About The Song
“40 Hour Week (For a Livin’)” is a song written by Dave Loggins, Don Schlitz and Lisa Silver, and recorded by American country music band Alabama. It was released in April 1985 as the second single and title track from Alabama’s album 40-Hour Week.
The song, a salute to America’s blue-collar workers, became Alabama’s 17th No. 1 song on August 3, spending one week atop the chart. The end of the song includes a few bars from “America the Beautiful.”
Country music historian Bill Malone, in his liner notes for Classic Country Music: A Smithsonian Collection, wrote that “40 Hour Week (For a Livin’)” “…is a rare country music tribute to American workers. (It) probably owes its popularity as much to its patriotic sentiments as to its social concern.” Malone also noted that, with few exceptions, “almost no one in country music has spoken for the industrial laborer,” one of the main groups of workers Alabama salutes in this song. “This straightforward homage gives the contemporary worker the respect that the Reagan years denied him,” Malone concluded.
The song was used by NBC Sports over the closing credits during its broadcast of Super Bowl XX on January 26, 1986. Highlights of the Detroit Lions, Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs were shown when the refrains mentioning those cities or areas were sung. Highlights of Steelers fans in Three Rivers Stadium were used for the “West Virginia coal miner” refrain, since many residents of West Virginia are Steelers fans.
A music video was filmed for the song, depicting people working various blue-collar jobs. It was directed by David Hogan and has aired on CMT and Great American Country.
Video
Lyrics
There are people in this country
Who work hard every day
Not for fame or fortune do they strive
But the fruits of their labor
Are worth more than their pay
And it’s time a few of them were recognized
Hello Detroit autoworkers
Let me thank you for your time
You work a 40 hour week for a livin’
Just to send it on down the line
Hello Pittsburgh steel mill workers
Let me thank you for your time
You work a 40 hour week for a livin’
Just to send it on down the line
This is for the one who swings the hammer
Driving home the nail
Or the one behind the counter
Ringing up the sale
Or the one who fights the fires
The one who brings the mail
For everyone who works behind the scenes
You can see them every morning
In the factories and the fields
In the city streets and the quiet country towns
Working together like spokes inside a wheel
They keep this country turning around
Hello Kansas wheat field farmer
Let me thank you for your time
You work a 40 hour week for a livin’
Just to send it on down the line
Hello West Virginia coal miner
Let me thank you for your time
You work a 40 hour week for a livin’
Just to send it on down the line
This is for the one who drives the big rig
Up and down the road
Or the one out in the warehouse
Bringing in the load
Or the waitress, the mechanic
The policeman on patrol
For everyone who works behind the scenes
With a spirit you can’t replace with no machine
Hello America
Let me thank you for your time