Dolly Parton is nothing if not a revolutionary. From doubling down on her publishing rights for Elvis Presley’s “I Will Always Love You” to releasing songs like “Just Because I’m A Woman” in 1968, Parton not only paved a new path for women in country music but also remained determined to do it her way. In an interview with Howard Stern, Parton recounted how she came up with the song “9 To 5.” As it turns out, her sense of originality gave us what’s still one of her biggest songs to this day.
Videos by American Songwriter
If you listen closely, you’ll hear what sounds like acrylic fingernails tapping throughout the song. That’s because, well, there are.
When talking about how she came up with the rhythm for the 1980 hit, Parton told Howard Stern, “You know that I wrote that song with my nails.”
While working on the set of “9 To 5”, Parton revealed that she was trying to soak in all the movie magic and didn’t have her guitar with her. That’s when she started to make noise with her acrylic nails as she wrote the lyrics. “I thought it sounded like a typewriter,” she told Stern. “Can you hear that?”
“You gotta have acrylic nails to make that real percussive sound”, Parton insisted, if you want to replicate the sound she made in “9 To 5”.
Dolly Parton Needs “A Bigger Cup of Ambition”
When recording “9 To 5” Parton told Stern that she and her producer actually added the signature “fingernail” sound to the recording. “I actually played my nails on the thing,” she said. Originally, her producer, Greg Perry, wanted to use a typewriter to replicate the sound Dolly was making. Then they decided that she should put her nails to work and use the acrylics as well.
Speaking on what “9 To 5” means to her, Parton explained in a TED Interview with Adam Grant, “I have to work longer and I have to have a bigger cup of ambition in the morning to get it all done but somebody like me, I always wanted to be a star and I wanted my dreams to come true, and they did…” She continued, “I have to be on top of all of it to make sure that it’s being done right. The way that I want it done.”
In doing so, Parton continues to appeal to generations of women today.
Photo by: Jason Kempin/Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.