{"id":807046,"date":"2026-10-19T00:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T00:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807046\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T00:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T00:12:16","slug":"in-1974-dolly-parton-wrote-a-goodbye-song-to-her-partner-in-2026-it-has-now-sold-39000000-copies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807046\/","title":{"rendered":"In 1974, Dolly Parton wrote a goodbye song to her partner. In 2026, it has now sold 39,000,000 copies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolly<\/p>\n

Credit: Dolly Parton<\/p>\n

Sun 18 October 2026 20:00, UK <\/p>\n

Dolly Parton<\/a> was the last person that many would have thought of to start controversy. <\/p>\n

She only wanted to make the best music that she could, and there was nothing stopping her from making the most wholesome country music that anyone had ever heard when she started singing for the first time. But she wasn\u2019t going to follow anyone\u2019s rules, either, and she made her entire career out of putting people in their place if they decided that they were going to do something behind her back.<\/p>\n

That was half the reason why Porter Wagoner became an albatross<\/a> around her neck after a while, and while she initially loved singing alongside him, there was a lot more to be done when she struck out on her own. She didn\u2019t want to be taken for a fool whenever she made any of her songs, and even some of the biggest tunes of her career afterwards tended to thrive because she wasn\u2019t known for being a backing vocalist or duet partner whenever she started to sing her tunes.<\/p>\n

The biggest names in music were all interested in making something bigger and better than what had come before, and Parton wanted to put herself in that company if she got away from Wagoner one day. It was bad enough that they were getting into arguments behind the scenes, but when Parton realised that enough was enough, she wasn\u2019t going to spend her time trying to tear him a new one and leave with a middle finger in the air or anything like that.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not how she was raised, and she knew that it was better to be professional and cut ties with Wagoner while she had the chance. She knew that her star was rising much higher than anyone could have imagined, and even though Wagoner was going to weigh her down after a while, she still knew that there was always going to be a special place in her heart for him for helping her to fame in the first place.<\/p>\n

He believed in her more than anyone else when she started performing, and she felt that she owed it to him to make him a song before she left. But even though Wagoner was happy enough to have sung some of the traditional country tunes with Parton, no one would have been prepared for a song like \u2018I Will Always Love You\u2019 being written about them if they were presented with it.<\/p>\n

There was no animosity by the time that they split, but Parton knew that she needed to keep herself moving if she was going to survive and thrive as an artist, saying<\/a>, \u201cI really felt like I needed to move on. I didn\u2019t want to spend the rest of my life being a girl singer. I knew my destiny. I knew that I had to continue doing what I felt\u2026 drawn to do.\u201d And given how much that one song has got around, it\u2019s not like Parton needed to worry about her legacy.<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

While a lot of people might know the song these days for being the perfect vehicle for Whitney Houston\u2019s voice<\/a>, the tune has become more of a legend than an actual song these days, eventually going on to sell 35 million copies off the strength of Houston\u2019s version alone. But there\u2019s something about Parton\u2019s original that still had the potential to break hearts all around the world as well.<\/p>\n

So many more milestones were ahead of her, like \u20189 to 5\u2019 and \u2018Here You Come Again\u2019, but Parton didn\u2019t want to feel like she was defined by that one song, either. She was only too happy to have written it, and when the time came for her to move on, she knew that she could still give her all to the tune whenever she worked on singing it live throughout her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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