Dolly Parton – 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs album art
The cover of Dolly Parton’s 1980 album 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs pays homage to Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers. Interestingly, while the art direction references Rockwell’s Rosie to the Rescue, that cover was printed with a different style than the design otherwise referenced by Parton’s cover. The album cover, which uses Post Oldstyle, references a design and type treatment in use from 1901 to 1942, but Rockwell’s Rosie cover ran in 1943.
Rosie to the Rescue is a natural choice for a concept album about working and labor. Via the Saturday Evening Post:
At least thirty-one wartime occupations for women are suggested by Norman Rockwell’s remarkable Labor Day Post cover. Perhaps you can think of more. The thirty-one we counted, suggested by articles the young lady is carrying or wearing, are: boardinghouse manager and housekeeper (keys on ring); chambermaid, cleaner and household worker (dust pan and brush, mop); service superintendent (time clock); switchboard operator and telephone operator (earphone and mouthpiece); grocery-store woman and milk-truck driver (milk bottles); electrician for repair and maintenance of household appliances and furnishings (electric wire); plumber and garage mechanic (monkey wrench, small wrenches); seamstress (big scissors); typewriter-repair woman, stenographer, typist, editor and reporter (typewriter); baggage clerk (baggage checks); bus driver (puncher); conductor on railroad, trolley, bus (conductor’s cap); filling-station attendant and taxi driver (change holder); oiler on railroad (oil can); section hand (red lantern); bookkeeper (pencil over ear); farm worker (hoe and potato fork); truck farmer (watering can); teacher (schoolbooks and ruler); public health, hospital or industrial nurse (Nurses’ Aide cap).
Prints of Rosie to the Rescue are available from the Norman Rockwell Museum.
Art direction by Tim Bryant Design and George Corsillo. Album design by Corsillo, with photography by Ron Slenzak. Dolly Parton’s name appears to be her own signature, used on several other album covers.
For reference: Rosie to the Rescue on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post issue from September 4, 1943. The article teasers at the bottom are set in Franklin Gothic.
