Song Musings

It’s Wednesday and I’d like to welcome you to another installment of my weekly feature where I take a closer look at a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. Some folks who know I’m big time into blues, rock, soul and pop with a strong preference for the ’60s and ’70s may be a bit surprised I chose to highlight a song by Dolly Parton.

I love Dolly, both as a music artist and a person who strikes me as kind, humble and down to earth – attributes that aren’t very common in the oftentimes ego-driven music business, especially comes to famous individuals. My specific pick is Jolene. For a change it’s not the music but the lyrics that drew me in. You can literally see and feel the desperate protagonist, imploring the other goddess-like woman who could have many other man to lay off her husband.

Written by Parton, the song first appeared in October 1973 as the lead single and title track from her 13th solo album that subsequently was released in February 1974. While Parton with her November 1970 single Joshua already had scored her first no. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Country Charts, Jolene became the first of five consecutive no. 1 country hits, propelling her solo career into high gear.

Jolene also was Parton’s first song to cross over to the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. Peaking at a moderate no. 60, she would have significantly more success on that chart with September 1977’s Here You Come Again (no. 3) and 9 to 5 (November 1980), her first and only no. 1 on the U.S. pop chart. Here’s a fun live version of Jolene captured in England in 2014 at the Glastonbury Festival. How Parton can fret her guitar with her long nails remains a mystery to me!

The lyrics combined with Parton’s cut-through vocals make Jolene a powerful song. The words were inspired by a personal experience Parton had when noticing a bank clerk was flirting with her husband Carl Dean shortly after they had gotten married. Today, 57 years later, they remain a married couple. Another inspiration for Jolene was Parton’s encounter with a young, red-haired girl named Jolene, who asked her for an autograph.

Jolene, which Parton has called her most frequently covered song, was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014, making it Parton’s second tune to receive the accolade after I Will Always Love You, included in 2007. Jolene also made Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at no. 270. In the magazine’s revised list from 2021, unlike many other older songs it ended up way higher, at no. 63. Other artists who have covered Jolene include The White Stripes, Reba McEntire, Olivia Newton-John, 10,000 Maniacs and this lady, Rhonda Vincent, a bluegrass artist – stunning!

Following are some additional insights from Songfacts:

The title was inspired by an encounter with a 10-year-old fan. “She had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, these beautiful green eyes, and she was looking up at me, holding [out] for an autograph,” Parton recalled to NPR in 2008. “I said, ‘Well, you’re the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?’ And she said, ‘Jolene.’ And I said, ‘Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I’m going to write a song about that.'”…

…Bluegrass singer Rhonda Vincent recorded a cover of this song that became a fan favorite and one of those fans happened to be Dolly Parton. She was so impressed with the version, that she invited the singer and her band to perform it at Dollywood. Rhonda was in for a big surprise when she took up Dolly’s offer, she said in our interview: “Now, I thought we were just going to back her up. She’s there. Isn’t she going to sing it? We got there expecting to back her up, and she goes, ‘Oh, no. I’m not going to sing it. You’re going to sing it, and I’m going to sing harmony with you.’ And all I could think of is, ‘Please don’t let me forget the words.’ Because we are nose to nose singing her song at the theater there at Dollywood to a full house. So it was a very memorable day for us. I was so glad I remembered all the words. There’s nothing like singing with Dolly.”

Dolly Parton has disclosed in several interviews that the song was also inspired by a red-headed bank clerk who flirted with her husband Carl Dean around the time they were newly married. Recalling the origins of her hit tune during her performance at Glastonbury 2014, she said:

“Now, some of you may or may not know that that song was loosely based on a little bit of truth. I wrote that years ago when my husband was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be.

I put a stop to that. I got rid of that redhead woman in a hurry. [At 5 feet, Dolly may not be the tallest woman, but I guess don’t mess with her – CMM]

I want you folks to know, though, that something good can come from anything. Had it not been for that woman I would never have written ‘Jolene’ and I wouldn’t have made all that money, so thank you, Jolene.” [You just gotta love Parton’s sense of humor, who an another occasion said, ‘it costs me a lot of money to look this cheap – CMM]

The a cappella group Pentatonix released a cover of the song with Dolly Parton herself as feature artist in September 2016. When this version entered the Top 20 of the Country chart, Parton became the first artist with Top 20 hits on the tally in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s and ’10s.

The Pentatonix collaboration won the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance...

…Folk-pop singer Mindy Smith caught her big break when she recorded a haunting rendition for the 2003 Dolly Parton tribute album, Just Because I’m A Woman. Parton was a big fan of her version and appeared in the music video. Smith – who released her debut album the following year, featuring the popular single “Come To Jesus” – told Songfacts the story behind recording “Jolene.”

“I didn’t know how to play it,” she admitted. “And that’s why the chord progression is that way, because I was trying to figure out how to play it, and it worked out really well. The day that I met Dolly was the day she was hearing it for the first time. I was in the room with her and she didn’t know what the song was at first. It really was so organic how she just embraced me as a young artist and took me along for the ride in a way that I would never have dreamed of. How that all panned out and how generous and kind she was to me so early on to invest her time in what I was doing – it was everything. I look back and I can’t believe that happened.”

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube