One of the most well-known facts about the late, great Dolly Parton was that she wrote two of her most popular songs, Jolene and I Will Always Love You, on the same day (or at least only a few days apart) sometime in 1973.
I’m not sure why it only occurred to me once I’d heard of her passing (August 25, 2026), but when this bit of trivia came up again in one of her obituaries, I was struck with the realisation of what an enormously emotionally charged time that would have been for her.
‘Jolene’ was famously inspired by a bank teller who was always flirting outrageously with her husband, while ‘I Will Always Love You’ was written to her then long-time performing partner when she was leaving him to go solo.
Can you imagine the turmoil she would have been holding onto that day? To be channelling the gut-churning fear of losing her husband alongside the tremendous guilt of leaving the mentor she owed her career to into two songs that would go on to define her entire career?
While much of the world will remember Dolly Parton for the way she looked, the way she dressed and for her infectious voice and giggle, many of us will remember Parton for her songwriting. The feat of musical composition aside, she was a lyrical genius, an astounding poet of our times.
Writing asks us to tap into our experiences and internal struggles to give life and depth to our words. What Parton displays on these two songs (along with so many of her others) is that she was able to go so much deeper than surface pangs and obvious expectations. Her writing is a lesson in honesty, grace and humanity.
A song like ‘Jolene’, written by any other mere mortal, would have been steeped in jealously, insults and dreams of revenge. Parton may well have felt intensely jealous each time she stepped into that bank only to watch some woman bat her eyelashes at her man, but when you listen to ‘Jolene’, it’s clear it’s not a song about jealousy. Instead, it’s a song that lays bare one woman’s unadorned distress at the possibility of losing the love of her life. It is a song that exposes how precarious and fickle love can often feel. It strips away any and all facade of entitlement, and stands as an admission that you can not control who looks your husband’s way and thinks, ‘gee, they’re cute’. In this song, Parton captures a burning, unsavoury truth; the knowledge that in that moment, another woman holds the power to destroy her happiness. Instead of descending into pettiness and rage, Parton instead asks plainly, and with dignity, for mercy from a woman she openly admits is intoxicating. She does not berate nor belittle. She doesn’t even blame her husband for the attention. She instead respectfully pleads with ‘Jolene’, woman to woman, peer to peer, to please leave her exposed and fragile heart unscarred.
‘I Will Always Love You’ on the other hand is the break-up song to end all break-up songs. Parton at the time had became a household name in the States through her long-time commercial partnership with mentor and fellow musician Porter Wagoner. Wagoner was the far bigger star at the time and had established himself as a TV staple with his musical variety show. While Parton owed much of her early success to Wagoner, after seven years tied to him, his rules and his show, she was more than ready to make the leap to being a solo artist. It was a huge, and for some unthinkable, step for a woman in the music industry to make at that time.
Leaving Wagoner, both personally and professionally, was fraught. Parton could have sung about the distress she felt being controlled so tightly and for so long, by an older man, a man who held all the power and influence. She could have roasted him for his rigidity, brought up every little quibble and frustration to seperate herself from him decisively, and publicly. Her song could have been one of rage. Instead it is a song about love, genuine love. The kind of love that respects and is grateful for what has gone before, and looks to bless and nurture what will be. Parton wasn’t looking to belittle her partner, she was hoping to express to him that despite all that was good and great in their partnership, their relationship had come to a natural end and it was time for both of them to move on. It is a grown up song in a world full of music driven by immature angsts and binaries; going beyond surface level conflicts and disappointments, it is a song that recognises the humanity and dignity in the other.
Writing anything of merit is a tough business. Capturing the attention of your audience requires a singularity of expression and emotional candour that few of us are able to access with any kind of consistency. Most of us stumble with the obvious, the easy to describe, the easy to imagine. Maybe we should be asking ourselves, what would Dolly do?
Parton managed to catch lightening in a bottle not once, but over and over again. She could harness her own whirlwind of emotions and push past them to the bare-faced, clear-sighted eye of the storm within. She had an innate ability to tenaciously seek out the humanity in her subject matter, and to unabashedly expose her own, in sparkling, iridescent technicolour. It should never have been a surprise to anyone that she was a committed humanitarian and philanthropist.
On top of all that, or perhaps because of it, Dolly Parton was a work horse. She wrote over 3,000 songs across her lifetime. By my back of the napkin math, taking into consideration that she wrote her first song around aged 6, Dolly Parton would have written on average over 41 songs every year. She recorded over 1,000 of those songs, released well over 50 albums, and had 22 songs make the Billboard 100 charts (113 songs on the Billboard Country charts). Her glittering, expansive life was one of discipline as much as it was one of music.
If you have not already done so, may I recommend the excellent podcast documentary series Dolly Parton’s America from 2019. And go listen to lots of Dolly songs. I know I will be. We are lucky to have shared the same time line as Dolly Parton. May she rest in peace, and may her legacy continue to inspire us for an eternity.
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