(Simcha here)
Oh, oh, speaking of glamour: I heard this song, “Jolene,” on A Prairie Home Companion, and groused to my husband, “That girl doesn’t have the voice to sing that song!” But I couldn’t remember who did sing it well. It turned out, of course, to be a Dolly Parton song. I always forget how good she is. Take a listen:
Man! That nylon hair, that tight polyester suit! And that’s just the guy who introduces her. I dithered a bit about whether to post a clip with just audio, because that spangly, hairsprayed, honky tonk insanity can be pretty distracting. But, you know, it’s Dolly Parton — that’s how she does it. Just put on your grown-up ears and listen to one of the great voices of the century.
You see, The Anchoress? Garrison Keillor. Dolly Parton. Danielle Bean handing out gum. This is what you walked away from when you got that passport stamped.
Oh, my gosh, I love that song. And thinking of it made me think of this.
You gals are cracking me up. The three furies!
My ten-year-old daughter will tell you that Dolly Parton is the greatest entertainer EVAH!!!!!!!
That was great! As Anchoress would say – a nice palate cleanser. When I was in college the first time, I could do a passable imitation of Dolly singing 9-to-5, from the movie which had just come out. Not a country fan, but definitely a Dolly admirer. Thanks for the memories and smiles, Simcha.
While no one does Jolene better than Dolly, Mindy Smith does a great cover. And Dolly is in the video, so…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcDBgXbGskc
PS Mindy was “that girl” on A Prairie Home Companion!
It’s really a shame that Dolly has kind of become a parody of herself with her image, because she was really a talented singer/songwriter. And I’m pretty sure this video is from Hee-Haw…a favorite show at my house growing up.
Yes, it was Mindy Smith! She definitely pulls the song off a lot better in the video than she did live on stage. I generally go for the robust bluegrass singer over the waifish type. I also found clips of The White Stripes and some sythesized 80′s group doing it — Strawberry something, I forget. Went back to Dolly.
“…listen to one of the great voices of the century”
She sure was, with a great background story, and apparently permanently joyful despite any troubles. I’ve always loved Dolly and her sense of humor.
I remember, long ago, hearing Bob Hope say … since Dolly Parton wore a training bra….”.
Even though at thime is listen to “Western” and “Folk” I hano idea who he was talking about or why.
And we didn’t have Bing of Ask, or Mr. Jeeves or even Archie.
I love the Train, Train from Austin City Limits. She really is such a great entertainer and I agree, has become a parody of herself, so it is easy to forget how good she really is. We recently visited Dollywood (don’t judge) and not only did my children love it, everyone was really nice and it was great fun.
Even my brother, who was gayer than Liberace’s shih tzu, had a crush on Dolly Parton. In fact, he was the one who introduced me to her music, and to “Jolene” particularly.
What a woman!
Ah, the woman who embodies my father in law’s complement: “What a pair of… lungs!”
My cousin met Dolly at a business function and said she is very tiny (except for, you know), and that she is very nice, friendly and down to earth. Dolly hides a sharp mind under that blonde wig.
By the way, that guy who introduced her was the late Porter Wagoner who discovered Dolly and sang duets with her for several years before she went out on her own. Porter was the MC for the Grand Ole Opry for a number of years as well.
Y’all aren’t from the South, are you?
Aww … Ellen beat me to it! I too was going to extol the greatness of Porter Wagoner.
Fond childhood memories of watching Porter Wagoner’s show on Saturday night with my dad.
Ellen – remember the live spot ads for detergent which gave away a free towel with each box purchased?
Now for some Porter – The Carroll County Accident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8jJq4rBsZc
As the previous commenter noted, this clip is from Porter Wagoner’s syndicated TV show. Porter was a much bigger star than Dolly at the time (and is pretty damn great in his own right). Being a featured singer on the show was Dolly’s first big break. They had some huge chart smashes as a duet (in the same vein as George Jones and Tammy Wynette).
You can see a number of Porter’s show’s in rotation on the RFD network. They are some pretty amazing performances, scattered among the corn-porn humor.As a weekly show, the shows were shot with a minimum of rehearsal, and it’s great to hear the band playing live with Porter and his guests (Merle Haggard, Hank Snow, many others). You just don’t get that anywhere today.
“You can only get ‘em in boxes of Breeze.”
I can still hear Dolly say that.
I started the play button and my 8 year old watched with full attention. I thought that was pretty cool until she said, “hey, that’s Hannah Montana’s aunt!” (if you don’t have a young girl in the house you might not know Dolly played Hannah’s aunt on a couple of episodes).
But seriously, Dolly is a great talent- never mind the clothes!
Anyone see the movie “Whip It,” Drew Barrymore’s roller derby movie? Jolene, sung by Dolly, is on the excellent soundtrack.
If you enjoy listening to Dolly Parton and her classic song Jolene, you might also listen to Alison Kraus’s Jacob’s Dream sometime.
[...] I’ll see Simcha’s “Jolene,” and raise her a “Train, [...]
One of my older sisters had the original 45 of this song (I won’t bother explaining “45″ to you younguns out there). I listened to it a lot when I was 6 or 7 and it’s still a powerful piece of material. It holds up much better than the other single my sister had, “I Like Beer” by Tom T. Hall.
Dolly wrote “I Will Always Love You” in honor of Porter in 1974, when she left his show to strike out on her own. It later became a big hit for Whitney Houston, of course, but I will always love Dolly’s version more!
Here is a wonderful, very moving (if you know the backstory) clip of Dolly singing this song to Porter at what turned out to be his last Grand Ole Opry appearance in 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzQ9j_Ek1ro