‘Working for the Weekend’ is a song by Canadian rock band Loverboy from their second studio album, Get Lucky (1982). It was written by guitarist Paul Dean, vocalist Mike Reno, and drummer Matt Frenette and produced by Bruce Fairbairn and Dean. The song was released as the lead single from the album in 1981 and reached number 29 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as number two on Billboard's Rock Top Tracks chart in February 1982. ‘Working for the Weekend’ was ranked at number 100 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s".
In an interview with Paul Dean, he explained the song's origin: "That one was originally, 'Everybody's Waiting for the Weekend.' I was walking down close to where I was living. It was a Wednesday afternoon, beautiful afternoon, and I'm walking in this heavily populated area, and it was deserted. Everybody was at work. And me being the musician, I'm out working and my work is, okay, what am I going to do for inspiration and where can I find it? So I'm out on the beach and wondering, 'Where is everybody? Well, I guess they're all waiting for the weekend.' So that experience spurred that. And Mike had the great idea of, 'Why don't we call it, Working for the Weekend?' and I said, 'Yeah, that's good. That's fine.' Not a huge difference, still works, it's kind of cool, it's quirky with a little bit of a twist on the lyrics, so yeah, let's go."
One of the earliest Loverboy songs, this was their third single, following ‘Turn Me Loose’ and ‘The Kid Is Hot Tonite.’ The band was gaining traction but still playing bars when they wrote the song, so they were able to field test it in a live setting. Paul Dean said, "We were playing this bar and it was one of these meat market places, and we did two sets and nobody danced, nobody cared. It was just like, 'Oh, my God, are we ever going to reach these people?' And we when came on stage for the third set, we opened with 'Working for the Weekend,' and the dance floor was packed. I went, 'Okay, we might have something here.' We don't have that luxury now. We still play our new tunes, but it's different now. Now that we're established, it's hard to get people to really sit up and take notice on a new song. You can never compare it to a hit that's established in their mind that they've been waiting for six months to hear."
The song was released in 1981, the same year MTV went on the air. Loverboy is Canadian, and there weren't many outlets for music videos in that country either, so the clip for ‘Working For The Weekend’ didn't have much of a budget. In the book MTV Ruled the World - The Early Years of Music Video, Loverboy lead singer Mike Reno tells about the filming of this video: "We would play the song over and over again, and we'd bounce around like we normally did. Here's what I thought was kind of interesting: The director would say, 'OK, we're going to shoot another song, now go get changed.' 'What do you mean?' 'You have to put on a whole new outfit, and we're going to change the lighting a bit.' But it was the same stage! So basically, we just had to get some other clothes, fix your hair, take a break, and then jump back on stage and do the same thing over and over again. I really felt like I was being abused a bit, but that's the nature of the beast."
Label – CBS
Songwriters – Paul Dean, Matt Frenette, Mike Reno
Producers – Bruce Fairbairn, Paul Dean
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Everyone's watchin' to see what you will do
Everyone's lookin' at you, oh
Everyone's wonderin', will you come out tonight?
Everyone's tryin' to get it right
Get it right
[Chorus]
Everybody's workin' for the weekend
Everybody wants a new romance
Everybody's goin' off the deep end
Everybody needs a second chance
Oh
[Post-Chorus]
You want a piece of my heart?
You better start from the start
You wanna be in the show?
Come on, baby, let's go
[Verse 2]
Everyone's lookin' to see if it was you
Everyone wants you to come through
Everyone's hopin' it'll all work out
Everyone's waitin', they're holdin' out
[Chorus]
Everybody's workin' for the weekend
Everybody wants a new romance (Hey hey, hey hey)
Everybody's goin' off the deep end
Everybody needs a second chance
Oh
[Post-Chorus]
You want a piece of my heart?
You better start from the start
You wanna be in the show?
Come on, baby, let's go
Hey
[Post-Chorus]
You want a piece of my heart?
You better start from the start
You wanna be in the show?
Come on, baby, let's go
[Post-Chorus]
You want a piece of my heart?
You better start from the start
You wanna be in the show?
Come on, baby, let's go