A Country Icon Warned Porter Wagoner That Dolly Parton ‘Just Can’t Sing’
After Dolly Parton agreed to appear on Porter Wagoner’s show, he wanted her to sign with his record label as well. This was a difficult decision for Parton, who liked her label It was also a difficult decision for Wagoner’s record company, RCA Victor. Country star Chet Atkins, who worked at RCA, told Wagoner that the label didn’t want Parton. He didn’t think she had a good enough voice.
A country singer told Porter Wagoner that Dolly Parton was a major risk
When Parton signed with Wagoner, he was a major star in the country music industry. His faith in her was not enough for RCA, though. Wagoner brought Atkins a recording of Parton singing and the latter was not impressed.
“This girl just can’t sing,” Atkins reportedly told Wagoner, per the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I don’t think she’d sell, because she just cannot sing.”
Wagoner was insistent, though. He wanted Parton on the same label as him and encouraged Atkins to take a risk with her.
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” Wagoner said. “You take out of my royalties what she loses this year because I believe she can sing, and that she’ll make it.”
Atkins acquiesced, but RCA released her first single as a duet with Wagoner to protect themselves. It reached the Top 10, just like the rest of the duo’s singles would. Atkins came to enjoy Parton’s voice, and she teased him about their rocky start.
“I kid Chet a lot,” she said. “Every time I go in to sing something for him, I’ll say, ‘Now I know I can’t sing, Chet, but I’ve got something I want you to hear.’ Just joking with him. Of course, now Chet is the biggest fan I have in Nashville. I just didn’t catch his ear [at first].”
Porter Wagoner initially was not a fan of Dolly Parton
Wagoner made his belief in Parton’s abilities clear, but he was not initially a fan of her, either. When he first heard her, he believed she was not “country enough.” She was popular enough in Nashville that someone suggested he hire her for the show. He initially refused.
“Someone had brought up her name to him as a singer, and he just wasn’t gonna have anything to do with Dolly,” Wagoner’s former employee said. “It was also before he met her.”
Wagoner began to warm to her, though. After they met, he knew she would be a perfect addition to his show.
She said her voice may not appeal to everyone
Parton’s singing has lifted her to soaring success, but she has said that she doesn’t necessarily think of herself as a good vocalist.
“My voice is not necessarily good, but it’s different,” she said. “You always know who it is. The only way I would know how to describe it is a childlike sound with a grown-up emotion, with a grown-up feeling. People think I’m singing higher than I should, but I talk high. It’s the sound of my voice.”
Still, Parton said she has always loved singing, despite what she may think of her voice.
