Sometimes there is nothing more cathartic than a good cry. (Or just a quick check-in with our ability to emote—we see you aspiring actors out there.) And nothing fires up the tear ducts like a sad country song. So, we’ll turn to a country songstress for a few of these songs. Known for her songwriting and storytelling, Dolly Parton has written some weep-worthy tunes in her sixty-something years as an artist.
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Grab the tissues and pay close attention to the lyrics, because we’re pressing play on some of Dolly Parton’s saddest songs that we should all be listening to.
1. “Down from Dover” (1970)
From the album The Fairest of them All
Written about a pregnant teenager rejected by her lover and her family, “Down from Dover” is a wretched account of facing the world alone. Parton sings this teen’s story with great emotion as the young woman waits for her unborn child’s father to come back from a place called Dover. As you might guess, he never comes, but her child does.
My body aches the time is here
It’s lonely in this place where I’m lying
Our baby has been born but something’s wrong
It’s too still I hear no crying
I guess in some strange way she knew
She’d never have a father’s arms to hold her
So dying was her way of telling me
He wasn’t coming down from Dover.
2. “Barbara On Your Mind” (1982)
From the album Heartbreak Express
It’s never fun to be called the wrong name, but there is one person that you hope never calls you the wrong name: your significant other, your life partner, your lover. This distressing feeling, though, makes for a fantastically depressing country song.
Last night you called me Barbara
As you lay fast asleep
And although I’m not Barbara
You wanted me to be
You whispered words I haven’t heard
In such a long, long time
Last night you said I love you
With Barbara on your mind.
3. “The Bridge” (1968)
From the album Just Because I’m a Woman
“The Bridge” is sung from the perspective of another young, pregnant woman who has been abandoned. This time, though, she’s standing on the edge of a bridge moving slowly / Closer to the edge.
“She is thinking, ‘There’s no way out of this, so I’m just going to take that plunge and go.’ A lot of people go through that. I’ve had suicides in my own family. It’s a horrible thing to have to deal with,” Parton said of the song in her 2020 book, Songteller.
“As a songwriter, I love to write those mournful things and put myself in those situations. It comes from those early days with all of the old songs I grew up with,” she added. “I loved feeling all the sorrow in a song. In my early days, I just wrote about everything. I just wanted to write great stories, or write about situations that I could imagine myself in.”
4. “Daddy Come and Get Me” (1970)
From the album The Fairest of them All
They say that love makes you crazy, and the man that Parton sings of in this tune took that phrase literally. He threw her into a mental institution instead of breaking up with her. Now, he’s free to pursue another woman, and the narrator is left begging for her father to help her break free.
In this mental institution, lookin’ out through these iron bars
How could he put me in here, how could he go that far
Yes I need help but not this kind, he didn’t love me from the start
But it’s not my mind that’s broken, it’s my heart.
5. “Heartbreak Express” (1982)
From the album Heartbreak Express
This song is a breakup song through and through. Parton jumps on the “Heartbreak Express” and attempts to move on, but she can’t help but remember the painful details of her past relationship just one more time.
Walkin’ in the rain with a heart full of pain to the train depot
The only thing that’s gonna keep me warm now is my overcoat
Lost and lonely, waitin’ in line at the ticket desk
Hey mister, won’t you give me a one-way ticket on the Heartbreak Express?
6. “Gonna Hurry (As Slow As I Can)” (2009)
From the compilation album Dolly
In 2009, Parton released a four-disc, career-spanning box set that included the previously unreleased song “Gonna Hurry (As Slow As I Can).” At just under two minutes, this song is a window into the heart of Parton’s vocal ability and the beauty in her uncomplicated songwriting.
You tell me that I must go
I’ll try to understand
Well, I’m gonna leave you
And I’m gonna hurry
Just, just as slow as I can.
7. “The Only Way Out (Is To Walk Over Me)” (1968)
From the album Just Because I’m a Woman
Letting someone see you at your lowest, most vulnerable is not an easy thing to do. But in this 1968 song, Parton goes to that place and makes the situation as desperate as possible. She forces her lover to recognize her desperation and literally step over her if he wants to move on.
The only way out is to walk over me
So you found someone else and you’re going to leave.
8. “A Gamble Either Way” (1983)
From the album Burlap & Satin
Parton originally wrote “A Gamble Either Way” for the 1982 film The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, but it ended up getting cut from the soundtrack. Despite this cut, the song is still sung from the perspective of a young prostitute who is continually played a bad hand in life.
Being born was the worse and the first mistake I ever made
The doctor didn’t spank me
He just slapped me in the face
And the cup of love was always quenching someone else’s thirst.
9. “I Will Always Love You” (1974)
From the album Jolene
Wrapping up this inaugural list of Parton’s saddest songs is perhaps one of her more well-known songs: “I Will Always Love You.” She wrote the song as a way of saying goodbye to her former business partner Porter Wagoner after she decided to truly start her solo career. The song wails and whimpers, but remains a staple of Parton’s catalog (as well as Whitney Houston who recorded a famous cover of the song).
Bitter-sweet memories
That’s all I’m taking with me
Good-bye, please don’t cry
‘Cause we both know that I’m not
What you need.
Photo by Tom Hill/WireImage
