Beyonce released a cover of Dolly Parton’s Jolene in March and included some major lyrical changes.
And now Dolly, 78, is sharing her thoughts on the creative tweaks, admitting she didn’t know Beyoncé would put her own spin on the 1976 song.
“When they said I was going to do Jolene, I expected it to be my regular, but it wasn’t,” the 78-year-old actress, a native of Pittman Center, Tennessee, confessed. MY! News.
But I love what he did to it. And as a songwriter, you love the fact that people make your songs no matter how they make them,” he said.
“Well, I think that was very bold of him.”
In fact, Parton appears twice on Beyoncé’s latest studio album, Cowboy Carter, which is her 13th solo album, starting with the intro leading up to Jolene.
Beyoncé released a cover of Dolly Parton’s Jolene in March and included some major lyrical changes. And now Dolly, 78, is sharing her take on the creative tweaks, admitting she didn’t know Beyoncé would put her own spin on the 1976 song.
‘Hello, Miss Honey Bey. It’s Dolly P. Do you remember that bitch with the good hair you sang about? She reminded me of someone I knew a long time ago. Except she has flaming locks of auburn hair. Bless her heart. Just a different colored hair, but it hurts just the same,” Parton says as a spoken word.
Once the music starts, Queen Bey took a slightly more aggressive approach in terms of the lyrics, writing in the first verse, “I warn you not to come for my man,” instead of “I’m begging you.” Please don’t take my man.
In a completely new line in the version, he sings: “It takes more than beauty and seductive looks / To come between a family and a happy man.”
In another new twist, The Crazy In Love star, 42, sings: “Jolene, I’m a woman too / The games you play ain’t nothing new / So you don’t want no heat with me, Jolene.”
The cover version also includes many different production changes compared to the original.
Beyoncé goes on to add a few other new lyrics, but for the most part the melodies and feel of the songs are very similar, with the bright exception that the singer is different and they are 50 years apart.
In the hours following the release of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter in late March, Parton took to her Instagram page to share her thoughts and approval.
‘Wow, I just heard Jolene. Beyoncé is giving that girl trouble and she deserves it! I love Dolly P.,’ she wrote in her statement.
Dolly Parton wrote and recorded Jolene, which was the lead single and title song from her thirteenth studio album which was released in October 1973.
Following the release of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter in late March, Parton shared her approval on social media, including her Instagram page.
Parton wrote and recorded Jolene in May 1973, and later released it as the lead single and title track from her album of the same name in October of the same year.
It became the Tennessee native’s second solo number-one single on the country charts.
Considered by music critics to be one of the most representative songs of the country genre, Jolene was ranked number 217 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004 and number 63 on the revised version of the list. in 2021. .
She also has the distinction of being nominated for a Grammy Award twice for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1975, and then again the following year for a live recording.
The song’s popularity has also crossed language and genre barriers to be performed by a host of musical artists in English and Spanish over the five decades since its first release.
Parton also appears on Cowboy Carter’s song Tyrant, opening the song with “it’s time to strike a match and light up this music venue.”
Beyoncé’s first immersion in country music actually combines various musical genres such as country, blues, folk, rock and roll, pop, hip-hop, bluegrass and Rhythm and Blues.
Fans have welcomed the album as a whole, considering it debuted at number one in several countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, among others.
‘I love what he did to her. And as a songwriter, you love the fact that people make your songs no matter how they make them,” Parton recently told E! of Beyoncé’s Jolene cover. “Well, I think it was very bold of her.”
The pop superstar grew up listening to country music, in part because of his paternal grandfather, who made it a point to take the family to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo every year.
In fact, Cowboy Carter became Beyoncé’s eighth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, and also became the first album by a black woman to top the Top Country Albums chart.
Its three singles: Texas Hold ‘Em, 16 Carriages and II Most Wanted scored big on the charts as part of the album’s promotional push.
Born and raised in Texas, Beyoncé grew up listening to country music, which was largely due to her paternal grandfather, who made it a point to take the family to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo every year, all dressed in Western-inspired outfits.
In a sign that magic happens more than once, Parton revealed that she wrote Jolene on the same day she wrote I Will Always Love You, which appeared on the same album and also topped the US Billboard Hot Country Songs in 1974. and again in 1982 with the re-recording of the soundtrack to The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas.
Whitney Houston’s pop ballad version also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1992 after appearing on The Bodyguard soundtrack in 1992.