Dolly Parton Breaks Down Her Albums, From "Hello, I'm Dolly" to "A Holly Dolly Christmas"

I found a cassette that we were kind of putting

on hard drives to save them.

The guy that was doing it, he said,

Do you realize that you wrote 'Jolene'

and 'I Will Always Love You' at the same time?

I said, No, I did not realize that,

'cause I write so many things.

Very possible that I wrote 'em both the same day,

if not that same week, I'm sure.

[country music]

Hi, this is Dolly Parton,

and today, I'm gonna break down some of my iconic albums.

[gentle guitar music]

Hello, I'm Dolly, from 1967.

A start, a chance,

and a hope.

This was my very first album,

so of course I was very excited about that.

I was on Monument Records at the time,

and a man named Fred Foster had taken interest in me.

So this was the beginning of my career in country music,

as far as a true artist and a true singer/writer.

[gentle guitar music]

I believe that was Fred foster that came up with that.

Hello, Dolly! was big on Broadway at the time,

and had just come out,

and my name's really Dolly, and so he said,

Well, why don't we call it 'Hello, I'm Dolly?'

And that was just a natural.

If I was doing another album of songs from back then,

I might call it, Hello, I'm Still Dolly.

[gentle guitar music]

Fred Foster took that picture as well, I believe.

In fact, that was before I started wearing wigs and falls.

That was kind of my own hair.

I remember he had me out in the sunlight, and he said,

Well, let's just do it outside,

'cause you're a country girl.

Let's just do it.

So that's what we did.

I suppose I was thinking on that album cover,

The sun is in my eyes,

and I'll be glad when they get this picture taken,

and I hope they get a good one,

but actually during that whole shoot,

we were outside, and it was pretty,

but I remember just thinking that I was so happy

and proud that I was finally getting to do my first album.

That had been a dream of mine all my life.

[gentle guitar music]

Dumb Blonde.

That was my first big chart record that was in the top 10.

It really kind of sums me up even to this day, I hope so.

It's called just because I'm blonde, don't think I'm dumb.

♪ 'Cause this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool ♪

And it was that record that actually got the attention

of Porter Wagoner, and he had asked me

to come be the girl singer on that show,

and it was that very song that kind of started it out.

[gentle guitar music]

This is Coat of Many Colors, 1971.

Personal, loving, caring.

[gentle guitar music]

Well, at the time, we chose the title for the album

because that song became such a big hit worldwide.

Everybody related to that little song one way or another,

even if you had been bullied,

if you didn't have clothes to wear.

It was about being made fun of,

and I got so many letters and responses

from people saying how that song had kind of healed them

of some hurt that they had,

so I thought, Well, we just have to call the album that,

because the song has touched the larger so many people,

and anytime you have a big hit, usually you'll do an album

of that particular song, or titled that.

[gentle guitar music]

That little photograph is me,

and that is my little coat of many colors.

I think they kind of colored it a little more brighter

for the cover, but that was me, and on the back,

it was all different patches and all,

but that was different strips of rags

that Mama had put together to make a little coat for me,

and thank goodness I had a picture of that

to make an album cover from.

Coat of Many Colors is a song that's dear to me,

and, of course, the little coat

of many colors is a true story from my childhood.

I didn't even know that I had been hurt that bad

about the whole experience of the kids laughing

at me and all, but it just started coming out one day,

and it just turned into a song that was meant to be,

because it has touched the lives,

as I mentioned, of so many people,

and they made it into a little book that they even teach

in school about bullying and differences

and how to accept one another for our differences,

and, of course, we made it into a TV movie.

So Mama knew what she was doing

when she told me to make me proud of it,

about the story from the Bible of Joseph

and the coat of many colors.

[gentle guitar music]

My Tennessee Mountain Home, 1973.

It's personal, it's heartfelt, it's emotional.

[gentle guitar music]

The things I had done before as albums

before the Tennessee Mountain Home

had been different songs, different styles,

but this one, I wanted to tailor make it.

It was a theme album,

and I remember kind of having to argue about it.

I said, I really need to do this.

Right now, I'm beginning to be everything

that I dreamed of being.

And it was those dreams back there on that little porch

of that little cabin, with that tobacco stick,

and that crack in the floor, and a tin can for a microphone,

that I dreamed of all this.

[gentle guitar music]

The cover of that album is my old Tennessee mountain home

that's up in East Tennessee at the foothills of the Smokies,

and we moved out of it long, long ago, but I bought it back,

and I took that old place,

kind of turned it into like a movie set, really,

but that was the real house.

[gentle guitar music]

I did My Tennessee Mountain Home,

and that is one of my personal favorites,

because I really did get to write about all those things,

like Mama's old kettle and Daddy's working boots

and all the things that I remember growing up

and getting to talk about all those things.

Even the song Tennessee Mountain Home really kind

of just leads you right through

from the school house, to the church house,

to our house, to the neighbors, all that.

So I really thought that it was personal, and it was needed,

and it was a theme, and I was happy to do it.

It's like a TV show that has different stories each week,

so each song kind of leads you through my childhood,

and so I'm as proud of that as anything I've ever done.

