Daily Mail music critic Adrian Thrills has selected ten defining songs from the life and career of Dolly Parton following the queen of country music's passing.
Parton may be gone, but her reputation as one of pop music's most revered performers will live gloriously on. Whether singing her own original material or putting her own rhinestone-studded spin on music written by others, the country legend possessed a rare ability to express complex human emotions with a simple, personal touch.
To honour her extraordinary legacy, Thrills looked back on her lifetime of song, choosing ten tracks that capture the spirit, storytelling, and musical versatility of an artist who shaped American popular music for more than half a century.
Early Classics and Breakthrough Hits
Her 1971 autobiographical ballad, Coat Of Many Colors, looked back lovingly on her humble childhood in rural Tennessee, the southeastern US state long regarded as the historic home of country music. Written on the back of a dry cleaning receipt while Parton was traveling on a tour bus, the moving track tells the story of a coat that her mother, Avie Lee, stitched together from scrap rags given to the impoverished family.
Parton captured the warmth and gratitude of her upbringing in the lyrics. "Now I know we had no money, but I was rich as I could be," she sings. "In my coat of many colours my momma made for me." The song remains one of her most enduring personal statements.
Two years later, Parton released Jolene in 1973, a track that quickly became a true standard in Nashville, the famed capital of country music. The song was based on the true story of how a flirtatious redhead, who worked as a local bank clerk, appeared to take an interest in Parton's husband, Carl Dean.
Musically, Chip Young's delicate finger-picked guitar set the perfect tone for Parton's yearning vocals. The lasting beauty of the composition lies in its emotional ambiguity, as it remains never fully clear whether the other woman truly intended to steal her husband.
In 1974, Parton penned I Will Always Love You, inspired by her professional separation from her original business partner and mentor, Porter Wagoner. What Parton originally crafted as a soft country farewell was later transformed into one of pop music's greatest power ballads when American singer Whitney Houston recorded her all-conquering cover version in 1992.
While Houston's interpretation was famous for its gale-force vocal power, Parton's softer original recording remains no less heart-wrenching for listeners.
Hollywood Stardom and Cross-Genre Duets
Parton expanded her career into Hollywood with the 1980 hit comedy film 9 To 5, marking her big screen acting debut alongside co-stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. She wrote the title track for the movie's soundtrack, delivering a country-soul single that served as a joyful celebration of working women and a classy retort to 1980s office sexism.
To create the distinctive, typewriter-like rhythm that opens the track, Parton famously tapped her acrylic fingernails together in the recording studio.
Demonstrating her remarkable talent as a musical collaborator, Parton teamed up with fellow country legend Kenny Rogers in 1983 for the Motown-inspired duet Islands In The Stream. Written by the Gibb brothers of disco legends The Bee Gees and named after a novel by American author Ernest Hemingway, the romantic track had originally been intended for Diana Ross and possibly Marvin Gaye.
However, Parton and Rogers claimed the song for themselves, transforming the track into polished, soft-rock gold that topped music charts worldwide.
Return to Traditional Bluegrass Roots
As her commercial appeal to mainstream pop audiences began to fade during the 1990s, Parton chose to return to her Tennessee mountain roots. In 1999, she released The Grass Is Blue, the title track to the first of three acclaimed bluegrass and folk albums published between 1999 and 2002.
The track proved that her songwriting talent remained in full bloom, exploring the acoustic traditions of Appalachian roots music. "The sky is green, and the grass is blue... and I don’t love you," she sang, delivering a poignant tale of heartbreak.
Ever a Backwoods Barbie at heart, Parton continued in a traditional musical vein with her 2016 album title track, Pure And Simple. The lilting lullaby was adorned with classic acoustic instrumentation, including mandolin and pedal steel guitar.
The stripped-back album was directly inspired by a series of intimate concerts Parton had performed with an acoustic quartet the previous year. "I may not be pure, but I’m as simple as they come," she quipped about the record, though listeners knew her artistic sophistication ran far deeper.
Lockdown Projects and Final Recordings
Parton showed no sign of slowing down during the coronavirus lockdown era, proving herself to be a relentless worker. In addition to making a kitsch Christmas record and contributing funding toward the development of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, she published a novel and produced a companion concept album, both titled Run, Rose, Run, telling the tale of an aspiring female country singer.
Big Dreams And Faded Jeans stood out as one of the highlight tracks from that ambitious story-driven project.
Although Parton was famously apolitical throughout her career, which was a key factor in her broad public appeal, she made her feelings on climate change explicitly clear on World On Fire. The torrid folk-rock track was featured on her guitar-powered 2023 album Rockstar.
"Liar, liar, the world’s on fire," she cautioned on the track. "What you gonna do when it all burns down?" The landmark album also featured high-profile duets with rock icons Stevie Nicks, Elton John, and Paul McCartney, as well as her goddaughter Miley Cyrus.
Parton returned one final time to old-timey bluegrass and country music on her 2024 album, Smoky Mountain DNA, which sadly transpired to be her final release during her lifetime. Recorded alongside members of her extended family, the title track was a rollicking banjo tune that celebrated her heritage.
"I know my true identity," sang Parton on the track, leaving no doubt about her deep connection to her mountain roots. While this marked her final studio album, music critics note that plenty of unreleased material is bound to remain in her archives.
