Lindsey Buckingham, the legendary guitarist and songwriter from Fleetwood Mac, experienced a rare moment of professional self-doubt in 1983 when asked to compose a song for the film National Lampoon's Vacation. Despite his extensive success with the band, Buckingham questioned whether he possessed the skillset for film soundtrack work, a challenge entirely unfamiliar to him even at the height of his career.

Buckingham approached the task by attempting to create something catchy and deliberately cartoonish to match the film's family-focused humour and slapstick tone. He explained that he had never written for a film before and lacked reference points for the work, making the assignment particularly daunting. Working independently, rather than within Fleetwood Mac's collaborative environment, intensified this sense of isolation. Ultimately, Buckingham composed "Holiday Road" as the film's theme, which proved to be the perfect musical accompaniment for John Hughes' comedy about a family holiday misadventure.