"Take This Job and Shove It" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Johnny Paycheck | ||||
from the album Take This Job and Shove It | ||||
B-side | "Colorado Kool-Aid" | |||
Released | October 1977 | |||
Recorded | August 24, 1977 | |||
Studio | CBS Recording Studios (Nashville, Tennessee) | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 2:35 | |||
Label | Epic 50469 | |||
Songwriter(s) | David Allan Coe | |||
Producer(s) | Billy Sherrill | |||
Johnny Paycheck singles chronology | ||||
|
"Take This Job and Shove It" is a 1977 country music song written by David Allan Coe and popularized by Johnny Paycheck, about the bitterness of a man who has worked long and hard with no apparent reward. The song was first recorded by Paycheck on his album also titled Take This Job and Shove It . The recording hit number one on the country charts for two weeks, spending 18 weeks on the charts. [1] It was Paycheck's only #1 hit.
Its B-side, "Colorado Kool-Aid," spent ten weeks on the same chart and peaked at #50. [1]
Coe's recording was released in 1978 on his album Family Album . Coe also recorded a variation of the song called "Take This Job and Shove It Too" on his 1980 album I've Got Something to Say . It included the line "Paycheck, you may be a thing of the past." Coe was annoyed that people assumed that Paycheck had written the song, even though the single released by Paycheck, and subsequent album, both credit Coe as the song's composer.
The song inspired a 1981 film of the same name.
A cover version also appears on 1986's Bedtime for Democracy by Dead Kennedys. Another cover version, "Shove This Jay-Oh-Bee", performed by Canibus with Biz Markie, appears in the 1999 film Office Space . Chuck Barris and the Hollywood Cowboys performed a modified version of the piece as Barris's swan song when The Gong Show was kicked off NBC in 1978.
"Take this job and shove it" became a popular phrase as a result of the song. It also became a snowclone phrase, leading to a variety of book and article titles of the form, "Take this job and ... it". The most notable is "Take this job and love it", which has been the title of dozens of books, mostly about career counseling, as well as the title of a 2007 episode of the television series Hannah Montana . Another notable variation was the 2006 book Take This Job and Ship It by U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan. Another variation is the quote "take this job and fill it" from The Simpsons episode, "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy". (Another related snowclone is "take this ... and shove it," for any unpleasant or low-quality item.)
Chart (1977–78) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Hot Country Songs ( Billboard ) [2] | 1 |
Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 1 |
David Allan Coe is an American singer and songwriter. Coe took up music after spending much of his early life in reform schools and prisons, and first became notable for busking in Nashville. He initially played mostly in the blues style, before transitioning to country music, becoming a major part of the 1970s outlaw country scene. His biggest hits include "You Never Even Called Me by My Name", "Longhaired Redneck", "The Ride", "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile", and "She Used to Love Me a Lot".
Johnny Paycheck was an American country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member notable for recording the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and Shove It". He achieved his greatest success in the 1970s as a force in country music's "outlaw movement" popularized by artists Hank Williams Jr., Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, and Merle Haggard. In 1980, Paycheck appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits, though in the ensuing decade, his music career slowed due to drug, alcohol, and legal problems. He served a prison sentence in the early 1990s, and his declining health effectively ended his career in early 2000.
"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" is a song written and recorded by American music group Charlie Daniels Band and released on their 1979 album Million Mile Reflections.
"Cry" is a 1951 popular song written by Churchill Kohlman. The song was first recorded by Ruth Casey on the Cadillac label. The biggest hit version was recorded in New York City by Johnnie Ray and The Four Lads on October 16, 1951. Singer Ronnie Dove also had a big hit with the song in 1966.
"Secret Agent Man" is a song written by P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri. The most famous recording of the song was made by Johnny Rivers for the opening titles of the American broadcast of the British spy series Danger Man, which aired in the U.S. as Secret Agent from 1964 to 1966. Rivers's version peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the Canadian RPM chart, one of the biggest hits of his career. Numerous covers and adaptations have been recorded since then with the song becoming both a rock standard and one of Johnny Rivers's signature songs.
"You Light Up My Life" is a ballad written by Joseph Brooks, and originally recorded by Kasey Cisyk for the soundtrack album to the 1977 film of the same title. The song was lip synced in the film by its lead actress, Didi Conn. The best-known cover version of the song is a cover by Debby Boone, the daughter of singer Pat Boone. It held the No. 1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for ten consecutive weeks in 1977 and topped Record World magazine's Top 100 Singles Chart for a record 13 weeks.
The Dreamer is the second studio album by American country music artist Blake Shelton. Released in 2003 on Warner Bros. Records Nashville, it features the Number One single "The Baby," as well as the singles "Heavy Liftin'" and "Playboys of the Southwestern World". The Dreamer is certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and features staff writers on all but one track.
"Lookin' for Love" is a song written by Wanda Mallette, Bob Morrison and Patti Ryan, and recorded by American country music singer Johnny Lee. It was released in June 1980 as part of the soundtrack to the film Urban Cowboy, released that year. The background vocalists are Marcy Levy, Rosemary Butler and Tom Kelly. "Lookin' for Love" was reissued as the lead song on Lee's October 1980 album of the same name. Johnny Lee also recorded a Spanish language version of "Lookin' for Love" known as 'Buscando Amor'.
