{"id":869161,"date":"2026-08-26T15:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869161\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T15:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T15:02:14","slug":"dolly-parton-legacy-of-all-the-music-and-lyrics-dolly-left-us-there-is-no-more-searing-song-than-jolene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869161\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton legacy: Of all the music and lyrics Dolly left us, there is no more searing song than Jolene"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolly Parton is rightly remembered for writing one of the greatest love songs of all time.<\/p>\n

In 1974 she released I Will Always Love You which became a hit for her and then a dual-Grammy winning anthem for Whitney Houston in 1994.<\/p>\n

But the kindest woman in the world also wrote from the heart when crafting a tune gripped with envy.<\/p>\n

Of all the music and lyrics Dolly left us, there is no more searing song than Jolene.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the ultimate ballad of insecure jealousy where the vulnerable victim knows there\u2019s nothing more she can do but beg.<\/p>\n

The haunting song starts with the creeping pluck of guitar strings that build up to a repetitive rhythm of a racing, fearful heartbeat.<\/p>\n

Dolly then delivers her opening line: \u201cJolene, Jolene, Jolene, Joleneee, I\u2019m begging of you please don\u2019t take my man\u201d \u2014 repeating Jolene\u2019s name over and over, as if that persistent plea is the only way to stop her love rival stealing her paramour and plunging a knife through her worried heart.<\/p>\n

Dolly wrote the song in 1972 after two moments that moved her.<\/p>\n

\"DollyCamera IconDolly Parton and Carl Thomas Dean. Credit: dollyparton.com<\/p>\n

The first was when she noticed her husband of seven years was spending too much time at the bank where she believed a beautiful teller was flirting with him.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The bank teller) got this terrible crush on my husband,\u201d Parton told NRP in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had everything I didn\u2019t, like legs \u2014 you know, she was about 6 feet tall. And had all that stuff that some little short, sawed-off honky like me don\u2019t have. So no matter how beautiful a woman might be, you\u2019re always threatened by certain . . . you\u2019re always threatened by other women, period.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second moment was when she was on stage one night and a \u201cbeautiful little girl, about eight years old\u201d asked Parton for an autograph.<\/p>\n

Dolly said: \u201cYou\u2019re the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?\u2019 And she said, \u2018Jolene.\u2019 And I said . . . that is pretty. That sounds like a song. I\u2019m going to write a song about that\u2019. \u201d<\/p>\n

And Parton did, bringing the two moments together into one of history\u2019s most haunting tunes.<\/p>\n

Parton\u2019s raw honesty comes out in the lyrics where each foreboding line is an admittance of resignation. That the choice of where her husband walks isn\u2019t Dolly\u2019s, but a decision her rival will make.<\/p>\n

Lines such as, \u201cI cannot compete with you, Jolene\u201d, \u201cyou could easily take my man\u201d, \u201cmy happiness depends on you\u201d, and \u201cplease don\u2019t take him even though you can\u201d reveal her futility.<\/p>\n

\"CountryCamera IconCountry singer Dolly Parton, circa 1970. Credit: Getty\/Michael Ochs Archives<\/p>\n

Adding to the pain is the weeping whine of a pedal steel guitar crying in the background as the lyrics note the long-legged vixen making her husband look twice has eyes of \u201cemerald green\u201d, the colour of the jealousy that Dolly feels.<\/p>\n

The song was recorded in May 1973 and then released as a single in October of that year.<\/p>\n

She scribbled the lyrics in lead pencil on notebook paper that now sits behind glass in America\u2019s Country Music Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

Ranked at 63 in Rolling Stone\u2019s 2021 list of \u2018500 Greatest Songs of all Time\u2019, it\u2019s the highest of three songs written by Parton that make the list. The other two are Coat of Many Colours at 263 and Houston\u2019s version of I Will Always Love You at 94.<\/p>\n

And from a woman full of kindness it\u2019s an admittance that as much as love will bring happiness, there are times when it can also hurt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton is rightly remembered for writing one of the greatest love songs of all time. In 1974…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-869161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}