Leadership

The Top 25 Work Songs

By Joanna Higgins

Updated on: August 8, 2008 / 3:13 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

There could be a serious spin to this: music can be a great tool in helping you focus on a task, as Jurgen Wolff explains. There may be a commentary about how art reflects the age in which it was made (in which case, expect 'The Bear Market Blues' any day now).

But let's not overcomplicate it: it's Friday and the week's been blighted by bad news on the work front.

So here's BNET's own chart listing the top songs about work, compiled with a lot of help from Silicon.com and ZDNet.

Love Solutions by Miniblackhole
Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry by Heaven 17
Punch The Clock by Elvis Costello
Back On The Chain Gang by The Pretenders
Working For The Cash Machine by Hard Fi
9 To 5 Dolly Parton
Labour Of Love by Hue and Cry
Working In A Coal Mine by Lee Dorsey
Waiting For A Factory Girl by The Rolling Stones
Nightshift by The Commodores
She Works Hard for the Money by Donna Summer
Get a Job by The Offspring
Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford
Take this Job and Shove It by Johnny Paycheck
My Cubicle (a parody of James Blunt's You're Beautiful)
Taking Care of Business by Bachman Turner Overdrive
Step Into My Office Baby by Belle & Sebastian
I've Been Working on the Railroad American folk song

Honorary mentions

Working Day and Night by Michael Jackson
Senses Working Overtime by XTC
No Hippie Chick by Soho (for mention of the miner's strike)
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now by The Smiths
Manic Monday by The Bangles
9 to 5 by Sheena Easton
Ain't Nothing Going on But the Rent: Gwen Guthrie

Ugo votes Spinal Tap's Sex Farm as its number one... and for a folk round-up, I tip my hat to Kim Ruehl's compilation.

Have we forgotten any? Let us know.