Dolly Parton's Hidden Songwriting Legacy: Popular Songs You Had No Idea She Wrote
Dolly Parton has written more than 3,000 songs across a career spanning seven decades.
Her own discography includes 49 solo studio albums — a record for a female country artist — with 25 songs reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
But many of her compositions became massive hits for other performers, and the writers’ credits tell a story most casual listeners have never heard.
In fact, her first Billboard chart appearance didn’t come as a singer. It came as a songwriter.
How Dolly Parton Started Writing Hits for Other Artists
Parton’s songwriting debut on the charts arrived 60 years ago. She co-wrote “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” with her uncle Bill Owens, and the song was recorded by Decca Records artist Bill Phillips.
Released in January 1966, it cracked the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart a few months later and peaked at No. 6.
That song earned Song of the Year at the 1966 BMI Awards — her first of many such honors — and the Kendalls later turned it into another top-ten hit in 1980.
Parton and Owens kept writing together. Their song “Fuel to the Flame” was recorded by Skeeter Davis and released as a single in 1967, becoming Davis’s first major hit in two years and charting in the top ten.
Davis was one of the first women in country music to gain major success as a solo artist and an acknowledged influence on Parton.
The pair also co-wrote “The Company You Keep” for Phillips, with both Parton and Phillips releasing versions in the 1960s.
Why Dolly Parton Purposefully Wrote Songs for Male Artists
Parton knew at a young age that learning to adapt would give her the best chance at a successful career in music.
“I love to write songs for men,” Parton wrote in her 2020 book, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics.
“And it’s a good thing I do because back then, there weren’t that many women in the country-music business to write songs for. Especially ones who weren’t writing their own songs, like Loretta Lynn was,” she continued.
“I didn’t have a lot of space to write songs for women so I purposefully tried to write songs that men could record. Or songs that could go either way,” she wrote.
That approach produced some of her most memorable recordings.
Kenny Rogers recorded “The Stranger” in 1984, a story song told from a boy’s perspective about a father who deserted him before birth. It was released one month before Rogers and Parton put out their Once Upon a Christmas album.
Hank Williams Jr. recorded “I’m In No Condition” in 1967, blending southern rock, country and blues in his rendition. Parton included her own version on her debut album Hello, I’m Dolly that same year.
“Waltz Me to Heaven” was written by Parton specifically for Waylon Jennings.
It first appeared on the 1984 Rhinestone film soundtrack, with Parton’s brother Floyd singing, before becoming the second single from Jennings’ Waylon’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. It reached No. 10 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs.
Which Dolly Parton Songs Became the Biggest Hits for Other Artists?
Of all the songs Dolly Parton wrote for other artists, one stands above the rest: “I Will Always Love You.”
Parton wrote and recorded the song in 1973 as a farewell to her business partner and mentor Porter Wagoner. Released in 1974, her version spent one week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
That’s when Whitney Houston stepped in and recorded it for the 1992 film The Bodyguard. Houston’s version spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1992 and 1993.
Emmylou Harris took another Parton composition near the top of the charts.
“To Daddy,” written from a child’s perspective about a neglected wife and mother who eventually leaves her unaffectionate husband, appeared as a single from Harris’s 1977 album Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town.
It reached No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs in 1978. Parton included it on her 1995 compilation The Essential Dolly Parton, Vol. 1, and it was the only song on the 2003 tribute album Just Because I’m a Woman not recorded specifically for the project.
What Dolly Parton Songs Crossed Into Other Genres?
Tina Turner recorded “There’ll Always Be Music” for her 1974 solo debut album Tina Turns the Country On!, released while she was still a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.
The album featured songs from several writers, including Bob Dylan and James Taylor. Hank Snow and Parton also contributed. It earned Turner a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female.
Decades later, Parton co-wrote “Rainbowland” with her goddaughter Miley Cyrus for Cyrus’s 2017 album Younger Now.
The song was named after Cyrus’s home studio, painted rainbow colors, where she began building the album. Parton described it as “really just about dreaming and hoping that we could all do better.”
Parton also wrote “Circle of Love” for the 2016 TV movie Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love, based on a true story from her Smoky Mountains childhood.
Jennifer Nettles, who played Parton’s mother Avie Lee Parton in the film, recorded her version for the solo holiday album To Celebrate Christmas (2016). Parton released her own on A Holly Dolly Christmas in 2020, and the two dueted the song on The Voice.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
