“Debbie deserves a commission on all Lammes sherbert mints sold throughout Cracker Barrel for this ad.”
You know Dolly Parton as a singer and an icon. But here’s a number that might stop you cold: she has written more than 3,000 songs across a career spanning seven decades.
Some of those songs landed in the hands of artists you’ve been listening to for decades — without you ever knowing she was behind the music.
For example, Parton wrote and recorded “I Will Always Love You” in 1973 as a farewell to her business partner and mentor Porter Wagoner. Released in 1974, it spent one week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs.
Nearly two decades later, Whitney Houston recorded her version for the film The Bodyguard. It spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1992 and 1993.
Where It All Started: Dolly Parton and Bill Owens Making Hits
Parton’s first appearance on Billboard’s charts came not as a performer but as a songwriter, 60 years ago.
She co-wrote “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” with her uncle Bill Owens, and it was recorded by Decca Records artist Bill Phillips, released in January 1966.
The song cracked the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart a few months later and peaked at No. 6. It earned Song of the Year at the 1966 BMI Awards — her first of many such honors. The Kendalls later took it to a top-ten hit in 1980.
That Parton-Owens partnership was prolific, but was just the beginning. They also co-wrote “The Company You Keep,” which both Parton and Phillips released versions of in the 1960s.
They later penned “Fuel to the Flame,” recorded and released 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 — making that songwriting connection all the more meaningful.
Dolly Parton Loves Writing Songs for Men
In her 2020 book, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, Parton revealed that she has an affinity for writing songs for men.
“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,” she wrote. “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.”
That philosophy yielded some remarkable tracks.
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In 1967, Hank Williams Jr. recorded “I’m In No Condition,” a song dealing with the emotional aftermath of an unwanted breakup with the refrain “I’m in no condition to try to love again.”
Williams blended southern rock, country and blues in his rendition. Parton included her own version on her 1967 album Hello, I’m Dolly.
Then there’s Waylon Jennings. Parton wrote “Waltz Me to Heaven” specifically for him.
The song 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.
Other Country Music Hits Penned by Dolly Parton
Emmylou Harris took Parton’s “To Daddy” — written from a child’s perspective about a neglected wife and mother who eventually leaves her unaffectionate husband — and released it as a single from her 1977 album Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town.
It reached No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs in 1978. Parton later included it on her 1995 compilation The Essential Dolly Parton, Vol. 1.
The song holds a unique distinction: it’s the only track on the 2003 tribute album Just Because I’m a Woman not recorded specifically for that project.
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Kenny Rogers recorded Parton’s “The Stranger” in 1984, released one month before Rogers and Parton put out their Once Upon a Christmas album.
It’s a story song told from a boy’s perspective who wonders why his father deserted him before he was born. The father later meets the boy following his mother’s death.
And then there’s Tina Turner, who included “There’ll Always Be Music” on her 1974 solo debut Tina Turns the Country On!, released while she was still a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.
That album — which also featured songs written by Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Hank Snow — earned Turner a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female.
The Numbers Behind the Songs
The full scale of Parton’s career is staggering. She has released 49 solo studio albums, a record for a female country artist.
25 of her songs achieved No. 1 status on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, with six spending at least 20 weeks in the top 100 — including “Yellow Roses” and “When I Get Where I’m Going” at 26 weeks each.
In total, 55 songs reached the Billboard Hot Country Songs Top 10 and 113 made the Top 100.
But those numbers only tell half the story. The other half lives in the catalog — in songs she handed to Skeeter Davis, Waylon Jennings, Emmylou Harris and dozens more.
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Next time a classic country song moves you, there’s a fair chance Dolly Parton wrote it.
