On this day, January 25, in 1975, one of Dolly Parton’s most endearing (and somewhat controversial) hits of her career debuted on the Hot Country Songs chart in the US. The track was released several days prior, on January 13. By March 29 of that year, the song became a No. 1 hit on the chart, where it would stay for one week. It would spend a total of 13 weeks on the chart, too.
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That song, of course, is “The Bargain Store” off of Parton’s 1975 album of the same name. It’s a sweet little country tune that uses a secondhand discount store as a metaphor for being damaged by a bad relationship. And it was a little too ahead of its time.
The Meaning Behind Dolly Parton’s “The Bargain Store”
Dolly Parton’s controversial hit in January 1975 was “The Bargain Store”. The song was fresh off her album of the same name that would drop the following month. The album as a whole would go on to be quite a success. It peaked at No. 9 on the US Top Country Albums chart and No. 4 on the Cashbox Country Albums chart. The titled track would become a hit as well, but not without a bit of controversy.
For reference, “The Bargain Store” is a song in which Dolly Parton compares a thrift discount store to a woman who feels used and broken following the breakdown of a particularly bad relationship. It’s a poignant look at how many women at the time felt after the breakdown of their marriages. Parton croons lyrics like “Take these old, used memories from the past / And these broken dreams and plans that didn’t last / I’ll trade them for a future, I can’t use them anymore / I’ve wasted love, but I still have some more”, begging the listener to give her chance, as her heart is broken but not irovikably so.
However, heartbreaking lines like that one aren’t what ruffled some feathers at radio. Rather, some radio stations at the time refused to play the song because of one lyric.
“You can easily afford the price / The bargain store is open, come inside.”
Many believed that the lyric was a reference to prostitution. However, I don’t see it that way, especially in the context of the whole song.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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