How A Dolly Parton Manicure Led To One Of Cinema’s Most Famous Theme Songs
Every writer you know can tell you that the process of creating a song or a verse or even an entire chapter of a book can sometimes come from some of the most unexpected places. A sound you hear out in the distance that starts to trigger something profound. A single word that comes to your mind and sparks an entire idea. Or, for the incomparable and late Dolly Parton, the inspiration comes from her gorgeously iconic acrylic nails.
It's rare to have a legacy as truly profound and universally acknowledged as hers, in both the film world and the music scene. And when we get the gorgeously sparkling overlap, it results in a perfectly penned theme song to a brilliantly written comedy that becomes a cultural staple like Nine to Five (1980). Everyone and their mother has likely seen the movie at least once in their lifetime, but even if you haven't—and you now get to experience it for the first time—there's a big chance you've heard the titular song Parton sings for the movie.
And the story behind it makes it even more glorious than you think.
The Inspiration Behind Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’ Song, Explained
On an episode of the Howard Stern Show, Dolly Parton shared the details of how she started writing the lyrics to "9 to 5" by crediting her acrylic nails. Re-uploaded again onto Instagram after being filmed previously, we get to remember a moment of creativity that makes the song even better.
First, Parton demonstrates the act of rubbing her nails against each other by using both hands to showcase the distinct sound that she notes sounds like a typewriter to her. And she's definitely not wrong once you catch it. The sound is uncanny. She also goes on to state that she started doing this while on set, watching the other actors work, making a note of how she was "so starstruck" by the fact that she was on a movie set. She tells Stern that she'd go to set, even when she wasn't in the scene, because she wanted to watch the process.
She states how she essentially started making the percussive sound with her nails because she couldn't get a guitar on set, and the process of watching the filming take place continued to make her think and marinate on the melody.
Parton goes on to say that at night, she'd sit with her guitar and string the lyrics together for weeks, allowing the song to come together in increments before she assembled it into the full track. It's a riveting piece of detail to hold onto when we know how iconic the song is. And perhaps, more importantly, it's a testament to authentic creativity and a great memory to hold onto in this day and age when generative AI is at large and robs people of remembering how much beauty lies in the ordinary moments. The sights and sounds you could see every day, but in a single moment, everything can feel a little different.
The thing about creativity that's so critical to remember is the process by which a person reaches their endgame. You can never and should never take the easy way out when it comes to creating something because so much of the magic lies in the approach. As a song, "9 to 5" becomes even more endearing (and a true bop!) when we understand how Parton drew inspiration from a piece of her that's always there. It makes the song more fun and genuinely wholesome while also exhibiting further proof of how her talents were truly limitless.
