KURATED NO. 283
52 SONG PLAYLIST: DOLLY PARTON
ORIGINALS, COVERS AND VERSIONS
BY OTHER ARTISTS
Parton in 1996
“When I’m done, I can rest in peace knowing I’ve done my best. I hope that when my time comes, I’ll leave something behind that others can use to lift themselves up.” ~ Dolly Parton
GOODBYE DOLLY
Beloved by the masses, Parton was a feminist everywoman who aimed to bring people together
At first glance Dolly Parton is an unlikely feminist icon. She once described her flamboyant and manufactured look as “a blend of Mother Goose, Cinderella and the local hooker”.
Her immense musical talent set her apart. She cared deeply about people, had showbiz savvy and a sense of humour, depth and a radiant personality. Her confidence helped vault her from the one and two-room Tennessee cabins she grew up in – with her 14-member family – and onto the world stage. Singing assured vocals on her self-written songs Parton reached everyday people with personal stories they could relate to. Ultimately she earned the kind of artistic celebrity that few achieve and was beloved by millions of adoring fans of all persuasions.
“I look totally artificial, but I am totally real, as a writer, as a professional, as a human being. A rhinestone shines just as good as a diamond,” she told Elle magazine in 2019.
Parton described herself as nonpartisan but not apolitical. “I try not to get into the politics of everything,” she told People magazine in 2023. “I have some of everybody in my own immediate family and in my circle of employees. I’ve got transgender people. I’ve got gays. I’ve got lesbians. I’ve got drunks. I’ve got drug addicts — all within my own family. I know and love them all and I do not judge.
“If there’s something to be judged, that is God’s business. But we are all God’s children and how we are is who we are.”
Addressing double standards
Dolly Parton in the 1970s
Parton was plain spoken in much her music. Some of her lyrics describe daily life with acute sensitivity. Gender inequality was a topic she addressed from her early recordings and throughout her career. While she didn’t flaunt her views she told one interviewer, “I suppose I am a feminist if I believe that women should be able to do anything they want to.”
Some of her hard hitting topical songs like Down from Dover, Daddy Come and Get Me and Evening Shade were deemed too controversial for widespread radio play. Many of her lyrics are blunt about double standards between the sexes.
A few excerpts:
• Her first charting single, 1967’s Dumb Blonde, challenges the assumption that women don’t have the intelligence of men: “Just because I’m blonde, don’t think I’m dumb / ‘Cause this dumb blonde ain’t nobody’s fool.”
• In 1968’s Just Because I’m a Woman she sings, “My mistakes are no worse than yours just because I’m a woman.”
• Her working class anthem 9 to 5 reviles capitalist inequality in singing, “It’s a rich man’s game / No matter what they call it /And you spend your life / Puttin’ money in his wallet.”
• 1970’s Down from Dover addresses the unfair plight of a pregnant teenager abandoned by her boyfriend and sent off to have the baby. “I know this dress I’m wearing doesn’t hide the secret I’ve tried concealing / When he left he promised me that he’d be back / By the time it was revealing.”
• In the same year Parton sings Daddy Come and Get Me about the powerlessness of women and their wrongful institutionalization by unfaithful husbands. Her narrator says: “And he said that I was crazy but he just put me in here to get me out of his way / Oh Daddy come and get me and take me home with you.”
Unifying people and sharing the wealth
Parton’s Imagination Library has sent 304 million free books to children up to the age of five since 1995
By not aligning herself politically Parton aimed to bring people together rather than creating divisions.
“I know whatever I say, people are going to listen, and they’re going to make more of it than maybe what I meant. So I have to be careful,” Parton told People magazine in 2021. “You’re allowed your own beliefs and your own faith, but you don’t have to use it like a weapon when it could be a tool.”
Evenso she demonstrated her allegiances in both deeds and words:
• Parton launched the Dollywood Foundation in 1988 to help needy children where she lived in Sevier County in Tennessee. In 1995 she founded the Imagination Library to share free books to children up to age five. The project has mailed 304 million books to children across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.
• Dollywood Employee Tuition Program is a workplace initiative providing 100% coverage for college tuition, books and fees for all seasonal, part-time, and full-time park employees.
• She was outspoken on many issues including support for LGBTQ+ rights and gay marriage which she first endorsed in 2009, six years before the Supreme Court legalized it across America.
