The song became Parton's second solo number-one single on the country charts after being released as a single in October 1973 (prior to the album's release). A musicologist wrote and performed a fourth verse which makes this interpretation explicit when the podcast's hosts played audio of this performance for Parton, she responded that this was 'another take on it'. In 2019, the podcast Dolly Parton's America had an episode addressing the question of whether the narrator's focus on Jolene's beauty and desirability is indicative of her own attraction to Jolene. Onstage in 1988, Parton told the audience that 'Jolene' was a true story and the reason she did not like to sing it too often. Throughout the song, the narrator implores Jolene 'please don't take him just because you can.' The song is unclear about whether or not Jolene intends to steal the narrator's lover, an ambiguity that has been addressed in several answer songs. The song tells of the narrator confronting Jolene, a stunningly beautiful woman, who she worries will steal away her lover/husband. ĭuring an interview on The Bobby Bones Show in 2018, Dolly Parton revealed that she wrote 'Jolene' on the same day that she wrote ' I Will Always Love You'. The thumb-picked guitar on the recording is by Chip Young. In an interview, she also revealed that Jolene's name and appearance are based on that of a young fan who came on stage for her autograph. According to Parton, it is her most-covered song.Īccording to Parton, the song was inspired by a red-headed bank clerk who flirted with her husband, Carl Dean, at his local bank branch around the time they were newly married. 217 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of ' the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time' in 2004 and No. It was released on October 15, 1973, by RCA Victor, as the first single and title track from her album of the same name. It was produced by Bob Ferguson and recorded at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 22, 1973. But that doesn’t mean that just like The Chipmunks, it isn’t bad ass.' Jolene' is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Dolly Parton. Feelings of vulnerability and fear about who we are and how we stack up when compared with other people is universal, and no other song encapsulates that like “Jolene.” There is nothing really original, or even novel about taking “Jolene” and slowing it down.

The reason that Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” became a timeless composition is because it told an original story from an original perspective that almost any human could relate to on a personal level. Why? Has our boredom or busyness and cultural depravity made us more susceptible to bits? It almost reminds me of the conundrum involving Caitlin Rose’s video for her song “Own Side Now.” Her well-produced, professionally-made video has half as many hits as does a little girl singing the song standing in front of the kitchen table. Many songs sung by females and set in a mid-tempo work with this trick. There’s actually an older version of slowed-down “Jolene” that was uploaded over 2 years ago too.

I was convinced I was the very first human to ever discover this wonderful vinyl speed-switching phenomenon, and since the internet didn’t exist, there was no proof I wasn’t (though later I’d learn on the internet that the The Chipmunks’ perfected their high pitched voices through speeding up the playback of normal-toned vocals).īut there’s something just a little alarming about a slowed-down song that first surfaced on YouTube over a year ago all of a sudden going viral.

I later graduated to tinkering with Top 40 music, and when I put a 45 of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock n’ Roll” on the slower speed to sludge it out, I figured myself a damned genius. It changed the perspective of my entire little music world. But hell, I remember at some point when I was a little kid, I figured out how I could make all those boring family Christmas albums sound like they were sung by the bad asses of Christmas music known as The Chipmunks by kicking the speed up to 45 RPM on a 33 platter. It’s not that the slowed down song isn’t cool. I don’t know if it’s a bigger commentary on the state of social networking, or the serious depravity of truly meaningful modern songs that the most talked-about country music composition in the last week has been a version of Dolly Parton’s legacy recording “Jolene” put on a record player at a slower speed setting than normal, making it sound like it is sung by a man, and striking a deep 70’s era half-time groove. “Hey, have you heard that version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”?!? You know, the one that’s all slowed down and stuff?!?”

Jolene 33 rpm snopes