Dolly Parton knew how to write songs about love. Her songs displayed a depth on the subject that contemporary songwriters have a tough time grasping. These young bucks blather that ‘love is love,’ when in fact, love is beautiful, hard, profound, timeless, messy, euphoric, sad. In other words, complex. We honor Ms. Parton’s legacy on the occasion of her untimely passing.
Dolly Parton has the distinction of writing the best-selling, most popular love song worldwide ever: “I Will Always Love You” (above).
It’s a tough, gut-wrenching song on the sacrificial nature of authentic love. It’s not a wedding song, but what a love song it is. Parton enjoyed a #1 hit with it in 1974. She released a new version of it in 1982 and had herself another #1 hit with it.
Then Whitney Houston recorded it in the 1992 movie, “The Bodyguard,” and the rest is history. The video below has 1.9 Billion views.
BILLION!
Take a listen to Whitney singing it
Beautiful. Timeless.
If this single song was her only professional accomplishment, she’d still be a legend. But it isn’t. She wrote or covered too many classic songs to list in a single blogpost. Rolling Stone ranked these as her top ten songs:
- Jolene
- Coat of Many Colors
- I Will Always Love You
- Light of a Clear Blue Morning
- Here You Come Again
- Islands in the Stream
- 9 to 5
- Little Sparrow
- My Tennessee Mountain Home
- Just Because I’m a Woman
Take a listen to #6 on the list, a song written by the Bee Gees, but turned into a classic by Dolly and Kenny Rogers.
Islands in the Stream
Or how about “To Know Him Is To Love Him,” sung by Dolly with her friends, Linda Ronstadt and Emmy Lou Harris. They took this song, written by Phil Spector, and made it special.
“To Know Him is to Love Him”
Everything she touched turned to gold: movies, theme parks, children’s books, and especially songs.
She truly was the ultimate ‘song teller,’ as she described herself.
To honor a great life, Scott Stevens Entertainment recommends that you include one Dolly Parton song in your upcoming Cookeville wedding celebration. We’ve got them all, and we’ll play them on high-end equipment so good, that you’ll think Dolly is actually there in person.
Rest in peace, Dolly Parton.
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