• In 2021 Parton donated $1 million dollars to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine development to Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Dolly Parton: bonafide classics and others
Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda starred in the 1980 film 9 to 5 which also featured her song of the same name
First there was that incredible voice. Then the music it made and the decades of songs Dolly Parton wrote. In her own estimation she penned more than 3,000 of them, some co-authored. Wikipedia verifies that she’s recorded about 1000 songs and issued 49 studio albums.
Coat of Many Colours and Traveling Man
A number of her compositions are bona fide classics. Coat of Many Colours from the 1971 album of the same name is one of the first. NPR senior music critic Ann Powers praises it as “an expertly embroidered portrait of Appalachian rural life that also stands as one of the most powerful reminders of poor people’s dignity to ever grace the airwaves.” From the same album the rollicking Traveling Man tells the story of a daughter plotting a get away with a salesman only to find that her mother has beaten her to it. The daughter says, “Oh, there goes my mama with my traveling man / I’m really gonna miss that traveling man.”
Jolene and I Will Always Love You
Parton was mining a creative vein in early 1973 when her two most popular songs, Jolene and I Will Always Love You, emerged from a cluster of writing sessions. Much analyzed, Jolene is based on a true story in which her husband flirted with a Tennessee bank teller. Among other things, critics note that unlike many songs of jealousy this one sees a woman make herself vulnerable to another leaving the husband out of the conflict.
Jolene was Parton’s second No. 1 hit on the country charts and also landed on the Billboard and Adult Contemporary rankings. After Parton’s death the song climbed to No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and debuted at No. 7 on the Streaming Songs chart.
I Will Always Love You was released a few months later in 1974 and also rose to the top country chart spot. The song was written as a farewell to television host Porter Wagoner who Parton performed with and worked for seven years. She wanted to go solo feeling that Wagoner was holding her back despite their success in the charts. Parton sang it for him in her office and his response was both teary and amazed. He told her, “Well, hell! If you feel that strong about it, just go on — providing I get to produce that record because that’s the best song you ever wrote.”
The song climbed the charts again in 1982 when a new version was featured in the soundtrack for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. However the song’s triumph was Whitney Houston’s 1992 rendition for The Bodyguard soundtrack. The song topped the charts everywhere, broke worldwide records for earnings and won numerous awards. Plus, it made $10 million for Parton.
Some other classics
Familiar hits and favourites include Here you Come Again, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream, Tennessee Homesick Blues and Little Sparrow.
• Here You Come Again was a career changing track in 1977 written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Parton calculated she could broaden her appeal by moving towards a pop sound and she was right. The tune was her first million seller and won the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female, proving her roots remained intact.
• Parton starred in the 1980 film 9 to 5 with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. Thanks to using her downtime from filming to write new songs she crafted the hit single which became the film’s theme song. It became a working class anthem for women and won two Grammys —Best Country Song and Best Female Country Performance.
• Islands in the Stream was a massive hit in 1983. The Bee Gees-written tune featured Parton singing with Kenny Rogers and is regarded as one of country music’s best duets. It was a No. 1 certified platinum hit that broke ground by proving that country and pop could blend successfully.
• Tennessee Homesick Blues’ twang and lively acoustic sound accompanying Parton’s yodeling drove the lead song for the film Rhinestone. It reached number one on the U.S. and Canadian country singles charts in September 1984 and earning Parton a Grammy nomination for Best Country Vocal Performance.
One of Dolly’s final duets
Belles and Parton sing together on Son of Jolene
In April up and coming country singer Kelli Rachel Belles released a duet with Dolly Parton, Son of Jolene. Belles penned new lyrics to Parton’s music and offers a twist on the original song. The narrator sees that she’s been cheated on when she catches him with “lipstick on his suit and tie.”
“I’m just another fool who fell for him/ But who was I expecting him to be? / the son of Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.” While Parton has material yet to be released, this collaboration will be among her last.
A 52-song playlist featuring Parton originals, covers and versions by other artists
Parton at 20
Today’s playlist showcases some of Parton’s best or most well known songs. More than half of them are Dolly originals or ones she’s made famous. The rest are cover versions by artists like Alison Krauss, Glen Campbell, Feist, The Wailin’ Jennys, Eva Cassidy, Justin Townes Earle, Norah Jones with Puss N Boots, The Mayries, Marianne Faithful and others. Dolly shows up in a few of them and they run in the same sequence as the Dolly songs that start the list.
Kurated is tuned in!
12 September 2026
The playlist on YouTube and Spotify
