"Oney" is a song recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist Johnny Cash. It was released in July 1972 as the second single from his album ''

Any Old Wind That Blows ''Any Old Wind That Blows'' is the 44th overall album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1973 (see 1973 in music). The album spawned three hits, most notably "Oney," which hit #2 on the country singles chart. ...

''. The song peaked at number 2 on the '' Billboard''

Hot Country Singles 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 sa ...

chart. It also reached number 1 on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Country Tracks chart in Canada. The song was written by

Jerry Chesnut Jerry Donald Chesnut (May 7, 1931 – December 15, 2018) was an American country music songwriter. His hits include " Good Year for the Roses" (recorded by Alan Jackson, George Jones and Elvis Costello) and " T-R-O-U-B-L-E" (recorded by Elvis P ...

. The song is one of several by Cash paying tribute to

the working man ''The Working Man'' is a 1933 pre-Code American comedy film directed by John G. Adolfi and starring George Arliss and Bette Davis. The screenplay by Charles Kenyon and Maude T. Howell is based on the story ''The Adopted Father'' by Edgar Fra ...

. This first-person story is about a factory worker who plans to get retribution against his mean boss. In the song's spoken prologue, Cash dedicates the song "''to the working man/for every man that puts in a hard eight or 10 hours a day of work and toil and sweat/always got somebody looking down his neck/trying to get more out of him than he really ought to have to put in''."

Content

The song is about a factory worker's retirement day, where he laments about his years of long hours, exhausting, backbreaking and thankless work, and frustration in dealing with a micromanaging boss, Oney. The song's title character, Oney is a strict boss who demands promptness and sternly reprimands workers for the slightest of infractions, such as showing up five minutes late for work. During the worker's final day, his immediate supervisor (presumably one of Oney's lackeys) drops by, reminding the protagonist that it was Oney who made him and, without his help, would have not succeeded, all while the worker continues to lament about seeing Oney in his sleep. As quitting time (at 4:30 p.m.) approaches, the worker pictures his retirement party, where he says Oney -- whom the protagonist complains has put in little to no work in the factory, while his employees toil away in poor conditions -- will probably give him a gold watch for his years of hard work. However, the worker says he plans to give something Oney in return: a beating. As the song ends, 4:30 approaches, leading the song's hero to call out, "Oney, Oney!" before chuckling over his plans.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1972 singles 1972 songs Johnny Cash songs Songs written by Jerry Chesnut Song recordings produced by Larry Butler (producer) Columbia Records singles {{1970s-country-song-stub