The Song Dolly Parton Wrote About Her Flirtatious Teen Niece: ‘She Was as Big a Flirt as I Am’
Dolly Parton once said, “I’ve never met a man I didn’t like.” She’s always been open about her flirtatious nature. It seems one of Parton’s nieces, Rebecca Seaver, may take after her aunt. Parton was inspired to write “Lover du Jour” in 2014 after witnessing her niece flirt with a cute waiter at a restaurant.
Dolly Parton’s nieces and nephews
Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, never had children of their own. But the Queen of Country has been instrumental in raising her siblings’ children. She has 15 nieces and nephews.
“I’ve loved their kids just like they’re my grandkids, and now I’ve got great-grand-kids!” she told People in 2014.
“Now I’m GeeGee, which is great-granny,” Parton continued. “I often think, it just wasn’t meant for me to have kids so everybody’s kids can be mine.”
Dolly Parton’s song inspired by her niece, Rebecca
In Parton’s 2020 book, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, she writes about a time when she had her nieces out in Los Angeles with her.
“One of them, Rebecca, was about fifteen or sixteen at the time, and she was as big a flirt as I am,” she wrote. “She came by that naturally. She always has a boyfriend somewhere. We were riding up and down the coast and stopped at this little fish restaurant. The menu said, ‘soup du jour,’ and my nieces said to me, ‘What is that word?’ I said, ‘I think that means, ‘soup of the day.” Rebecca was flirting with this cute waiter. I said, ‘Oh Lord, Rebecca. Is that your lover du jour?'”
‘Lover du Jour’
So Parton went home and wrote a song called “Lover du Jour.”
“I don’t speak a word of French,” she wrote. “I can barely speak English, much less French. I had a couple of people give me some French words to put in the lyrics. People who speak French say, ‘I don’t hear a word of French in that song. It’s either your accent, or you’re using the wrong words.’ Anyway, I was trying to get that in there. Maybe somebody who speaks French should record it.”
Oh, I’m not gonna be your, be your lover du jour
‘Lover du Jour,’ by Dolly Parton
Your special of the day, no way, adieu, farewell, bonjour
Pardon my French
But there’s no chance in Hell for you, for sure
If you think I will be your, I’ll be your lover du jour
Pas moi
Not me
