San Francisco Frontiers - Essential Dolly: five key Parton songs

Here is a look at five of Parton's best-known songs, including the stories behind them and some of her searing lyrics:

- 'Jolene' -

The 1973 song is one of Parton's greatest hits, and one of the songs most covered by other artists. In her crystal-clear soprano, she sings plaintively to the titular woman not to take away her man, saying he is the only one for her.

"He talks about you in his sleep / And there's nothing I can do to keep / From crying when he calls your name, Jolene," she sings against a driving guitar rhythm.

Parton told USA Today that the song was inspired by a bank teller she believed was flirting with her husband, Carl Dean.

"I was just a little jealous that she was prettier than me, so you always feel a little threatened when that happens. But it was not a big deal -- it was just good for a song, let's put it that way," Parton said in 2023.

The song has been covered by everyone from Beyonce on her country album "Cowboy Carter" to rocker Jack White, who first played the song with the White Stripes and did it again Tuesday at a show in London just hours after Parton's death was announced.

- 'I Will Always Love You' -

Legend had it that on the same night she wrote "Jolene," Parton also composed "I Will Always Love You," a heartfelt farewell to her mentor Porter Wagoner that became a global pop hit when Whitney Houston covered it for the 1992 film "The Bodyguard."

Parton later clarified that she was no longer sure and it "could have been a few days apart" but "they were certainly written within a very short span of time."

Either way, "I Will Always Love You" helped mark the start of Parton's remarkable solo career, and her professional separation from Wagoner after years of collaboration.

"I hope life treats you kind / And I hope that you have all that you ever dreamed of," she wrote.

"And I wish you joy and happiness / But above all of this, I wish you love / And I will always love you."

- '9 to 5' -

Parton recorded the song for the 1980 office satire film of the same name in which she starred with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. She earned an Oscar nomination for the fun-loving tune, which she says she wrote on the set.

"I did it on my fingernails," she said on NBC "Today" show in 2020. "It sounded like a typewriter."

"Tumble out of bed and I stumble in the kitchen / Pour myself a cup of ambition / And yawn and stretch and try to come to life," she sang.

"Workin' 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin' / Barely gettin' by, it's all takin' and no givin'."

In the 2020 interview, Parton said: "I played my nails on the real record just for fun."

- 'Coat of Many Colors' -

Parton grew up dirt poor in rural Tennessee with 11 siblings. Her mother once made her a coat of fabric patches because they had nothing else.

Young Dolly endured bullying over the coat, and channeled that pain into a 1971 hit song. She later turned the story into a children's book of the same title, and a television movie.

"And I didn't have a coat / And it was way down in the fall / Mama sewed the rags together / Sewin' every piece with love," she sang.

"She made my coat of many colors / That I was so proud of."

- 'The Bridge' -

This 1968 song revealed Parton at her storytelling best, as she chronicled a love affair gone sour, leaving the song's main character pregnant and alone. She tackled the taboo subjects of extramarital sex and suicide, as she ends the song despondent.

She told podcaster Brene Brown that she wrote the song after hearing adults talk about difficult situations as a child.

"Tonight, while standing on the bridge / My heart is beating wild / To think that you could leave me here / With our unborn child," she sang matter-of-factly, before the abrupt, tragic ending.

W.Thompson--SFF