Working for the Weekend

The song originated when guitarist Paul Dean was out walking one Wednesday afternoon, looking for inspiration in his songwriting. He noticed that much of the area was deserted, as most people were at work. "So I'm out on the beach and wondering, 'Where is everybody? Well, I guess they're all waiting for the weekend,'" he later said.[3] Mike Reno, the band's vocalist, suggested they change the title to "Working for the Weekend". According to Dean, he first began writing the song in a hotel room following a Montreal concert. At the time, the band were still playing bars to little response from patrons. After completing the song, they used it to open one set, and Dean recalled that "the dance floor was packed".[3]

• The song was covered by former American Idol contestant and country music singer Josh Gracin on the 2005 soundtrack to the final installment of the Herbie franchise, Herbie: Fully Loaded, starring Lindsay Lohan and Justin Long in the scene where the team works to fix Herbie overnight in time for the final race.
• American virtuoso[11] guitarist Paul Gilbert included an instrumental cover of this song as the first track on his 2014 album Stone Pushing Uphill Man.
• Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) performed a parody version of the song on Conan on November 20, 2013, suggesting he had been asked by Rob Ford to cover the song as Ford's campaign song for re-election as Mayor of Toronto, the lyrics parodying Ford's ongoing substance abuse scandal.[12]