Zach’s Top 5 Favorite Dolly Parton Songs [MUSIC]

This song was written by Dolly and released in 1974 on her "Jolene" album. According to Wikipedia, "the singer wrote the song for her one-time partner and mentor Porter Wagoner, from whom she was professionally splitting at the time." 

Who could forget this song? It's one of those ones that always gets stuck in my head after I hear it. This song was released back in 1974, and according to Wikipedia, "it is ranked #217 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time"." It's definitely a great one, that's for sure. An interesting fact about this song is "Parton has said that the inspiration for the story was a tall, red-headed bank teller who Parton believed was flirting with her husband, and her husband's apparent vulnerability to the teller's charm as indicated by his sudden interest in making frequent trips to the bank. In her live performances of the song, Dolly often states she fought this woman tooth and nail for her husband. The name "Jolene" came from a beautiful little red-headed girl with green eyes who sought her autograph at a concert," according to Wikipedia. 

When I think of Dolly, this is the first song that pops into my head. It's definitely a classic.

Dolly had success as a bluegrass crossover in 1999 with her album "The Grass is Blue." In 2001, she recorded this cover of Shine, orginally performed by the band 'Collective Soul', for her album "Little Sparrow." I always like when a country star has some bluegrass success. Well, it's probably because I'm a big bluegrass fan is why I like this song so much.

I featured this video in my Top 8 Country Songs About Dogs. And, I really, really, like this song. So much so that it's my favorite Dolly song. It's one of those classic, sad story songs.