Dolly Parton has been enthralling audiences with her timeless music for decades. She has a fruitful profession in business, acting, and music. Parton is a gifted instrumentalist in addition to being a skilled singer.
Dolly Parton promised to release a rock album before being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 and listed a number of tracks she intends to cover, including the Journey ballad “Open Arms,” “Stairway to Heaven,” and the 1965 Rolling Stones hit “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
Like the others, Parton has a few songs that she loves more than anything else. These songs take her back to her early years and helped shape the artist she is today. Her best three are listed below.
‘Sometimes When We Touch’ (1977) – Dan Hill
Unexpectedly, Parton includes a late 1970s soft rock ballad by Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Hill on her list of faves. The ballad-style music discusses the conflicting emotions that characterize romantic relationships. About the song, Parton said, “I always loved the song ‘Sometimes When We Touch.’ It’s an older song, but I just always loved it.”
‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’ (1980) – George Jones
George Jones’ 1980 composition “He Stopped Loving Her Today” is a classic piece of country music. The song, which was co-written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman, recounts the tale of a man who continues to love his deceased ex-girlfriend today. The song’s effect is increased by Jones’ strong vocals and its poignant and emotional lyrics.
About the song, she said, “To me, that song is so well written, but it touches every cell in your body, in your heart,” she explained. “It’s just like he stopped loving her today, they hung that wreath upon the door. He was never going to stop loving her in his lifetime. He had to die.”
“It is so beautiful and, of course, George Jones is my favorite country singer in the world—always was, always will be. Nobody can tell that story like he did. So to me, that is the country classic of all time.”
‘Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow‘ (1927) – Carter Family
Parton talked about some of her best songs and how her mother, Avie Lee Owens Parton, taught her traditional tunes when she was a young girl in a 2020 interview on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show.
In the song, a lady begs her lover to bury her beneath the weeping willow tree when she passes away. The lyrics are rife with heartache, longing, and the knowledge that mortality is inevitable. This tune stands out in the genre due to the distinctive guitar picking of A.P. Carter and the harmonies of The Carter Family.
She said, “Mama used to sing all those songs brought over from the old world, Mama was a good singer too, and she would just sing a cappella all the time. So many of those songs were sad, and as I say, some of them just ‘plum pitiful.’”
