Over the decades, Country Music Hall of Fame member Dolly Parton, 78, has notched more than two dozen No. 1 hits on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart, and written thousands of songs. Several have gone on to become enduring, generation-traversing hits, such as “Three Doors Down,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You.” In 2020, Parton even teamed with author and journalist Robert K. Oermann to create the book Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, which highlights the stories behind many of her songs.
In a new interview with The Guardian, the Tennessee native weighed in on which songs she has taken the most pride in writing.
“Well, I’m proud of all of them,” Parton said, before narrowing the field a bit. “I think the one that’s most personal to me is the lil’ ‘Coat of Many Colors,’ because it talks about my mom, my parents and kind of gives you an insight. It also covers bullying, acceptance and all that. Of course, the one that’s most recorded is ‘Jolene.’ That seems to be the favorite – do you know that song has been recorded, somebody told me, 450 times in the last 52 years? I’m so proud of it. And ‘I Will Always Love You’ is one is the great love songs, so I’m very proud of that too.”
“Coat of Many Colors,” inspired by Parton’s recollection of being teased as a schoolgirl for wearing a coat that her mother made for her. Parton released the song in 1971 on her project Coat of Many Colors. The song reached No. 4 on the Hot Country Songs chart, while the album reached No. 7 on the Top Country Albums tally. “Jolene” topped the chart in 1974 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014.
Meanwhile, “I Will Always Love You” is the gift that keeps on giving for Parton. She’s reached the pinnacle of Hot Country Songs chart multiple times with the song. She had a solo hit with it in 1974, then again in 1982 as a mesh of “I Will Always Love You” and “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind.” In 1995, she teamed with Vince Gill for a duet version of the song, sending it again to the chart’s penthouse. And of course, Whitney Houston‘s peerless vocal rendering of the song, as part of the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, was a 14-week leader on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1992-1993.
Parton won a songwriter achievement award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) in 1972 for “Coat of Many Colors.” The song was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2012, and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2019.
Parton’s duet with Gill earned them a vocal event of the year honor from the CMA Awards and a Grammy nomination for best country vocal collaboration, both in 1996. The song also earned Parton a Grammy nominations for best country vocal performance, female, in 1983. Houston’s recording of “I Will Always Love You” was named record of the year at the Grammys in 1994, and she also earned best pop vocal female performance for her rendition of the song. “I Will Always Love You” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007.
