Part 2
From that bear, we can trace a line to everything else she does. The same voice that makes us laugh at a gasoline-drinking bear also wrote 'Jolene,' a song so powerful that Beyoncé covered it in 2024 and changed the ending. The same woman who jokes about her own plastic surgery also got Whoopi Goldberg to defend her on The View. The same icon who never got a Presidential Medal of Freedom made Obama admit his mistake on national television. The bear is just the beginning. The next chapter is the music—the songs that made her a legend and the stories behind them.
From 'Jolene' to Whitney: The Songwriter Behind the Superstars
Whitney Houston steps to the microphone at the 1994 Grammy Awards. She's just won Record of the Year for 'I Will Always Love You.' She sets the trophy down — 'I'm going to put this down for a second, okay?' — and looks out into the audience. 'Dolly, of course, coming from you, this is truly an honor. You wrote a beautiful song. Thank you so much for writing such beautiful songs, really.' The camera cuts to Dolly Parton. She's beaming. She's also, if you know her, already doing the math.
Because here's the thing about that moment: it's not just a passing of the torch. It's a masterclass in how Dolly Parton thinks about ownership, art, and the long game. When asked how she felt about Whitney getting credit for her song, Dolly didn't flinch. 'I always told her, you know, people say that's Whitney's song. I said that's okay. She can have the credit long as I get the cash.' The audience laughed. Dolly laughed. But underneath the punchline is a truth that defines her entire career: she wrote the song. She owns the song. And she's perfectly happy to let someone else make it immortal — as long as the royalties keep flowing.
That's not cynicism. That's genius. Dolly Parton wrote 'I Will Always Love You' in 1973, the same year she wrote 'Jolene.' Two songs. One year. One of them became a country hit for her, then a global phenomenon for Whitney Houston in 1992's The Bodyguard — a film that grossed over $400 million and spawned a soundtrack that sold more than 45 million copies worldwide. Whitney's version of 'I Will Always Love You' became one of the best-selling singles of all time. And Dolly? She was already onto the next thing. Because she understood something that most artists never grasp: a great song isn't a possession. It's a seed. You plant it, you water it, and then you let it grow wherever it wants.
But let's not skip past 'Jolene.' Because that song — all two minutes and forty-one seconds of it — is a masterclass in narrative tension. Dolly doesn't just write a jealous song. She writes a plea. 'Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, I'm begging of you please don't take my man.' She's not angry. She's not threatening. She's vulnerable. She's asking. And that vulnerability is what makes it sting. It's the same vulnerability that made 'I Will Always Love You' so devastating — the quiet admission that you're letting something go, even though it's killing you. Dolly wrote both songs in the same year, and both of them are about the same thing: the fear of losing love, and the grace to handle it with dignity.
Fast forward to 2024. Beyoncé drops Cowboy Carter, a genre-defying album that reimagines country music through a Black woman's lens. And on that album is a cover of 'Jolene.' But it's not the 'Jolene' you remember. Beyoncé isn't begging. She's warning. She's not asking Jolene to stay away — she's telling her what will happen if she doesn't. Dolly's reaction? Pure delight. 'I think it was very bold of her,' she said. 'When they said she was going to do Jolene, I expected it to be my regular one, but it wasn't. But I love what she did to it. And as a songwriter, you love the fact that people do your songs no matter how they do them.' Then she added, with a grin: 'She wasn't about to let somebody — she wasn't going to go beg some other woman like I did to not steal my man. Get out of here. She ain't stealing.'
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That's the thing about Dolly. She doesn't just tolerate reinterpretation. She celebrates it. Because she knows that a song only lives if it keeps moving. 'Jolene' has been covered by everyone from The White Stripes to Miley Cyrus to Beyoncé. Each version is a different conversation with the same ghost. And Dolly, the original ghostwriter, is happy to let the conversation continue. As long as she gets the cash. And the credit. And the last laugh.
But Dolly's songwriting legacy isn't just about the songs she wrote for herself. It's about the songs she wrote for others. 'I Will Always Love You' wasn't just a Whitney Houston hit. It was also a hit for Linda Ronstadt in 1975. And 'Jolene' was a hit for Olivia Newton-John in 1976. Dolly's songs have been recorded by more than 3,000 artists. She's had 25 songs reach No. 1 on the Billboard country charts. She's been nominated for 50 Grammy Awards and won 11. She's one of the most successful songwriters in the history of popular music. And yet, she still talks about it like she's just a girl with a guitar and a story to tell.
