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October 19th, 2026 · 9:15pm BST
Dolly Parton wasn’t known for being someone who suffered fools gladly whenever she worked in the music business.
She was every bit as knowledgeable and shrewd as her peers, and anyone who dismissed her as a dumb blonde quickly discovered just how badly they had underestimated her. She wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself or put people in their place when they disrespected her. However, beneath that tough exterior was someone who had endured her fair share of heartbreak.
Some of the best tunes in country music come from the sadder side of life, and Parton knew that some of her favourite songs of all time were in that same tradition. ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’ was forever going to be one of the best tunes that she ever heard, and even when she worked on some of her later tunes, there were still those few tearful songs that she would perform from time to time, whether it was on her record or duetting with everyone from Don Henley to Brad Paisley.
Nothing was off the table for her whenever it came to making tunes that were a bit more openhearted, but there were more than a few times when she could be a bit more stern. ‘Here You Come Again’ still had its heart in the right place, but you could tell that she was still going above and beyond to show everyone that she could make country music fit inside of a pop context whenever she sang that song.
But even if there were a lot of songs that gave a shoutout to the simple living down South, ‘Jolene’ will forever be one of the most universal songs of all time. Because as much as people can fawn over songs that are all about jealousy, Parton doesn’t play the song that way by any stretch whenever she talks about this lady with auburn hair trying to win over her man all the time.
And while I mean no disrespect to the Bey Hive, the reason why Parton’s version of her tune is so much different from Beyoncé’s is that ‘Queen Bey’ is coming with a warning. She knows that she has her man wrapped around her finger, but when you look at the way that Parton sings the song, she has the voice of someone who is worried that her one true love might actually walk out of her life if she’s not careful.
That’s a lot of heaviness to put on a simple country song, but Parton wrote the tune in 1973, just about a simple argument she had with her husband when he flirted with someone at the bank, saying, “My husband got a crush on this beautiful red-headed girl down at the bank. And I knew that we didn’t have enough money to be spending that kind of time down at the bank. I went down there one day and he was talking to this girl. He said, ‘I’m trying to get a loan.’ I said, ‘You need to get your ass home or it’s gonna be your ass and your fault.’”
Further reading: From The Vault
As I said before, the lady didn’t suffer fools gladly, and once she found the perfect name from a little girl that she was signing autographs for, she had everything complete for the song. All she needed was a couple of minor chords and her voice to carry the thing along, and suddenly, the song has become one of the biggest tunes in the world, having been streamed over a billion times on all platforms.
Because even if you don’t like country music and hate it with every fibre of your being, you have to admit that you can relate to the kind of helplessness in this song. Everyone has had their heart broken before, and anyone in Parton’s position would do everything they could to make sure that they don’t have to get stepped on yet again whenever they see their significant other with another person.
