‘Puppy Love’: the curious story of Dolly Parton’s first single way back in 1959
Despite emerging from the rural backwaters of Tennessee, it was always clear that a certain Dolly Parton was destined for musical stardom, and her extensive, illustrious discography, which has typified country music for so many decades, all began with one unexpected single, recorded at the age of just 13.
Child stars weren’t much of a rarity in 20th-century America; Frankie Lymon, for instance, began his recording career at the age of 12, while Julie Andrews was already a music hall star by her 11th birthday, and Little Stevie Wonder signed up to Motown’s roster at the age of 11, too. During her childhood, Dolly Parton seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of those child stars, becoming a force to be reckoned with on local radio and talent competitions in her native Tennessee.
Inevitably, that talent show success was soon picked up by a budding music mogul at Louisiana’s Goldband Records, who sought to record Parton’s first-ever single in 1959. However, it wasn’t quite as simple as the young singer waltzing into a recording studio and waiting for the royalty cheques to roll in. For starters, she lived over 800 miles away from Goldband’s recording studio in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Rather than the plush tour buses, private jets, and limousines that she would get used to in her later life, Parton took a 30-hour bus journey to the recording studio, accompanied by her grandmother. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget the way the inside of that bus smelled,” she later recalled, per the singer’s website.
“It was a combination of diesel fuel, Naugahyde, and people who were going places.”
Dolly Parton
In the end, Parton’s recording of ‘Puppy Love’ was released by Goldband in 1959, and although it failed to reach the dizzying heights of the nationwide singles charts, it did manage to bolster the young singer’s blossoming fame in the southern states, making her something of a local hero before she had even graduated high school.
It would take another three years for the vocalist to follow up on that single, and another few attempts before striking upon the country music mastery that afforded her a taste of national success.
‘Puppy Love’ adhered more to the world of rockabilly and even R&B than Parton’s later work, which is perhaps why it didn’t quite manage to break onto the mainstream airwaves. Nevertheless, it was the starting gun for one of the most enduring and beloved careers in American music.
‘So Little I Wanted, So Little I Got’ was the next single to be released under Dolly Parton’s soon-to-be-legendary name, hitting the airwaves in 1962 and seeing her perform alongside Bill Owens. In those days, it was the 45rpm single that ruled the pop landscape, so it took Parton a little longer to strike upon her first full-length LP, Hello, I’m Dolly, at the age of just 20.
The rest, as they say, is history. That inaugural 1966 LP was followed by 48 others – to date – and the debut single ‘Puppy Love’ was quickly forgotten about in favour of Parton’s litany of legendary hits. Still, we all have to start somewhere, and for Dolly Parton, it was in the ramshackled recording studio of Goldband that it all began.
