There are celebrity deaths that just hit harder. This is one of those.
It wasn’t rare to see her celebrated in her lifetime as the Queen of Country. But Dolly Parton was so much more than that, an American treasure who spoke to countless generations with an artistry that went beyond the boundaries of a single genre and a personality as sparkling as her rhinestone-studded outfits.
She was cut from a singular cloth with an artistic vision as distinctive as that voice of hers, an instrument of pure emotion that could scarcely be more instantly identifiable as Dolly Parton.
As the music world mourns the passing of an undisputed icon, here are10 classic recordings that speak to her enduring genius, most of which she wrote, from early hits that went
on to be standards (“I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene”) to “Backwoods Barbie,” a late-career triumph that takes her detractors to task while offsetting her fiery independent streak with self-effacing charm and wit in classic Dolly Parton fashion.
10. 'Islands in the Stream' (1983)
Does it feel a little awkward to begin our countdown with a song the Bee Gees wrote with either Marvin Gaye or Diana Ross in mind (depending on which Bee Gee you believe)? Of course it does. But this was one of Dolly Parton’s most successful pop hits for a reason, a duet with Kenny Rogers that gave them both their second No. 1 appearance on the Billboard Hot 100. His was “Lady.” Hers was “9 to 5” (but more on that later).
This triple-platinum single spent two weeks at No. 1 on that chart, also topping Billboard’s Country and Adult Contemporary charts and going on top a Country Music Television poll of best country duets of all time. And you certainly couldn’t say these singers didn’t make that song their own. Sure, you can hear the Bee Gees in the mix, but both singers are so obviously playing to their strengths here with a chemistry that’s undeniable.
It almost didn’t happen, though. Rogers had been trying to record the song himself and after four days of failing to come up with something he found satisfactory expressed his frustration to Barry Gibb, who, according to a Rogers interview with Taste of Country, told him, “What we need is Dolly Parton.” That they did.
9. 'Just Because I'm A Woman' (1968)
The title track to Parton’s second solo album is a Parton original that finds her challenging prevailing double standards when it comes to women’s sexual pasts, although she never comes right out and says that in so many words.
As she sings in the opening verse, “I can see you’re disappointed by the way you look at me/ And I’m sorry that I’m not the woman you thought I’d be/ Yes, I’ve made my mistakes, but listen and understand/ My mistakes are no worse than yours just because I’m a woman.”
She goes on to tell him, “When you look at me, don’t feel sorry for yourself/ Just think of all the shame you might have brought somebody else.” There are also pointed references to how “a man will take a good girl and he’ll ruin her reputation, but when he wants to marry, well, that’s a different situation,” leaving the girl he’s ruined to fend for herself “while he looks for an angel to wear his wedding band.”
A daring statement for the time, Parton's defiantly feminist anthem found a ready audience at country radio, hitting No. 17 on the Hot Country Songs chart at Billboard.
8. 'To Daddy' (1976)
This brilliantly constructed story song is a Parton original famously recorded by Emmylou Harris for “Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town” after Parton’s singing partner, Porter Wagoner, took exception to the feminist moral of the story.
The story begins as a richly detailed portrait of a woman who quietly accepts her role as the wife of a man who doesn’t recognize her value. “Mama never seemed to miss the finer things in life/ If she did, she never did say so to daddy/ She never wanted to be more than a mother and a wife/ If she did, she never did say so to daddy.”
It only gets sadder from there until you hit the twist coming out of the key change. “One morning we awoke just to find a note that mama carefully wrote and left to daddy,” Parton sings. “She said our kids are old enough and they don’t need me very much, so I’ve gone in search for love I need so badly/ I have needed you so long, but I just can’t keep holding on/ She never meant to come back home/ And if she did, she never did say so to daddy.”
Parton's version, recorded in 1976 but not released until it showed up on a compilation in the ‘90s, was never released as a single. But Harris’ version peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s country chart.
7. 'Backwoods Barbie' (2008)
This is as close to a signature song as a woman could hope to have written and recorded no fewer than 42 years down the road for her first charting single (a song called “Dumb Blonde” that she did not write).
Released in 2008, “Backwoods Barbie” finds Parton drawing on a lifetime of experience, having famously responded to critiques of her appearance in her prime by leaning further into the sexual stereotypes and controlling the narrative by writing her own punchlines with a knowing wink (“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” she liked to joke).
In “Backwoods Barbie,” Parton sings, “I've always been misunderstood because of how I look/ Don't judge me by the cover ’cause I'm a real good book/ So read into it what you will, but see me as I am/ The way I look is just a country girl's idea of glam.”
It’s on the choruses that Parton really hits her stride here, from “Don't let these false eyelashes lead you to believe that I'm as shallow as I look cause I run true and deep” to “I'm just a Backwoods Barbie in a push-up bra and heels/ I might look artificial, but where it counts I'm real.” The energy is classic Dolly Parton. It didn't chart, but it became a big hit at her concerts.
