Here are 15 songs that capture the span and depth of Parton’s recorded work.
‘Something Fishy’ (1967)
On her sprightly debut, “Hello, I’m Dolly,” she wrote, or co-wrote, 10 of the 12 tracks. The first single, a cover of Curly Putman’s “Dumb Blonde,” may have proclaimed that she was far from it but it was another, self-penned song on the set, “Something Fishy,” that made the point undeniable. With a sassy wit, the main character calls out her husband for cheating when he’s supposed to be fishing. “I guess some largemouth bass left that lipstick on your shirt,” she sings. “I don’t think you’re a fisherman, honey, I think you’re a flirt.” Parton’s vocal in the song is as big as her hair, delivered in broad sarcastic arcs that delighted enough listeners to result in her first Top 20 Country score.
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‘Just Because I’m a Woman’ (1968)
A key motif in Parton’s lyrics was challenging the sexual double standards of women and men, a subject she approached with as much humor as resolve. In the first single from her second solo album, “Just Because I’m a Woman,” she highlighted the hypocrisy of a boyfriend who demands that she be pure even though his past is far from pristine. “Now I know that I’m no angel/if that’s what you thought you’d found,” Parton sings. “My mistakes are no worse than yours/just because I’m a woman.” For nuance, she delivered the lyric with a cry of hurt that never obscured the righteousness of her viewpoint.
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‘Mommie, Ain’t That Daddy?’ (1968)
The same month that Parton’s debut album appeared, she became a regular cast member on singer Porter Wagoner’s popular TV show. Four months later, the pair released “Just Between You and Me,” the first of 13 joint albums. Several songs Parton wrote for the set showed her talent for creating opposing characters tailor-made for duets. In “Mommy, Ain’t That Daddy,” she voiced a mother who brings her children to a Goodwill store where they spot a dissolute man, later revealed to be their father, voiced by Wagoner. The result ably blurs the line between screenplay and song.
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‘In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)’ (1968)
Country music has often made a fetish of nostalgia, but Parton wasn’t having any of that on the title track of her third solo album. As the character reviews her life, she recalls nothing but backbreaking work, ruinous weather, hunger, and illness. The music Parton wrote for the lyric also breaks with tradition, melding country lilts with beauteous folk in the chorus.
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‘Little Bird’ (1968)
Parton was just 22 when she wrote this aching ode to lost youth. “Beauty is a rare perfume/precious, yet doesn’t last long/Youth is but a playful breeze/that blows our way once then moves on.” To Parton, time flies like a bird, given lift by her fleet vocal.
