"She Works Hard for the Money" is a song by American singer Donna Summer from her 1983 eleventh studio album of the same name. Written by Michael Omartian and Summer, the song was released as the lead single from the She Works Hard for the Moneyalbum in May 1983, by Mercury Records. It became a hit for Summer and is one of her signature songs, reaching number one for a three-week stay atop the BillboardR&B singles chart, number three on the BillboardHot 100, and number three on the Dance Club Play chart. The single ended up as Billboards fifteenth-best performing song of 1983. Summer performed the song live as the opening of the 1984 Grammy Awards. Summer's Grammy performance was released on the 1994 video cassette Grammy's Greatest Moments Volume I.
Background and composition
Co-written with Omartian, the song tells a story of a hard working blue-collar woman. It was based on an actual encounter that Summer had with an exhausted restroom attendant named Onetta Johnson, who was later mentioned in the song and featured on the album's back cover. According to MusicNotes.com, the song is performed in the key of G minor in common time with a tempo of 136 beats per minute. Summer's vocals span from G3 to D5.
Music video
The music video for the song, directed by Brian Grant, debuted on MTV and became the first video by an African Americanfemale artist to be placed in "heavy rotation". The video shows a woman, working as a waitress in a diner, who is burdened with many situations in her life such as work and raising two unruly children. It is also seen that she has abandoned her hopes of being a ballerina. Summer appears as an observer through a kitchen window, a woman who assists the fallen-down protagonist of the video, and, at the end, a leader of a troupe of women, in various work uniforms, who have taken to the streets to signify their independence and gain recognition for their "hard work". The protagonist is also seen dancing in the street with them. In a parody of the image created by this song, and its cover art picture, Summer herself appears in the Frank Sinatra video for "L.A. Is My Lady", released in 1984, as a waitress who serves a patron and then wipes her brow. There are two versions of the music video. One is the single edit; the other remains faithful to the original length of the album version of the song.