[gentle guitar music]

Jolene, 1974.

I think it's meaningful, insightful,

and I'd like to think creative.

[gentle guitar music]

Well, that little song has become the favorite

of so many people.

I had no idea, when I wrote it,

that it was going to be as big as it was,

and I tell the story about Jolene.

My husband got a crush

on this beautiful, red-headed, long-legged girl

down at the bank,

and I knew we didn't have the kind of money

for him to be spending that kind of time at the bank,

[laughs]

and so, I tell the story

about how I went down there one day.

He was sitting and talking to this girl,

and I said, What you doing?

And he said, I'm trying to get a loan,

'cause he was in the asphalt paving business.

I said, You need to get your ass home,

or it's gonna be your ass and your fault.

So I gotta tell this joke on stage about it.

[gentle guitar music]

Well, I remember that we spent

a long day shooting that cover,

and I was glad that that was a jumpsuit

that was kind of stretchy.

I think that was made

by a woman named Lucy Adams or Ruth Kemp.

There were two women that did my clothes at that time,

and I don't remember which one, but that's okay.

We'll give them both credit.

Their kids will love it.

Anyhow, it was a good little cozy outfit,

easy to sit in, easy to stand in,

and I was doing all sorts of poses that day,

so I just remember sitting down

with that little jumpsuit on.

I don't even know if they was posing me for that.

I probably was just taking a rest.

They snap the picture and there it is.

And then I had that big old hairdo

my aunt Colleen Owens did.

She was big on the big hair,

and I was big right there with her on it.

So anyhow, I think that's a fun cover,

and it kind of summed me up for that time.

[gentle guitar music]

Actually, the name Jolene, her name wasn't Jolene.

I did get that name from a little girl

that I was signing autographs for.

I'd never heard that name before.

I remember signing the name Jolene,

and I said, That's a beautiful name.

I'm gonna write a song about that.

I said, If you ever hear a song about that,

you'll know I wrote it about you.

So I just kept thinking Jolene, Jolene.

And that's how that rhythm, like Jolene, Jolene.

I didn't want to forget it 'til I got back to the bus,

so I was going,

♪ Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene ♪

♪ Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene ♪

and all of a sudden, it just became

♪ Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene ♪

and I thought, Well, there's your chorus right there,

so I just kind of made it into a song,

and then I made up those verses.

I love little minor chords,

and I just started picking and hitting that little lick,

and it started sounding better and better.

[Jolene]

And I thought, This is a really clever little thing.

I mean, I'm enjoying playing it,

and I'm enjoying how this is sounding.

And I think, because it is so simple, you know, the

♪ Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene ♪

and the fact that it's in a minor key

is kind of mysterious too,

makes it kind of haunting like,

but everybody loves that song.

Of all the songs that I've written in my life,

that's the one that's been most recorded.

Well, I'm always excited

when anybody records any of my songs,

but Jolene, I mean, so many people have done that song.

Miley Cyrus does it in her stage show,

and the White Stripes, they do it on their show.

They did it in an album.

I know Keith Urban sings it on stage all the time.

Everywhere you go, somebody's singing Jolene,

and I just love that.

I sing it a lot too.

[gentle guitar music]

Here You Come Again, 1977.

Oh, exciting, refreshing, pop.

[gentle guitar music]

Here You Come Again was a song that was brought to me

because I had just left the Porter Wagoner Show.

I was going out on my own.

A lot of people were saying I was making a big mistake,

that I was leaving country.

I always said I'm not leaving country.

I'll always take country with me wherever I go.

But they said, You can't leave the Porter show.

You can't go try to run after stardom and pop.

You're a big country artist.

And I said, Yeah, but I can't just stay

in one place all the time.

So I just got with all these wonderful people,

and found this wonderful song written by Cynthia Weil

and Barry Mann, who've written great songs,

like You've Lost That Loving Feeling,

and they were great writers,

so of course we had to do an album.

That was my first million-selling record too, by the way.

[gentle guitar music]

I didn't wanna totally leave country.

I didn't wanna try to be something I wasn't,

so we thought probably best to kind of keep the country look

with the blue jeans and the little shirt,

but to kind of make it a little more like pop art sorta.

I had a little more shorter hair,

trying to be a little more up-to-date, I guess,

a little more Hollywoody, Dollywoody kind of look.

Frederick's of Dollywood, I guess.

But anyhow, it seemed to work.

[gentle guitar music]

9 to 5 and Odd Jobs, 1980.

Busy, complicated, and fun.

[gentle guitar music]

We felt like we really needed

to cover all different jobs that people do,

'cause there's so many people out there

that not only work nine to five,

they work five to nine or whatever.

It was more just about the working people in the world,

and I didn't want to just do songs

about just women in the workplace,

'cause we did that with the 9 to 5 song,

and, of course, we did other songs

in this album that did relate to that,

but it was just much about all the different people,

the men and the women that work in different departments,

doing different things all over the country,

all those morning jobs where everybody gets up

and stumbles to the kitchen, and pours a cup of ambition.

