#301 - Dolly Parton - Coat of Many Colors (1971)
MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:
BACKGROUND – DOLLY PARTON
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in a one-room cabin in eastern Tennessee in 1946, and grew up "dirt poor", being the fourth of 12 children. Her dad was a sharecropper and tended his own small tobacco farm, while her Mom had given birth to her dozen children by the age of 35 (there is a set of twins in there), but provided the musician influence providing Smoky Mountain folklore and ancient Welsh ballads (where her family came from). Dolly's grandfather was a preacher, and the family went to church regularly. Parton began performing as a child, first in church, then singing on local radio stations. By the age of 13, she was on a small Louisiana-based label, Goldband Records. An appearance at the Grande Ole Opry led to her meeting Johnny Cash, who encouraged her to follow her own instincts. She moved to Nashville the day after graduating high school, and enjoyed some success as a song writer. She was painted as a "bubble gum pop singer" by Monument Records, who she signed with at 19 years old. After only charting one single, Dolly expressed a desire to sing country, but the powers thought her high soprano voice wasn't suited for the genre. After composing "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" for Bill Phillips (she sang harmony on the track uncredited), the label gave her a chance with a couple of singles (Dumb Blonde and Something Fishy). Both charted inside the Top 25, which led to her first album, Hello I'm Dolly. This led to her meeting Porter Wagoner, who invited her to be a part of his syndicated TV show and road show. This led to her getting a deal with RCA Victor, but her first bunch of solo albums were generally ignored despite the run of success with Wagoner. When 1970 hit, Wagoner convinced her to record a cover of Jimmie Rodgers "Mule Skinner Blues", which shot to #34. Her singles started to get notoriety, with 1971's Joshua being her first #1 hit. The Joshua album came out in April 1971, which is right around the time the recording for today's album began.
By the late1970s and into the early 1980s, Parton shifted her musical direction to more of the mainstream, pop world. She continued to have success in the country world, and she quickly gained notoriety in the pop world. 1980 was the release of her massively successful "9 to 5", which topped both the country and pop charts. That also led to an Academy Award nomination for best original song for the Lily Tomlin/Jane Fonda movie with the same title. Her dual genre success continued into the late 1980s, but when the pop side of things started to fizzle, she shifted her focus back to country/bluegrass for the remainder of her incredibly successful career.
Parton's music includes multiple albums certified gold, platinum and multi-platinum, with over 100 million records sold total. She has had 25 songs reach no. 1 on the Billboard country music charts, a record for a female artist (tied with Reba McEntire). She has 44 career Top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and she has 110 career-charted singles over the past 40 years. She has composed over 3,000 songs, including "I Will Always Love You" (a two-time U.S. country chart-topper, as well as an international pop hit for Whitney Houston), "Jolene", "Coat of Many Colors", and "9 to 5". As an actress, she has starred in films such as 9 to 5 (1980) and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), for which she earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress, as well as Rhinestone (1984), Steel Magnolias (1989), Straight Talk (1992) and Joyful Noise (2012).She has 11 Grammy Awards and 50 nominations, including the Lifetime Achievement Award; ten CMA Awards, including Entertainer of the Year and is one of only seven female artists to win the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award; five Academy of Country Music Awards, also including Entertainer of the Year; four People's Choice Awards; and three American Music Awards. She is also in a select group to have received at least one nomination from the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Tony Awards, and Emmy Awards. She also received the National Medal of Arts in 2005 (the highest arts honor given by the government) and received the Kennedy Center Honors treatment in 2006. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with the 2nd being alongside Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris for their work as a trio.
Hall of Fames That Dolly Belongs To: The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1986) Country Music HOF (1999), Songwriters HOF (2001), Grammy HOF 3x (I Will Always Love You, Jolene, Coat of Many Colors), Gospel Music HOF (2009), and that's not even all of them. She initially declined an invitation to be a part of the 2022 RnR HOF class, but they are going to induct her anyway.
ALBUM BACKGROUND – COAT OF MANY COLORS
Recording sessions for the album took place at RCA Studio B in Nashville during 2 sessions in April 1971. Three tracks on the album were recording during sessions for previous albums. "She Never Met a Man (She Didn't Like)" and "A Better Place to Live" were recorded during the October 1969 session for 1970's The Fairest of Them All and "Early Morning Breeze" was recorded during the January 1971 session for 1971's Joshua. This was the 8th studio album released by Parton in October 1971.
Dolly wrote 7 of the 10 tracks on the album. Three were written by Porter Wagoner, who had a TV show and was often a duo with Dolly in the 60s and early 70s. Parton enjoyed success as part of the duo, but this album was when Dolly started to separate herself as a solo star.
Over the years, Parton would re-record a number of songs from the album. "Traveling Man" was re-recorded in 1973 for Parton's Bubbling Over album. "My Blue Tears" was re-recorded in 1978 with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt for a Trio album project. Parton also cut the song for a third time, including it on her 2001 album, Little Sparrow. Parton re-recorded "Early Morning Breeze" for 1974's Jolene and again for inclusion as a bonus track on the Walmart edition of her 2014 album, Blue Smoke.