Dolly Parton Reacts to Beyoncé’s Cover of Her Hit Song ‘Jolene’
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel.
Country music legend Dolly Parton is no stranger to traveling across musical genre lines, from creating “I Will Always Love You” that became a smash hit for Whitney Houston to her 2023 rock collaboration album, Rockstar. So it’s unsurprising that the Queen of Country would welcome Beyoncé’s new country-infused album, Cowboy Carter, and cheer on Queen Bey’s cover of one of Parton’s own hits.
Cowboy Carter — the “Act II” followup to her platinum 2022 album Renaissance — was released at midnight, Friday, March 29, and celebrates Beyoncé’s Texas roots, drawing inspiration from decades of music and multiple genres, but it’s the country aspect that has been drawing a lot of media attention. The album’s concept is a broadcast of a fictional Texas radio station that boasts Parton, Willie Nelson, and other country artists as DJs, and the single she released as a surprise during Super Bowl LVIII, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” topped both the Billboard Top 100 and Hot Country Songs charts, plus multiple other international charts.
The album’s 27 tracks include collaborations with Nelson, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, Linda Martell, and many others, and includes both original songs like “Texas Hold ‘Em” as well as covers, like The Beatles’ “Blackbird.”
And track number 10: “Jolene.”
Parton wrote the song in 1973 — famously on the same day she wrote “I Will Always Love You” — inspired by a seductive redheaded bank clerk who flirted with her husband. It was a number one country hit for Parton, and had been covered numerous times over the years, but certainly nothing with the star power Houston brought to “I Will Always Love You.”
The Queen of Nashville has been very vocal over the past few years about wanting to recruit Beyoncé to cover her beloved song, effusively praising her as a “fantastic and beautiful” talent and saying in multiple interviews that she would love to have her sing “Jolene.”
In a March 2022 appearance on The Daily Show, Parton repeated her wish for Beyoncé to cover the song, telling host Trevor Noah, “I would just love to hear ‘Jolene’ done in just a big way, kind of like how Whitney did my ‘I Will Always Love You,’ just someone that can take my little songs and make them like powerhouses. That would be a marvelous day in my life if she ever does do ‘Jolene.'”
That wish is now reality, and Parton shared her joy on her social media accounts.
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“Wow, I just heard Jolene,” wrote Parton. “Beyoncé is giving that girl some trouble and she deserves it! Love, Dolly P.”
Where the original pleaded for the ginger bank clerk to not take Parton’s man “just because you can,” Beyoncé’s version flips the script on the would-be temptress, scolding Jolene “I’m warnin’ you, don’t come for my man…Don’t take the chance because you think you can,” and spelling out how “I had to have this talk with you / ‘Cause I hate to have to act the fool / Your peace depends on how you move, Jolene.”
Listen to “Jolene” above, via Spotify.
