My Ten Favorite Girl Songs: Heaven Help the Working Girl (#6)

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Here's another one of my favorite "girl" songs -- songs with "girl" or "girls" in the title. This is a series that was started by @teamfreak16 and he's going strong with his own list. And, as usual, we haven't matched yet. Here's my next song. #6: Heaven Help the Working Girl - Norma Jean Unless you are deep catalog country (as Eddie Stubbs calls it) you've never heard of Norma Jean. But I guarantee you that you've heard of the woman that replaced her: Dolly Parton. Back in the early 1960s Porter Wagoner's syndicated TV series featured "Pretty Miss Norma Jean" (as a child I thought her first name was "Prettymiss" and her last name was "Normajean" ) as the "girl singer." She had a string of hit singles in the mid-60s. "Heaven Help the Working Girl" was her last top 20 single, which was a hit about the time she left Porter Wagoner's TV show (replaced by Dolly Parton). Coincidence that her career waned and Dolly's began to take off right about that time? I don't think so. And it's really sad that she's a footnote to country music history in that regard. She had some great tunes. This one, about a waitress dealing with the trials and tribulations of her job ("thank you, sir, you're very kind, I think I'll pass this time, we'd both be sorry if I did go home to your wife and your kids"), has always been one of my favorites of hers. And a personal PS: in 2007 I went to the Americana Music Association conference. They were supposed to honor Porter Wagoner in the first night, but he died a few days before the conference began. The honor became a memorial, and Norma Jean was one of the people in attendance. I'm so happy I got to meet her after growing up watching her on Porter's show as a kid. Heaven Help the Working Girl Written by Harlan Howard Recorded by Norma Jean From Heaven Help the Working Girl, 1967 It's just the bottle talking: