Dolly Parton Said Her No. 1 Album Wasn’t ‘the Kind of Hit’ She Wanted

In 1977, Dolly Parton released the album Here You Come Again, representing her calculated move onto the pop charts. This had been Parton’s goal, but she wasn’t sure she was thrilled with the method of getting there. While she liked the album, she said it was slicker than something she normally would have liked to put out.

Dolly Parton said one successful album sounded too slick for her

Parton released the single “Here You Come Again” at the encouragement of her management team. She didn’t write the song, and she wasn’t sure if she loved the way it sounded.

“I knew the song was a hit, but I wasn’t sure if it was the kind of hit I wanted,” she said, per the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I wouldn’t want to get labeled with this slick production because my own songs are a lot more gutsy and a lot more soulful. The album is slicker than I’ve ever heard myself, or would probably ever want to hear myself again. But it was somethin’ I purposely did.”

Still, she released the album for a reason. It landed her on the pop charts and was her best-selling work to that point.

“We were purposely trying to get a single and an album that would cross over. And we did,” she said. “In three weeks, the single sold more than anything else I’ve ever had out. And in two weeks, the album outsold any other album I’ve ever done.”

Dolly Parton warned her producer that she didn’t want the album to stray too far from country

Parton feared Here You Come Again would alienate her longtime country fans. While she trusted her management team and her producer, she warned them not to stray too far from her roots. Parton told them she wouldn’t trust them again if the album angered her fans.

“She was questioning whether it would be a country hit,” her manager, Sandy Gallin, said. “She told me, ‘I’m not going to trust you again if the country people don’t like this.’ She’s very sensitive to not offending her country fans. That’s important to her.”

She said she wanted to start recording more traditional songs again

While Parton prides herself on her songwriting, she only wrote four of the songs on Here You Come Again. She hoped to bring more of her own writing to the public on later records. She also wanted to put traditional country songs on her albums.

“Evidently, my own songs, as they were, didn’t quite hack it, so we purposely included songs that were recognized by the pop world,” she said. “But once I crack that market, my own songs will be accepted. And when I get to where I want to go — which is a long way from here — I’ll still be going back and doing the old traditional songs and preserving them that way.”