When Paul McCartney went to see Dolly Parton in 1974: “One of the greats”
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band wasn’t the only moment of musical greatness to hit the shelves in 1967, as the year also courted Dolly Parton‘s debut album, Hello, I’m Dolly.
It may sound like something of a bizarre comparison. The two were wildly different in terms of style and impact, and really, if any ‘67 records were going to be compared to The Beatles’ psychedelic masterpiece, then it would likely be The Velvet Underground & Nico or maybe Cream’s Disraeli Gears.
But those were moments of genius in an ever-spinning wheel of kaleidoscopic greatness. Where Sgt Pepper and Parton were concerned, this was the beginning of something. For the former, a game-changing approach to album making that would influence music thereafter and for the latter, a career that would span half a decade and continuously raise songwriting standards in doing so.
From that year onwards, she spent her time working her way from the Appalachian Mountains to the belly of Nashville’s finest, where her music began carving a niche for itself. Then, in ‘74, her quiet songwriting honesty exposed itself to the world with her seminal record Jolene. The title track, along with ‘I Will Always Love You’, thrust her into the spotlight and garnered widespread popularity for her unbridled creative honesty.
It was that very year that Paul McCartney first met Parton, but was less struck by her vulnerability than her vitality, which shone brightly outside the lines of her own work. In the summer of 1974, Paul McCartney took Wings to Nashville, where the country capital led him to their finest artist.
“While we were there, the band of Porter Wagoner played, and the girl vocalist he had with him was this girl called Dolly Parton,” McCartney remembers of his visit, which at the time was to the Third Annual Grand Masters Fiddling Contest. “She was very young and very sort of innocent, very sweet. She was very vivacious and full of bubbly joy, like she still is.”
Unsurprisingly, the pair then started a friendship, built on the back of a mutual artistic appreciation. Parton was, of course, as much of a fan of McCartney as he was of her. After all, this was ‘74, and the air of McCartney’s Beatles aura still populated the air. Five years after their meeting, she laid down a rendition of the band’s classic ‘Help!’ but it wasn’t until 2023 when the pair finally converged their talents.
Together, at Parton’s request, the pair laid down a duet rendition of his classic ‘Let It Be’. “She’s one of the greats,” he said, “She has a great voice, and that was a plus, but she’s a really great writer. If Dolly’s asking me to do it, how can I say no?”
Ringo Starr also joined the pair on the track and made a moment that immortalised their parallel careers, on a song that was truly befitting of both of their styles. Sure, something in their vibrant prime in the ‘70s may have been better, but after the journey they had been on, it was high time we saw these legends collaborate.
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