It feels a bit odd to end Friday conversations with “Have a great weekend” these days, with no travel, no restaurants, no bars, no concerts, no sports, and not much else brewing to separate weekend from weekday routines. Hopefully it won’t be long before the weekend resumes its rightful place in the rhythms of our lives.

During a conversation this past Friday, lamenting another weekendless weekend, I was introduced to the O’Jays “Living for the Weekend”.  Thanks, Spencer!  The song was released in 1976, in the middle of the group’s run of classics.  Don’t know why I can’t recall it, but maybe clocking in at over six minutes it didn’t get the air play of “Love Train” or “Use ta Be My Girl”.   Let the O’Jays sing you through the entire weekend cycle from Friday pay check to Sunday wind down.

A year after “Living for the Weekend”, Dave Edmunds released “Here Comes the Weekend”.  The song was co-written by Dave’s regular collaborator and sometime bandmate Nick Lowe, and only demands your attention for a radio-friendly two minutes.  Here’s a nice live version.

Among the goofier weekend homages is “Party Weekend” by Joe King Carrasco and the Crowns from 1980.  It has a special place in my heart, though.  On Friday afternoons in the 1980s, Jonathan “Weasel” Gilbert – DJ for Washington D.C.’s progressive rock station WHFS – played “Party Weekend” along with “Here Comes the Weekend” to close his Frantic Friday shows.  Have a great weekend.