Dolly Parton Celebrates the 52nd Anniversary of Her Hit “Jolene” with a Throwback Tribute

Dolly Parton is celebrating the 52nd anniversary of her iconic song “Jolene.”

The country icon, 79, posted a throwback video of herself performing the track on Instagram on Wednesday, Oct. 15. “52 years of ‘Jolene!’ 💖 🎶,” she captioned the post. The hit song, released in 1973, is loosely based on a real muse.

“Jolene” is loosely based on a real redhead who once flirted with Parton’s late husband Carl Dean at a bank shortly after they were married. In the song, Dolly begs Jolene, described as a woman whose “beauty is beyond compare, with flaming locks of auburn hair” not to “take” her man, as she “could never love again” if she lost him.

“[The] song was loosely based on a little bit of truth,” Parton said during Glastonbury Festival in 2014, per The Independent. “I wrote that years ago when my husband… was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be.”

“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton told NPR in 2008. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.’ So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”

As for the real Jolene, Parton took inspiration for the song’s title from a chance encounter with a young fan at her concert. “One night, I was on stage, and there was this beautiful little girl — she was probably 8 years old at the time,” Parton told NPR.

“And she had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, these beautiful green eyes, and she was looking up at me, holding, you know, for an autograph,” Parton continued. “I said, ‘Well, you’re the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?’ And she said, ‘Jolene.’ And I said, ‘Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. Jolene.’ I said, ‘That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I’m going to write a song about that.’ ”

“Jolene,” which was ranked at No. 63 on Rolling Stone‘s 2024 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, became an signature song in Parton’s discography and the country music canon. The song was the first single and title track of her 1973 album, and its romantic yearning and brutally honest lyricism continues to resonate with listeners across generations.

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The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame, and was previously nominated for the Best Female Country Vocal Performance Grammy twice.

The song has been covered in various languages by more than 30 singers in its 52-year history — including The White Stripes, Olivia Newton-John, Miley Cyrus, Måneskin, and more. Beyoncé put her own spin on the country classic on her 2024 album, Cowboy Carter, and Parton provided the cover’s interlude, titled “Dolly P.”