"Release Me" is a popular song written by Eddie Miller and Robert Yount in 1949. Four years later it was recorded by Jimmy Heap & the Melody Masters, and with even better success by Patti Page (1954), Ray Price (1954), and Kitty Wells (1954). Jivin' Gene [Bourgeois] & the Jokers recorded the tune in 1960, and that version served as an inspiration for Little Esther Phillips, who reached number one on the R&B chart and number eight on the pop chart with her big-selling cover. The Everly Brothers followed in 1963, along with Lucille Starr including a translation in French (1964), Jerry Wallace (1966), Dean Martin (1967), and Engelbert Humperdinck (1967), whose version reached number one on the UK Singles Chart.
"Why Me" is an American country and gospel song written and recorded by American country music singer and songwriter Kris Kristofferson.
"Song Sung Blue" is a 1972 hit song written and recorded by Neil Diamond, inspired by the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto #21. It was released on Diamond's album Moods, and later appeared on many of Diamond's live and compilation albums. The song was a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States for one week, the week of July 1, and it spent twelve weeks in the Top 40. It also reached #14 on the UK Singles Chart.
Family Album is an album by country musician David Allan Coe, released in 1978 by Columbia Records.
I've Got Something to Say is an album released by country musician David Allan Coe. It was released in 1980 on Columbia. Guy Clark, Bill Anderson, Dickey Betts, Kris Kristofferson, Larry Jon Wilson, and George Jones are all featured on this album.
"You Better Move On" is a 1961 rhythm and blues song by Arthur Alexander. It reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1962. Versions by Billy "Crash" Craddock, George Jones and Johnny Paycheck were hits on the Country charts.
"She's All I Got" is a song written by Gary U.S. Bonds and Jerry Williams Jr. It has been recorded by several artists. The first version, released in 1971 by Freddie North, was a Top 40 U.S. pop hit, and a version by Johnny Paycheck was a number 2 U.S. country hit that same year. A second country music version was released on Conway Twitty's 1972 Decca LP I Can't See Me Without You. There was also a version titled "He's All I Got" that was on Tanya Tucker's 1972 album Delta Dawn. Yet another cover titled "Don't Take Her She's All I've Got" was released by Tracy Byrd, whose version reached number 4 on the U.S. and Canadian country singles charts. Co-author Jerry Williams Jr., aka Swamp Dogg, released his own version on his 2020 album Sorry You Couldn’t Make It.
Take This Job and Shove It is the seventeenth album released by country music artist Johnny Paycheck. It was his second album released in 1977 and is his most commercially successful album, being certified platinum by the RIAA. It contains his most well known song, the David Allan Coe-written title song. It was his only single ever to reach #1 on the Country charts. Two other singles released from this album, "Colorado Kool-Aid" and "Georgia in a Jug", reached #50 and #17, respectively.
"Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)" is a song written by David Allan Coe and recorded by American country music artist Tanya Tucker. It was released in December 1973 as the first single and title track from the album Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone). It topped the U.S. country chart on March 30, 1974, for one week and was Tucker's third number-one song on the chart. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song peaked at number 46. Only her 1975 number-one country hit, "Lizzie and the Rainman", performed better on the pop chart.
"Love Bug", also spelled "Lovebug," is a song by American country music artist George Jones. Jones' version, which also features a young Johnny Paycheck on backup vocals and draws heavily from the Bakersfield sound as popularized by Buck Owens, reached #6 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1965. It was released on his July 1965 New Country Hits album and then re-released as the lead song for his 1966 album of the same name, Love Bug.
"This Is Country Music" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Brad Paisley. After performing it at the Country Music Association awards ceremony, Paisley released the song in December 2010. The song is Paisley's twenty-eighth single release overall; it entered the Hot Country Songs charts dated for December 4, 2010. It was included on his eighth studio album, of the same name, released on May 23, 2011 release via Arista Nashville.
This is a detailed discography for American country music singer Johnny Paycheck. Paycheck initially recorded some singles under the name of Donny Young before releasing a few singles on Hilltop and then a string of albums with Little Darlin' Records in the mid-60s. In 1971, he signed with Epic Records and stayed with the label for over 10 years. Overall, Paycheck's discography consists of 30 studio albums, 4 live albums and 1 collaborative studio album, in addition to many compilation albums. Given the obscure nature of much of Paycheck's work, sources have been added for each of the releases. Though only some could be verified via the Recording Industry Association of America's website, Paycheck's own website asserts that he accrued 6 Gold certified albums, 2 Platinum certified albums and 1 double Platinum album over his long career. Johnny Paycheck's last gospel recording before he died was a duet with a young unknown Christian artist named Robert Hampton in 1992, titled "I Love My Jesus" written by Terry Parkerson. The recording was for radio airplay only, never for sale to the public. It charted nationally. The song can be heard on YouTube under Robert Hampton and Johnny Paycheck.