The Story Behind the 1984 Song Dolly Parton Gave to Friend Kenny Rogers But Never Recorded Herself

Though the 1983 duet “Islands in the Stream” is their most memorable, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers collaborated on several other occasions in the decades that followed, including a final, lost duet, “Tell Me That You Love Me,” that was originally recorded in 2009 and remained unreleased until 2023, three years after Rogers’ death.

During their four decades-worth of collaborations, Parton and Rogers recorded five duets together, from the 1980s through the 2010s, including “Real Love” in 1985, “Love is Strange,” the title track of Rogers’ 1990 album, and “Undercover” from his 25th album Back to the Well in 2003.

In 1977, Parton even covered Rogers’ “Sweet Music Man” on her 1977 album Here You Come Again. Nearly two decades later, Rogers also covered Parton’s classic “I Will Always Love You” for his 1996 album, Vote for Love. 

By 2013, 30 years after releasing “Islands in the Stream,” Parton and Rogers reunited for what would become their final duet together in his lifetime, the title track of his 2014 album, You Can’t Make Old Friends. Written by Ryan Hanna King, Caitlyn Smith, and Don Schlitz—the latter also wrote Rogers’ 1978 hit “The Gambler”—”You Can’t Make Old Friends” centers around a lifelong friendship, much like the one he had with Parton.

“Now I can’t hardly sing it,” shared Parton after Rogers’ death of their final duet. “You can make new friends that feel like old friends, but there’s just something about the people that have spent years together,” added Parton. “You have a history, and you learn about each other, inside and out. I knew Kenny very well. We’re very similar. We’re like brother and sister, really. He’s up there singing. I know that.”

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“The Stranger”

In 1984, Parton and Rogers also released the holiday album Once Upon a Christmas. Early that year, Parton gave Rogers a song she had originally written in the 1970s but never recorded herself for his sixteenth album, What About Me? 

Produced by Rogers, the haunting ballad “The Stranger” follows the narrative of a young man meeting his father for the first time, 10 years after his mother died.

Though Stranger, I ain’t seen her lately
She don’t come around here like she used to
You’ve got her pictured in your mind
Pretty, gentle, sweet, and kind
You’ve practiced every word you’re gonna say

You’ll call her name, but she won’t hear you
She’s in the graveyard near you
She died ten years ago, last May

[RELATED: The Final Duet Between Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, Bookending Their First, “Islands in the Stream,” 30 Years Later]

There was a man she talked about
A man she had to live without
Years ago, he just turned and left one day
He left her with an unborn child
And a love for him that never died
And an aching heart
That sent her to an early grave

Yes, Stranger, I know who you are
I recognized you from afar
But you ain’t never seen me
Not one time
Yes, I know that you’re my dad
From pictures that my Momma had
And it was me and Momma that you left behind

Though Parton never recorded her own version of “The Stranger,” she did perform it with Rogers on their 1985 HBO special Kenny & Dolly: Real Love.

“You know, I love her,” Rogers said about Parton during an interview with Dan Rather in 2014. “My theory is that Dolly has no filter. If it goes in her mind, it comes out her mouth. She doesn’t stop to think, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t say that.’”

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