6. 'Love is Like a Butterfly' (1974)
Parton’s delivery is as delicate as a butterfly’s wings on this breathtaking original, quite possibly the most contagious melody she’s ever written. And the lyrics are as pretty as the melody.
It opens on the chorus, Parton sighing, “Love is like a butterfly, as soft and gentle as a sigh/ The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings/ Love makes your heart feel strange inside/ It flutters like soft wings in flight/ Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing.”
This song became her third consecutive release to top the Billboard country charts when it followed “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” to the top, repurposed two years later as the opening theme to a short-lived variety show called “Dolly!”
5. 'Here You Come Again' (1977)
This song was written by Brill Building royalty, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who were not thinking Dolly Parton at the time. The song was written as a comeback hit for Brenda Lee, who somehow failed to see it as the comeback hit it could’ve been, deciding not to bother with it.
A textbook case of her loss being Parton’s gain, this timeless charmer spent five weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart while becoming the country star's first major crossover to Billboard's Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 3. Before that, the best she’d done was “Jolene” hitting No. 60.
There’s no mistaking the pop sensibilities that made this song cross over for the country star, from the Carpenters-worthy soft-pop charm of that piano intro to the lush orchestration on the bridge.
Parton was initially reluctant to record the song, which she worried would alienate her country fans and be seen as a sell-out. So her producer, Gary Klein, brought in Al Perkins to appease her with some country-centric steel guitar. It’s in there, but there’s still no mistaking the pop in her country here. This song also won the singer her first Grammy — Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
4. '9 to 5' (1980)
Speaking of crossovers, this is a big one. Parton’s first chart-topping entry on the Billboard Hot 100 was written as the theme song to a hit film of the same name starring Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. It’s a working-class anthem whose universal appeal was obvious enough that this career-defining single also topped the easy listening and country charts.
The song is brilliantly constructed with the tension of the verses giving way to the spirited country-funk groove of a chorus that should strike a chord with working people everywhere: “Workin' 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin'/ Barely gettin' by, it's all takin' and no givin'/ They just use your mind and they never give you credit / It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it.”
The most contagious rhyme, though, may be “9 to 5, for service and devotion/ You would think that I would deserve a fair promotion.”
3. 'Coat of Many Colors' (1971)
Parton often said this was her favorite song she'd ever written, inspired by the coat her mother stitched together from whatever rags she had available so Dolly could be warm. The song tells how the kids at school made fun of her.
"And oh, I couldn't understand it, for I felt I was rich," she sings. "And I told them of the love my momma sewed in every stitch / And I told 'em all the story Momma told me while she sewed/ And how my coat of many colors was worth more than all their clothes."
Every detail of those lyrics is just perfect, originally scrawled on the back of a dry cleaning receipt for one of Porter Wagoner’s suits on a tour bus. This song peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s country charts and went on to be used in the title of two successful made-for-TV Dolly Parton biopics.
2. 'I Will Always Love You' (1974)
Whitney Houston’s gospel-flavored reinvention of this Dolly Parton ballad for the soundtrack to "The Bodyguard" nearly two decades later remains one of the biggest-selling singles of all time, thanks in part to the power of Houston's emotionally unguarded vocal and in part to the timeless appeal of the lyrics. But what concerns us here is the original recording and the song itself, which became her second No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart.
Parton has said of the song, “I was so emotional, I was crying when I was writing it.” It would be easy to believe some tears were also shed as she was singing this one in the studio. The vulnerability she flashes in that vocal has a way of sneaking up on you, especially in her trembling delivery on the verses.
Take the second verse, where Parton sings, “Bittersweet memories/ That's all I am taking with me/ Goodbye, please don't cry/ We both know that I’m not what you need.” I’m not crying. You’re crying.
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1. 'Jolene' (1973)
I love that this song was inspired, in part, by a bank teller that Parton felt was flirting with her husband, Carl. Now, I haven’t seen this bank teller, but something tells me she was not the mythic Jezebel that occupies the lyrics of this timeless country classic, a woman whose “beauty is beyond compare with flaming locks of auburn hair, with ivory skin and eyes of emerald green.”
The song is written as a conversation with that mythic other woman, who Parton confronts here in a way that manages to come across as both extremely vulnerable and drawing on a huge reserve of strength. “I’m begging of you, please don’t take my man,” Parton pleads in the chorus that opens the song, a plea she rhymes with “Please don’t take him just because you can.”
It’s a heartbreaking exchange, especially when she tells her things like, “I cannot compete with you, Jolene” and “I can easily understand how you could easily take my man.” This song has inspired a number of notable covers, from Beyoncé to the White Stripes, but Parton’s original remains the definitive version — in part because she wrote it and in part because there’s no mistaking the extent to which she feels those words she’s singing.
Ed has covered pop music for The Republic since 2007, reviewing festivals and concerts, interviewing legends, covering the local scene and more. He did the same in Pittsburgh for more than a decade. Follow him on X and Instagram @edmasley and on Facebook as Ed Masley. Email him at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Best Dolly Parton songs of all time. Her 10 greatest hits
