"Friday Night Blues" is a song written by

Sonny Throckmorton James Fron "Sonny" Throckmorton (born April 2, 1941) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Known primarily for his songwriting, Throckmorton has had more than 1,000 of his songs recorded by various country singers. He has also had ...

and Rafe Van Hoy and originally recorded by Throckmorton, whose version of the song went to No. 89 on the

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

charts in 1980, released on

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

with "It Always Rains on Me" on the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

. Only one month after Throckmorton's version charted,

John Conlee John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

released his own rendition of the song, from his album of the same name. Conlee's version charted at No. 2 on Hot Country Songs. Conlee's version of the song was the first credit for session guitarist

Brent Rowan Brent Rowan (born May 28, 1956 in Waxahachie, Texas) is an American session musician and record producer who works primarily in country music. Active since the 1970s, Rowan began working with John Conlee through the recommendation of record produce ...

, who soon became the only guitarist that Conlee used under the production of Bud Logan.

Content

The title track of his 1980 album, the album's artwork plays off the song's theme: A husband who would rather lie on the couch, watch television and relax after a hard week at work, while his wife is dressed up and wants him to treat her to a Friday night on the town. The song takes a look at her loneliness and longing for attention from her husband – presumably, he's some sort of businessman who has spent the week on the road making deals – who ignores her when he is home. Those emotions persist during the week (when he is presumably absent), as she's left to watch daytime television, do typical housework and talk with a neighbor about domestic life, and build to their apex by Friday night ... when she has the "Friday night blues" after she realizes he just wants to stay home and her need for a night out conflicts with his need to de-stress on Friday night.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1980 singles John Conlee songs Sonny Throckmorton songs Songs written by Sonny Throckmorton Mercury Records singles MCA Records singles Songs written by Rafe Van Hoy 1980 songs {{1980-country-song-stub