Think You Know Dolly Parton? These Hit Songs She Wrote for Others Will Surprise You
From country heartbreak to pop royalty, Dolly Parton's songs have a way of finding the right voice.
You know Dolly Parton as one of music’s most beloved icons. But here’s a stat that might reframe everything you thought you knew: Parton has written more than 3,000 songs across a career spanning seven decades.
That’s not a typo. More than three thousand.
She’s released 49 solo studio albums, a record for a female country artist, and had 113 songs land on the Billboard Hot Country Songs top 100 — half of which landed in the top 10 and 25 at No. 1.
But her songwriting catalog is where things get truly mind-blowing. Parton has penned hits for everyone from Whitney Houston to Miley Cyrus to Kenny Rogers to Tina Turner.
Here are some of the biggest songs you probably had no idea came from Dolly’s pen.
“I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston (1992)
This is the one that floors people every single time. Whitney Houston’s massive hit? Written by Parton.
Parton wrote and recorded the song in 1973 as a farewell to her business partner and mentor Porter Wagoner. Her original version was released in 1974 and spent one week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs.
Then Houston recorded her version in 1992 for the film The Bodyguard, and it spent a staggering 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1992 and 1993. Same song — two completely different lives.
“Rainbowland” by Miley Cyrus (2017)
Here’s a connection that makes the internet swoon every time it comes up: Dolly Parton is Miley Cyrus’s godmother.
The two co-wrote “Rainbowland” for Cyrus’s album Younger Now. The song was named after Cyrus’s home studio, painted rainbow colors, where she began building the album.
Parton described it as “really just about dreaming and hoping that we could all do better.” A cross-generational collaboration between a legend and her goddaughter — it doesn’t get much better than that.
“There’ll Always Be Music” by Tina Turner (1974)
This one is a genuinely surprising crossover. Tina Turner recorded a Dolly Parton-penned track on her solo debut album Tina Turns the Country On! in 1974, released while Turner was still a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.
The album also featured songs written by Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Hank Snow and Parton.
Here’s the real showstopper: that album earned Turner a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. A Dolly Parton composition helping power a Grammy-winning R&B album.
“To Daddy” by Emmylou Harris (1977)
Written from a child’s perspective about a neglected wife and mother who eventually leaves her unaffectionate husband, this song was released as a single from Emmylou Harris’s 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.
“Waltz Me to Heaven” by Waylon Jennings (1984)
Parton wrote this one specifically for Waylon Jennings. It 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.
“Fuel to the Flame” by Skeeter Davis (1967)
Co-written by Parton and her uncle Bill Owens, this single became 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.
“The Stranger” by Kenny Rogers (1984)
A story song told from a boy’s perspective about wondering why his father deserted him before he was born. The father later meets the boy following his mother’s death.
It was released one month before Kenny Rogers and Parton released their Once Upon a Christmas album.
“Circle of Love” by Jennifer Nettles (2016)
Parton wrote this for the 2016 TV movie Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love, based on a true story from Parton’s childhood in the Smoky Mountains.
Jennifer Nettles played Parton’s mother, Avie Lee Parton, in the film and included her version on her solo holiday album To Celebrate Christmas (2016).
Parton released her own version on A Holly Dolly Christmas (2020), and the two dueted it on The Voice.
Dolly Parton’s career started as a songwriter
Parton’s first appearance on Billboard’s charts came as a songwriter 60 years ago. She co-wrote “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” with her uncle Bill Owens.
It was recorded by Bill Phillips and released in January 1966, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs. It earned Song of the Year at the 1966 BMI Awards — her first of many.
As she wrote in her 2020 book, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics: “I love to write 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. Especially ones who weren’t writing their own songs, like Loretta Lynn was,” she continued.
“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,” she wrote.
More than 3,000 songs. Seven decades. A catalog stretching from country to pop to R&B. Dolly Parton isn’t just an icon — she’s the songwriter behind more of your favorite music than you ever realized.
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