In 1981, two songs with the same title (written by different people and recorded by two different women: one a well known American Country Music artist, and one a relatively unknown Scot) topped the Billboard™ Hot 100.

In the United Kingdom:

Sheena Easton became a recording artist on a British reality television program. The show, which was called “The Big Time”, was under production in the UK in 1980, and its mission was to document an unknown singer’s quest for stardom.

For one year, Sheena was filmed by television crews. With cameras rolling, Sheena sang for EMI’s head of A&R, Brian Shepherd. Shepherd later said that he went to the audition with full intentions of not signing the unknown singer, but was overcome by her talent. Surprising everyone, including himself, he signed her to EMI Records.

Sheena’s first single for EMI was “Modern Girl“, which was just a moderate success. But her follow-up release was a song written by Florrie Palmer that was also titled “9 to 5.” It is a song about a woman who waits at home all day for her man to come home from work.

The song soared up the UK singles chart in 1980, to position #3. When it was released in the United States in 1981, the name of the song was changed to “Morning Train (Nine to Five)” to avoid confusion with Dolly’s hit song. The song topped the Hot 100 for two weeks in May, 1981.