Platinum. As she explained to Fallon, she used her acrylic nails to help come up with the rhythm (doubling as a typewriter sound) and, indeed, her nails are part of her instrumental credits for the song.
“9 to 5” won Parton two Grammy Awards and it was nominated for an Oscar. (It lost to “Fame.” What a year!)
You can compare and contrast with the official release of “5 to 9” here.
The country music legend recently made news by suggesting she might decline a Presidential Medal of Freedom if offered one by Joe Biden. She turned down the honor twice from Donald Trump, claiming bad timing more than anything else, but now would like to avoid being seen as “doing politics.”
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