Three years and four solo albums (along with four more recorded with Porter Wagoner) separate my latest Dolly Parton featured record, Jolene, from my last. This woman was frighteningly prolific.

Those solo albums included one called My Favorite Songwriter, Porter Wagoner, on which Dolly performed songs written by her frequent musical partner, and another called My Tennessee Mountain Home, which dived deep into her autobiography (the liner notes included messages from her parents and a photo of the cabin where she grew up).

Jolene dropped in early 1974, powered by its title track, which became Parton’s second #1 hit on the Country chart and her first to cross over to the Hot 100. ‘Jolene‘ is one of Dolly’s best-known and best-loved songs, deservedly so.

I dinged the song in a 2019 post, calling the lyrics “rather pathetic” for sheepishly bemoaning that another woman could easily win her man. I’ve reassessed the song in the years since, and now I see it as a very effective evocation of insecurity and jealousy. It gives voice to the invasive thoughts we all have when he worry we don’t measure up.

Jolene (the album) also features Dolly’s other best-known and best-loved song, ‘I Will Always Love You.’ Written about her professional relationship with Porter Wagoner, as she decided to embark fully on her solo career, it is a sweetly sad tune that became a power ballad juggernaut when recorded by Whitney Houston for The Bodyguard 18 years later.

Elvis Presley sought to record ‘I Will Always Love You’ but Parton refused to give him songwriting credit and half of the royalties, as Colonel Tom Parker demanded for all of Presley’s covers. Dolly says she cried all night after denying the request, knowing Elvis would have delivered a hell of a rendition.

But she got the last laugh. “When Whitney came out,” she said, “I made enough money to buy Graceland.”

Those two songs alone make Jolene a keeper, but the rest of its tracks are also quite good. As love songs go, I actually prefer today’s SOTD to the record-breaking ‘I Will Always Love You.’