Hit Songs Written By Dolly Parton That Prove She's More Than Just an Iconic Performer
Dolly Parton is one of music’s most beloved icons. She has released 49 solo studio albums throughout her career, a record for a female country artist, with 25 of her songs achieving No. 1 status on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
In all, she has placed 55 songs in the Billboard Hot Country Songs Top 10 and 113 in the Top 100.
But Parton is far more than a performer. She has written more than 3,000 songs across a career spanning seven decades — and many of her most memorable compositions became hits for other artists.
“I love to write songs for men,” Parton wrote in her 2020 book, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics. “And it’s a good thing I do because back then, there weren’t that many women in the country-music business to write songs for.”
“I didn’t have a lot of space to write songs for women so I purposefully tried to write songs that men could record. Or songs that could go either way,” she wrote.
Dolly Parton’s First Chart Hit Was as a Songwriter
Parton’s first appearance on Billboard’s charts came as a songwriter 60 years ago.
The country music icon co-wrote “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” with her uncle Bill Owens. It was recorded and released by Decca Records artist Bill Phillips in January 1966.
The song peaked at No. 6 on Billboard Hot Country Songs and earned Song of the Year at the 1966 BMI Awards — her first of many such honors. The Kendalls later turned it into a top-ten hit in 1980.
The uncle-niece duo also wrote “The Company You Keep” for Phillips in 1966, with both Parton and Phillips releasing versions in the 1960s.
Parton and Owens went on to co-write “Fuel to the Flame,” recorded by Skeeter Davis as a single in 1967. It was Davis’s first major hit in two years and charted in the top ten.
Davis was one of the first women in country music to gain major success as a solo artist and an acknowledged influence on Parton.
Here are more songs you probably didn’t know came from Parton’s pen.
Dolly Parton Songs That Became Hits for Other Artists
8. “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston (1992)
Parton wrote and recorded this song in 1973 as a farewell to her business partner and mentor Porter Wagoner. Released in 1974, it spent one week at No. 1 on Billboard Hot Country Songs. Houston recorded her version in 1992 for the film The Bodyguard, where it spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1992 and 1993.
7. “To Daddy” by Emmylou Harris (1977)
Written from a child’s perspective about a neglected wife and mother who eventually leaves her unaffectionate husband, this track was released on Harris’s 1977 album Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town. It reached No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs in 1978. Parton included it on her 1995 compilation The Essential Dolly Parton, Vol. 1. It was also the only song on the 2003 tribute album Just Because I’m a Woman not recorded specifically for the project.
6. “Waltz Me to Heaven” by Waylon Jennings (1984)
Written by Parton specifically for Jennings, this track first appeared on the 1984 Rhinestone film soundtrack, with Parton’s brother Floyd singing. It became the second single from Jennings’ Waylon’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 and reached No. 10 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs.
5. “The Stranger” by Kenny Rogers (1984)
Released one month before Rogers and Parton put out their Once Upon a Christmas album, this story song is told from a boy’s perspective as he wonders why his father deserted him before he was born. The father later meets the boy following his mother’s death.
4. “There’ll Always Be Music” by Tina Turner (1974)
Featured on Turner’s solo debut album Tina Turns the Country On! in 1974, released while she was still a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. The album included songs written by Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Hank Snow and Parton, and earned Turner a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female.
3. “I’m In No Condition” by Hank Williams Jr. (1967)
Dealing with the emotional aftermath of an unwanted breakup, the song’s refrain is “I’m in no condition to try to love again.” Williams blends southern rock, country and blues in his rendition. Parton included her own version on her 1967 album Hello, I’m Dolly.
2. “Rainbowland” by Miley Cyrus (2017)
Co-written by Parton and her goddaughter Miley Cyrus for Cyrus’s album Younger Now, the song was named after Cyrus’s home studio, painted rainbow colors, where she began building the album. Parton described it as “really just about dreaming and hoping that we could all do better.”
1. “Circle of Love” by Jennifer Nettles (2016)
Written for the 2016 TV movie Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love, based on a true story from Parton’s childhood in the Smoky Mountains. Nettles played Parton’s mother, Avie Lee Parton, in the film and included the song on her solo holiday album To Celebrate Christmas (2016). Parton released her version on A Holly Dolly Christmas (2020), and the two dueted it on The Voice.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
