Dolly Parton’s 10 Most Essential Hit Songs
The world has lost a legend.
Dolly Parton, country music star, actress, philanthropist and theme-park entrepreneur, died Tuesday at age 80. She died peacefully in Nashville, and her nephew Bryan Seaver recorded a video at her request that was shared on social media.
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“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” he said. “As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven’t truly felt it until now.”
It’s impossible to overstate how monumental a loss Parton’s death is both in the music world and in broader American pop culture. One of the most influential songwriters of all time in any genre, Parton became one of country’s earliest household names as she helped bring country to the mainstream. With razor-sharp wit and a knack for weaving drama into catchy melodies, her songs have proven timeless as she’s pulled off hits for herself and and endless list of other acts.
Parton started out as a country music singer before crossing over into pop in the 1970s, landing her biggest hits during that decade and into the 1980s.
As the world mourns Parton, The Hollywood Reporter takes a look at her 10 most essential hit songs.
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“Coat of Many Colors” (1971)
The lead song from Parton’s 1971 album of the same name is as country a song can be. Parton sings the autobiographical story of the coat her mother made for her from a box of rags as she grew up poor, met with ridicule from her classmates. Parton brushes it off saying that “I know we had no money, but I was rich as I could be, in my coat of many colors my mama made for me.”
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“Jolene” (1973)
About as ubiquitous as it gets, Rolling Stone called Parton’s signature song one of the greatest songs of all time and the greatest country song ever made. “Jolene” has Parton begging to the track’s eponymous red-headed vixen not to take the love of her life, bargaining and reasoning that while Jolene “could have your choice of men, I could never love again.” It’s desperate, honest and relatable, spawning hundreds of covers from the likes of the White Stripes and Beyoncé among many more.
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“I Will Always Love You” (1974)
Parton wrote this song as she was moving on from her business partnership with Porter Wagoner. “How am I gonna make him understand how much I appreciate everything, but that I have to go?” Parton once explained. “So I went home and I thought, ‘Well, what do you do best? You write songs.’ So I sat down and I wrote this song.”
The song was a commercial success for Parton, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1974 and again in 1982 with a re-recording for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas soundtrack.
Whitney Houston covered the tune for her 1992 film The Bodyguard, bringing it back to the top of the charts (Parton presented the Grammy for record of the year to Houston along with David Foster, who produced Houston’s version, in 1994.)
Today, “I Will Always Love You” stands as the best-selling single by a female recording artist, earning more than $10 million in pure profit for Parton.
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“The Bargain Store” (1975)
The title track to Parton’s 1975 album has the singer likening herself to a secondhand store following a heartbreak, where “all the merchandise is used but with a little mending, it could be good as new.”
A line like “the bargain store is open, come inside, you can easily afford the price,” can certainly read like the sort of blush-inducing double entendre befitting a modern Sabrina Carpenter song.
Parton herself has actually refuted the song was intended to be dirty, writing in her book Songteller that I “was just saying you’ll be surprised at how good this broken heart is.” However, she wrote, “every man I know thinks it’s dirty.”
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“Here You Come Again” (1977)
This song, from the album of the same name, marked Parton’s first major pop crossover hit. It also was her first gold single and earned a nomination for best female pop vocal performance at the Grammy Awards.While she was looking to break into the pop music scene, Parton wanted the song, which tells the story about someone shaken up after seeing an ex, to keep country music elements, including a steel guitar.
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“She said a monkey could sing this song and have a hit with it,” Parton’s manager, Sandy Gallin, said in 2016. “And she was very nervous that it would turn off the country market, which she was very loyal to. There was no way she wanted to ever let anything insinuate that she may be turning her back on the country audience.”
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“Two Doors Down” (1977)
Another crossover hit, “Two Doors Down” focuses on a woman who, on the heels of a recent breakup, attends a party at an apartment two doors down from her and meets a new man.
Intended as the second single from the album Here You Come Again, singer Zella Lehr released a cover before Parton’s version was released that became a top 10 country hit.
Parton then released a more pop-tinged version of the song that topped the country charts and became a top 20 pop hit.
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“Light of a Clear Blue Morning” (1977)
While it’s not quite a hit on the level of “Jolene” or “I Will Always Love You,” lyrically, “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” may take the crown for the most beautiful song Parton has ever written. The lead-off track from her 1977 album New Harvest… First Gathering, Parton first wrote the song after falling out with musical partner Porter Wagoner, offering a hopeful opening as she made it through the “long dark night” and eager for the new day.
“I can see the light of a clear blue morning,” Dolly belts in the song’s chorus, like a ray of light blasting away the rest of the shadows.
She compares herself to a formerly captured eagle now free, and like an eagle, “I’m eager for the sky.”
It’s about as uplifting a song as one will ever find. For a couple other great versions, listen to Waxahatchee’s 2021 cover, or Miley Cyrus’s SNL mother’s day tribute.
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“9 to 5” (1980)
Parton’s song for the 1980 film she co-starred in carries legacies both as a timeless feminist anthem detailing the struggles women face breaking into the workplace, and as one of the greatest movie theme songs of all time. The drums and percussive piano opening immediately capture the bustle of working in the city, and she delivers her signature wit almost as fast to get out of bed and “pour myself a cup of ambition.”
“Want to move ahead but the boss won’t seem to let me, I swear sometimes that man is out to get me,” Parton sings as she finishes the chorus, a sentiment that will ring true for as long as we remain in the workplace.
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“Islands in the Stream” (1983)
This duet with Kenny Rogers — written by Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb, aka the Bee Gees — marked the first collaboration between the two country legends.Released as the first single from Rogers’ album Eyes That See in the Dark, the song was a crossover success, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning a Grammy nom for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals.
Rogers and Parton released two more duets, “Real Love,” in 1985, and “You Can’t Make Old Friends,” in 2013, in addition to a Christmas album, Once Upon a Christmas, in 1984.
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“Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That” (1989)
“Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That” was the first single from Parton’s album White Limozeen. The song, about a woman reacting to seeing an ex all dressed up and wooing women around town, reached No. 1 song on the on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and earned a Grammy nom for best female country vocal performance. She also performed the song when she hosted Saturday Night Live in 1989.Read more Oscar Nominee Teyana Taylor Books New Role as Face of Alaïa Summer/Fall Campaign
