Songfacts®:

• "It's Nice to Have a Friend" is a dreamy lullaby that tells the story of two people who meet as small children at school.
  
  Lost my gloves, you give me one
  "Wanna hang out?" Yeah, sounds like fun
  
  As they get older the friendship changes from platonic to romantic.
  
  Something gave you the nerve
  To touch my hand
  
  The two friends eventually get married.
  
  Church bells ring, carry me home
  Rice on the ground looks like snow
• The song's storyline of two children growing up together and falling in love echoes Swift's track "Mary's Song (Oh My My My)" from her 2006 eponymous debut album. That one was inspired by Taylor's neighbors, a married couple that had known each other since they were little kids.
• Swift wrote and produced the ballad along with Louis Bell and Frank Dukes. The production is daydreamy and delicate, incorporating gentle steel drums. Dukes and Bell have used Caribbean influences before on hit tunes such as Camila Cabello's "Havana."
• Toronto producer Frank Dukes also samples the young voices of the Regent Park School of Music singing "Summer in the South." Regent Park School of Music is a community school from the producer's home city, which helps children develop by involving them in music. Dukes sampled the youth choir because it generates income for the Toronto school's youth program.
  
  "We made it so that the proceeds from the sales of the library go to fund the school," Dukes told CBC. "Beyond that, when it gets sampled, money from sample clearances and the royalties - which could be long-standing and pretty significant overtime - would go and sustain the program."
• At 2:30, "It's Nice to Have a Friend" is the shortest song on Lover -it was also Swift's shortest ever song until she included the 2:28 "Glitch" as one of her Midnights (3am Edition) tracks.