[gentle guitar music]

This one, when we did the odd jobs,

was the one that was complicated,

because we were trying to figure out

how to do an album cover that covered everybody's job.

We've kind of gathered up every piece

of equipment you could have.

I felt like the Village People kind of doing it.

I just remember that day having to haul that stuff around

and putting all this stuff on me

to try to make this great picture,

and then try to stand exactly right,

but I just remember we had so much fun laughing

about all the different odd jobs.

Should we use a plunger?

Should we use, nah, that wouldn't look good

in the picture, or that kind of stuff.

So it was a fun day.

It was a fun photo shoot.

[gentle guitar music]

White Limozeen, 1989.

It was meaningful, and it was also playful.

It was also creative.

[gentle guitar music]

I'm the one that came up, I think,

with the spelling it weird.

It could have been Mac.

We're very similar.

I probably didn't even know how to spell limousine,

so that's probably how I wrote it down

when I was writing it.

[laughs]

So it's very possible.

Somebody said, Well, you wrote it down like that,

Is that what you wanna call it?

I just thought White Limozeen was a perfect,

clever little thing, and now,

they've got a restaurant called White Limozeen,

and spelling it the same way.

So it worked.

[gentle guitar music]

We, of course, thought it's about a girl going to Hollywood,

dreaming of being a star,

so the cover of that album is one

of my favorite covers, actually.

So we thought, Well, this should be

like a Hollywood premiere.

Should be in front of a marquee with a movie,

as if it was like a movie,

be coming out of a white limousine

in my fancy, fancy clothes, like a big premiere.

So that was one of the fun shoots

that I've ever done on an album,

and we actually did it in California.

[gentle guitar music]

I wrote that song with Mac Davis,

and we were trying to write something

that kind of like a Daisy Mae kind of song,

like Daisy Mae in Hollywood was one of our songs.

We were wantin' to write something that kind of took me out

of the country into Hollywood.

It was more just about a country girl

with her big dreams.

Rather than going to Nashville, she was going to Hollywood,

so she was dreaming about a big white limousine,

and if she made it, she was gonna go back,

take all her family, which I did.

We kind of based it on my life,

but it was just a fun song to write,

'cause Mac Davis and I write so good.

He's one of the greatest writers in the world.

We're both country people.

We both have a crazy sense of humor,

so when we do write together,

we have a lot of fun doing it,

but we also try to come up with stuff that's really fitting,

and this was really one that I was really proud of.

[gentle guitar music]

A Holly Dolly Christmas, 2020.

Joyful, jolly, fun.

[gentle guitar music]

I always loved the song Holly, Jolly Christmas.

I love Burl Ives, and he had the big record on that,

and I'd done a few Christmas specials

with him through the years,

and when I got ready to do this Christmas album,

which I thought it was time,

the last one I did was 30 years ago,

I thought, Well, what would I call a Christmas album?

There's so many titles I could have done,

like Dolly for Christmas

or Deck the Halls With Boughs of Dolly,

and I thought, no.

I'm gonna record Holly Jolly Christmas,

because I love that song,

so I will call the album A Holly Dolly Christmas.

It just seemed to fit so good, and I was like, Yay!

That's a perfect title for this little album.

[gentle guitar music]

I love the cover of this album.

Steve Summers designed this outfit.

I wanted holly on it, but I didn't want it to be overdone,

so he made like little holly earrings,

and made this beautiful little dress,

and just the little pieces

of holly I thought were in good taste.

I love red.

My mother, that was her favorite color,

and I love Christmas,

so I thought that was a good one.

[gentle guitar music]

I think it's some of the best work I've ever done.

I did six duets on the album.

I'm excited about that.

I've got Jimmy Fallon.

I've got Willie Nelson.

I've got Billy Ray Cyrus.

I've got Miley Cyrus, and, of course, Michael Buble.

We did Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas.

It's a song I wrote, and oh, he killed it.

Everybody loves him.

I love him too, and I think it turned out so good.

I did a wonderful song

that's destined to be a major Christmas classic called

Mary, Did You Know?

I also did a song called Christmas Is,

the one with Miley Cyrus.

It's from the Christmas on the Square musical,

that I wrote all the music for.

I think it's a good album.

I think everybody will enjoy it.

I talk a lot, and so it's kind of like,

I'm kind of in your house for Christmas.

I hope you'll love that.

If not, kick me out, play the music anyway.

[laughs]

[gentle guitar music]

Coat of Many Colors is my personal favorite.

I think Coat of Many Colors kind of is so much more

than just a song.

It's about, well, the love of family, of course,

and a good mother, in my case, blessed with that,

but it's also about acceptance.

It's just about home.

It's about family.

It's spiritual, a song that has a lot of lessons in it.

In fact, they even teach it from some

of the grammar schools about acceptance.

I really felt like that little song was blessed,

and God gave that to me to share with the world,

'cause a lot of people say that they've been inspired

or healed from things that they've gone through,

where they've been made fun of.

So I really think that one is my favorite

because of so many reasons.

♪ With love ♪

♪ She made my coat of many colors ♪

♪ That I was so proud of ♪