"Oney" is a single by American country music artist Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

. Released in July 1972, it was the second single from his album Any Old Wind That Blows

Any Old Wind That Blows

Any Old Wind That Blows is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1973 . The album spawned three hits, most notably "Oney," which hit #2 on the country singles chart. The title track and Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer" also charted...

. The song peaked at number 2 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Singles

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart. It also reached number 1 on the RPM

RPM (magazine)

RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...

Country Tracks chart in Canada.

The song is one of several by Cash paying tribute to the working man. 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."

The story of "Oney"

The story picks up on 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.

Chart performance

Chart (1972)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	2
U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100	1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	1