Dolly Parton Fought to Write a Song Like ‘Jolene’ for ‘Years’

In 1973, Dolly Parton released “Jolene.” The song became a major hit for Parton and found crossover success with a pop audience. When people complimented her on releasing a new type of song, she felt a bit frustrated. She had been trying to release songs like “Jolene” for years.

Dolly Parton had to fight to write songs like ‘Jolene’

In 1967, Parton began working with Porter Wagoner on The Porter Wagoner Show. In their years of collaboration, they released a number of duets together, and they consistently entered the Top 10 on country charts. “Jolene” was a solo effort by Parton, but she said Wagoner helped with the song.

“I have a big part of the arrangements in the main bulk of my songs, say like, I made up the little lick on the guitar, and it’s followed all the way through,” she said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash, later adding, “But Porter is fantastic! He’s a wonderful producer, and he’s got brilliant ideas. He added so many other things to it …”

In later years, though, Parton said she couldn’t write songs like “Jolene” while she was working with Wagoner. He wanted her to stick to a more country sound.

“That was the first time I noticed people sayin’, ‘That’s different than what you been doin’,’” she said. “But I had been fightin’ for that sort of thing for years. I had all these songs I was writin’, and I was developin’ musically, as far as a different style of pickin’ and hearin’ different sounds in my mind was concerned. ‘Jolene’ was the first good example of the fact that you can be yourself and still improve on whatever you do.”

Dolly Parton shared the inspiration behind ‘Jolene’

Over the years, Parton has spoken about the inspiration behind “Jolene.” She first thought about writing the song after meeting a young fan with red hair and green eyes.

“I said, ‘Well, you’re the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?’” Parton told NPR. “And she said, ‘Jolene.’ And I said, ‘Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. Jolene.’ I said, ‘That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I’m going to write a song about that.'”

She took further inspiration from a bank teller who seemed to have a crush on her husband, Carl Dean.

“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton said. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.’”

Many artists have covered the song

“Jolene” is one of Parton’s best-known songs and many artists have covered it over the years. Artists like The White Stripes, Miley Cyrus, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Lil Nas X, and Olivia Newton-John released their own versions of Parton’s song.

Most recently, Beyoncé released a version of “Jolene” on her album Cowboy Carter.