On this day in history (April 5, 1975), Minnie Riperton’s single “Lovin’ You” became a number 1 hit on Billboard’s pop singles chart and went on to achieved the same status in over 20 countries around the world. She was married to songwriter and music producer Richard Rudolph and they had two children: music engineer Marc Rudolph and actress/comedienne Maya Rudolph.

Minnie Riperton was born Minnie Julia Riperton on November 8th 1947, in Chicago, Illinois. She was the youngest of eight children, born to Daniel and Thelma Riperton. She studied classical music as a child and developed a five-octave vocal range and originally planned to become an opera singer.

She studied music, drama, and dance at Chicago’s Lincoln Center received operatic vocal training from Marion Jeffery. Riperton began singing as a session singer at the Chess Records studio when she was just a teenager.  She provided backing vocals on records by legendary artist Bo Diddley, Etta James, Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry.

Eventually, Riperton and her family moved to Los Angeles where she to become a member of Stevie Wonder‘s backing group, “Wonderlove”. After touring with Wonder, she returned to the studio to work on her second solo album, “Perfect Angel” which contained the international pop hit “Lovin’ You”. As the story is told, “Lovin’ You” was originally written as a lullaby for her then two-year-old daughter, Maya.

Riperton became a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society in 1977. In 1978, she received the American Cancer Society’s Courage Award, which was presented to her at the White House by President Jimmy Carter. July 12, 1979, at age 31, Minnie Riperton succumbed to cancer in her husband’s arms while listening to a song written especially for her by her friend Steve Wonder.

The rest of the band did not like the song at first. Lead singer Katrina Leskanich thought "it wasn't really us", while bassist Vince de la Cruz found it irritating.^[5]

The sheet music for "Walking on Sunshine" is in the key of B♭ major in standard time with a tempo indication of "bright rock".^[6]

When Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, the MSNBC program Countdown with Keith Olbermann dubbed its coverage of the storm "Katrina and the Waves". The name also appeared in numerous headlines and blog postings. A New York Times reporter contacted Katrina Leskanich, who said: "The first time I opened the paper and saw 'Katrina kills 9,' it was a bit of a shock. ... I hope that the true spirit of 'Walking on Sunshine' will prevail. I would hate for the title to be tinged with sadness, and I will have to do my own part to help turn that around."^[8] She also expressed her hope that "Walking on Sunshine" would become an anthem for the Gulf Coast's recovery.^[9]

In August 2015, the song was acquired by BMG Rights Management for £10 million, along with all of the other songs written by Rew and Katrina and the Waves.^[12]

In a 2020 interview, Leskanich said that she believes that the song is going to outlive her.^[13]

By late 1980, Alex Cooper had joined the band on drums, with Bob Jakins on bass. Mama's Cookin' proceeded to gig steadily in England over the next two years, specialising in covers of songs by American acts such as Heart, Foreigner, Linda Ronstadt and ZZ Top.

The Waves were initially fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarist Rew, who brought a wealth of original material to the band. Leskanich, meanwhile, originally only sang lead vocals on the cover tunes in the band's repertoire. However, over the first year of the Waves' existence, Rew began to write material for Leskanich to sing, and she was soon the primary vocalist.

The Waves made their initial recorded appearances on a 1982 single ("The Nightmare"/"Hey, War Pig!"); both tracks were included on the 1982 Rew solo album called The Bible of Bop.^[1] The Waves then issued their debut EP Shock Horror! later in 1982; Rew and Leskanich both sang lead, about 50/50. Around this time, bassist Jakins left the band, and de la Cruz took over on bass. Now a quartet, the Waves issued the single "Brown Eyed Son" in the UK in August 1982 before permanently renaming themselves Katrina and the Waves.

The Katrina and the Waves album was a substantial critical and commercial success, and the group had a worldwide hit with the song "Walking on Sunshine," (no. 9 US, no. 8 UK,^[1] a completely re-recorded, and substantially rearranged version of the song when compared to its initial 1983 Canada-only release). A Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist followed, as did constant touring, both of which helped to spur moderate sales of new releases.

A follow-up single to "Walking on Sunshine" called "Do You Want Crying" (written by de la Cruz) also became a top 40 US hit, reaching no. 37 in the late summer of 1985.

Near the end of the 2010s, the popularity and amount of indie rock acts began to decline. In their place, many modern rock radio stations began playing crossover pop artists including Billie Eilish, AJR, Post Malone, Glass Animals, the Kid Laroi, and Machine Gun Kelly, among others.

Released as a single in November 1980, the song garnered Parton an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 53rd Academy Awards and three Grammy Awardnominations including Song of the Year, winning her the awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Vocal Performance, Female at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards. Parton received an additional Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special Grammy nomination for the 9 to 5 soundtrack alongside composer Charles Fox. For a time, it became something of an anthem for office workers in the US, and in 2004, it ranked at number 78 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Songs.

The song is also featured in a musical theater adaptation of the film, featuring a book by the film's original writer, Patricia Resnick, and 20 additional songs written by Dolly Parton. The musical began showing previews in Los Angeles on September 9, 2008, and played on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre from April until September 2009 before touring. In 2012, a UK theatre tour of 9 to 5 began.

With this song, Parton became only the second woman to top both the U.S. country singles chart and the Billboard Hot 100 with the same single; the first was 1968's "Harper Valley PTA" by Jeannie C. Riley, which Parton had coincidentally covered in her 1969 album, In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad).

"9 to 5" served at the theme song for the mid-1980s sitcom 9 to 5 which derived from the film. Phoebe Snow sang the theme for the four-episode premiere season, which aired in March and April 1982; however, Parton would be heard singing the theme for the sitcom's 1982–1983 run and for its 1986–1988 revival.

Songwriters Neil and Jan Goldberg filed a lawsuit against Parton, claiming that "9 to 5" was a copy of their 1976 song "Money World". In December 1985 the court ruled in Parton's favor.

In early 2021, Parton recorded a new version of the song titled "5 to 9" for a Squarespace advert in the Super Bowl LV.

The song appeared in the opening scenes of the films The Love Guru performed by Mike Myers on the sitar as his character Guru Pitka and Deadpool 2 with Deadpoolhimself (Ryan Reynolds) using it in a sequence where he kills a series of people in his mercenary job, even starting the music by declaring "hit it, Dolly" immediately before.

The song was featured in the post-credits scene of the Gravity Falls episode “Summerween”.

It was also featured in The Orville episode "Sanctuary", in which the song was chosen by Haveena (Rena Owen), the leader of female fugitives as an anthem of their attempted revolution.

"9 to 5" was also interpolated into the 2024 song "Powerful Women" by Pitbull, which features Parton herself re-recording the song's chorus alongside adding new lines. Pitbull later declared on X that it was "an honor to be collaborating with one of music's most powerful women".

The song was featured in "After Hours", the first episode of The Penguin.

Regarding the song they inspired, co-founder of 9to5 Karen Nussbaum said, “I think the song is brilliant. It starts with pride: ‘Pour myself a cup of ambition.’ It goes to grievances: ‘Barely getting by.’ It then goes to class conflict: ‘You’re just a step on the bossman’s ladder.’ And then it ends with collective power: ‘In the same boat with a lot of your friends.’ So in the space of this wildly popular song with a great beat, Dolly Parton just puts it all together by herself.”

“9 to 5” became an anthem for working women, uniting women together under one battle cry for fair working conditions. 

And 40 years later, women are still leaning into Parton’s lyrics. New York magazine writer Rebecca Traister commented “9 to 5” is “simultaneously a song of angry complaint and immense good cheer. And there is something about that combination that makes it kind of addictive and fun.”