Dolly Parton Covered Tom Petty’s ‘Favorite’ Song He Ever Wrote
In 1985, Tom Petty released “Southern Accents” and, nearly 40 years later, Dolly Parton is proving she’s the perfect person to cover it. Parton, who spent time with Petty during his lifetime, will appear on the upcoming tribute album Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty. She spoke about her version of the song as well as her memories of Petty.
Dolly Parton covered a Tom Petty song for an upcoming tribute album
On June 21, a collection of contemporary stars and country icons will appear on Petty Country, an album that will celebrate Petty’s music and his Southern roots. On it, Parton will cover “Southern Accents,” the titular song of Petty’s 1985 album.
“I was fortunate enough to get to know Tom over the years,” Parton said in a statement, via Rolling Stone. “He’s such an iconic artist and important songwriter. I’m so honored to be a part of this special album and to be able to share my version of one of Tom’s best songs, ‘Southern Accents.’”
Parton’s version of “Southern Accents” will appear amongst covers by Chris Stapleton, Luke Combs, Margo Price, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, and many others.
Dolly Parton made some changes to the Tom Petty song
To accompany her cover of “Southern Accents,” Parton released a music video full of archival footage of Petty. She primarily stays true to the original ballad with her poignant rendition, though makes a few tweaks to the lyrics. Toward the end of the song, Parton adds several lines.
“A Southern girl from a Southern town/ I ain’t ashamed/ I ain’t ashamed,” she sings in her version of the song.
He shared his memories of writing ‘Southern Accents’
In her statement, Parton said she considers “Southern Accents” to be one of Petty’s best songs. Petty felt similarly about the song.
“That may be my favorite among my songs — just in terms of a piece of pure writing,” Petty once told the LA Times. “I remember writing it very vividly.”
He was in the studio alone in the middle of the night when the music came to him.
“I was all alone in the studio, everybody had gone, and I was playing the piano. And boom, here’s this song. In F. On the piano. One of the best songs I ever wrote,” he once said, per American Songwriter. “It just appeared. I did it all real fast on the piano. And I had a cassette deck, and I remember I taped it on the cassette deck. And I couldn’t go to sleep, I was so excited about it. That was a lot of fun.”
He had been wanting to take his career in a new direction, and writing “Southern Accents” reminded him of what he loved about music in the first place.
“That’s what makes you want to keep doing this. You get something like that,” he said. “That was really a great, great moment for me, when I wrote that song. I remember it really well. I don’t remember a lot of them but I remember just playing that cassette over and over, and I stayed up all night. I couldn’t possibly go to sleep. I was so excited. I want to play it for somebody! That was in the home studio. I couldn’t wait for the guys to come over. It was like, ‘Wow, I’ve really got this thing down.’”
