In 1974, Parton released Jolene. Her 13th studio album, and one that includes two of her biggest hits, with the title track and “I Will Always Love You”. While the latter was written as a goodbye to Porter Wagoner, after she left his popular TV show, “Jolene” was born of something much different.
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The name “Jolene” is not based on the woman the song was written about. But the idea for “Jolene” came from a woman who was flirting with Parton’s husband, Carl Dean.
“Jolene” says, “Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, I’m begging of you, please don’t take my man / Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene / Please don’t take him just because you can / Your beauty is beyond compare / With flaming locks of auburn hair / With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green / Your smile is like a breath of spring / Your voice is soft like summer rain / And I can not compete with you, Jolene.”
“With ‘Jolene,’ I remember hearing so many people say, ‘That’s such a humble song.’ It’s a true song,” Parton tells Vulture. “For a woman to say, ‘I can’t compete with you. I’m not as beautiful as you; I’m never going to be that beautiful. Your beauty is beyond compare, but I don’t have all that going for me.’ It was unusual at the time in songwriting,”
The Woman Who Inspired Dolly Parton to Write “Jolene”
“Jolene” was inspired by a woman working at a bank, where Dean frequented. Years later, Parton shared the origins behind the song, during a live concert.
“Some of you may or may not know that that song was loosely based on a little bit of truth,” Parton admits (via The Independent). “I wrote that years ago when my husband… was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be.”
Fortunately, Dean stayed faithful to Parton, who is grateful for the unnamed bank teller.
“Something good can come from anything,” Parton says. “Had it not been for that woman, I would never have written ‘Jolene’, and I wouldn’t have made all that money, so thank you, Jolene.”
“Jolene” may seem like a song of desperation, but Parton insists it is all in good fun.
“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton tells NPR. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kind of like a running joke between us. When I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.’ So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”
Numerous other artists over the years have covered “Jolene”, including Olivia Newton-John, Rhonda Vincent, and Lil Nas X, among others.
Photo by David Redfern/Redferns
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