Dolly Parton originally refused to let 'Pam and Tommy' use her song 'I Will Always Love You'.
Dolly Parton took some convincing
The team behind the hit Hulu series were keen to have the 76-year-old singer's classic track in the finale, but initially she wasn't convinced.
The show's Music Supervisor Amanda Thomas told IndieWire: "Dolly was one that was actually denied, initially.
"She’s certainly very open to things... As music supervisors, when we watch content, especially when there are big songs used, we tend to be like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting that person approved that.’
"I always think about the use of ’9 to 5′ in 'Deadpool' for this wildly violent scene.”
After the initial rejected, Amanda took a different approach and "recontextualised" her pitch to Dolly.
She explained: "We went back and we recontextualised the whole thing. And we’re like, ‘Here’s the story we’re trying to tell. We are telling this narrative from Pamela’s perspective, as someone who got the short end of the stick and was not done well by the men in her life'.
“[Pamela’s] in a place where she can look back fondly on this time in her life, and Tommy being a part of that time, but from a point of view that she’s moved on from it and she’s grown from it.
"The song really speaks to that in a cool way... When it was initially denied and I told the team, I was like, 'We're going back for it.' "
From ther, she decided to send the pitch alongside the scene just before the epilogue to give some more context.
She added: "I was like, ‘Let’s include a little bit leading up to that epilogue.’ So you can see that moment of Pam in the tattoo shop, and the baby next to her and changing the tattoo to ‘Mommy.'
“Even though the song isn’t playing during that part, let’s include that as a lead-in so you can clearly communicate tone.”
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