‘Workin’ For A Livin’’ A Reason To Smile Dan Rather and Team Steady Aug 31 Credit: Getty Images All hail the American worker. On Monday, we celebrate Labor Day, an excellent reminder to honor the people who make this country run: the construction workers, the nurses, the line cooks, the librarians, the school bus drivers, good-hearted Americans who show up every day. Hopefully you get the day off! There have been a lot of songs written that salute working Americans, but I am partial to rock star Huey Lewis’s “Workin’ For A Living’.” It is our reason to smile. According to Lewis, the song is autobiographical, detailing many of the jobs he had before finding success as a singer-songwriter. He wrote the song when he was driving a truck for a living. “I wrote it when I was actually working. I thought about all of the jobs which just sort of popped out.” Jobs like busboy and bartender. The song was first recorded by Huey Lewis and the News in 1982. But it gained in popularity when he collaborated with country star Garth Brooks for a version in 2007. They shot the video on a Nascar track, though Lewis was skeptical at first. The making of the video is worth a look. Labor unions helped protect the men and women who built this country and made it one of the strongest economies in the world. And it was labor unions who pushed to designate a day to celebrate those workers. A “Labor Day” was proposed in the late 1800s and became a federal holiday in 1894. Happy Labor Day. If you want to enjoy all the songs chosen for A Reason To Smile, you can listen to this Spotify playlist, which is updated weekly. If you are able to, please support my team, who make pieces like this possible. No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading, watching, and listening. Stay Steady, Dan