Dolly Parton’s 10 favourite love songs
Dolly Parton, country music’s best blonde balladeer, has always been self-assured. “I’ve always had a lot of confidence in my talent and in my personality,” she once said. “The way I am, the way I dress, the makeup, the hair – this is fun for me,” in what is a quintessentially Dolly inspirational quote.
But the confidence stems from a long career spent working hard at her craft. Parton is one of 12 children and has touched on the poverty she grew up in on songs like ‘In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)’ and ‘Coat of Many Colors’. Although she described her family as “dirt poor”, she owes a lot of her sound to the time spent living in a one-bedroom cabin on Locust Ridge. It was around that time she’d start playing a homemade guitar and performing at the local church.
As is the case for most great artists, their gift becomes apparent in childhood, which Parton spent working as she sang on Tennessee’s local radio and television stations whenever she could. At only ten years old, she was making appearances on The Cas Walker Show, and at 13, she was already in the studio recording for Goldband Records.
Throughout her career, Parton managed to blend a distinctly pop sensibility with the brooding, romantic lyricism of country. Her most famous track ‘Jolene’ is a testament to her ability to underpin a catchy pop song with a heart-wrenching narrative. She has a massive catalogue of love songs just like that but whittled down her top ten favourites during an interview with Country Living.
Topping the list is 2012’s ‘From Here to the Moon and Back’. Written and performed by Parton for the Joyful Noise, it’s a heartfelt ballad about going to the ends of the earth to prove you love someone, as she sings: “From here to the moon and back, who else in this world will love you like that? Love everlasting, I promise you that”.
Parton, who also starred in the musical comedy alongside Keke Palmer and Queen Latifah, penned ‘He’s Everything’ and ‘Not Enough’ for the film. The film’s recording also features Kris Kristofferson, and Parton loved the song so much that she re-recorded it with Willie Nelson the following year, which appeared on both Parton’s Blue Smoke and Nelson’s To All The Girls.
1974’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ is Parton’s second favourite love song of hers, written as a touching goodbye to her longtime collaborator Porter Wagoner once she decided to go solo. In its own right, it was an incredibly successful track – reaching number one on the country charts, but the cover versions by Linda Ronstadt and Whitney Houston drove the song to fresh chart stardom on their release, making it an iconic ballad even the best of vocals were nervous about covering.
When Houston covered it for The Bodyguard, it spent 14 weeks at number one on the Billboard chart. Houston told Rolling Stone: “Dolly Parton is a hell of a writer and a hell of a singer,” adding that she was initially “concerned” with how Parton would receive her arrangement of the country classic.
Parton also named hits like ‘Islands In The Stream’ and ‘Pure & Simple’ as some of her favourites, both of which have had their own renditions recorded by other artists. The sheer volume of love songs written by Parton that have been covered cements her not only as one of the country’s best lyricists but one of the sharpest writers of pop music in general. Parton proved she was able to cross over but never lost her trademark Tennessee twang or the ability to conjure up deeply romantic ballads that have been delighting listeners for decades.
Dolly Parton’s 10 favourite love songs:
- ‘From Here to the Moon and Back’
- ‘I Will Always Love You’
- ‘Love Is Like a Butterfly’
- ‘Head Over High Heels’
- ‘It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right’
- ‘Say Forever You’ll Be Mine’
- ‘You’re The Only One’
- ‘Islands In The Stream’
- ‘Pure & Simple’
- ‘Here You Come Again’
