The Songs Dolly Parton Gave Away: A Songwriter’s Legacy Beyond Her Own Voice

Long before Dolly Parton became one of country music's most enduring solo stars, she was building a songwriting career one pen-and-paper gesture at a time, crafting songs for other artists, bridging generations and genres, and shaping the industry as much from behind the scenes as from center stage.

Her debut as a songwriter came in January 1966 with "Put It Off Until Tomorrow," co-written with her uncle, Bill Owens, and recorded by Decca Records artist Bill Phillips. The single peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and earned BMI Song of the Year honors, Parton's first major songwriting recognition. She provided uncredited harmony vocals on the track.

"I love to write songs for men," Parton wrote in her 2020 book, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, recalling her early forays into songwriting. "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.”

That same strategic thinking shaped one of the most storied songs in American music. Parton wrote "I Will Always Love You" in 1973 as a farewell to her business partner and mentor, Porter Wagoner, and to express her decision to pursue a solo career. The country single was released in 1974 and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Whitney Houston's recording of the song for the 1992 film The Bodyguard became a global phenomenon, spending 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Parton's generosity as a songwriter extended across artists and decades. She wrote "There'll Always Be Music," which she and Wagoner released as a duet in 1973; Tina Turner later covered it on her 1974 solo debut, Tina Turns the Country On!, an album that earned Turner a GRAMMY for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. "To Daddy," written from a child's perspective about a neglected wife and mother, appeared on Emmylou Harris's 1977 album Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. And "Fuel to the Flame," co-written with Owens, became one of Skeeter Davis's first major hits in years, charting in 1967.

In 1984, Parton gave Kenny Rogers "The Stranger," a haunting ballad she had written in the 1970s but never recorded herself, for his album What About Me?, released about a month before the pair's joint holiday record, Once Upon a Christmas.

Decades later, Parton co-wrote "Rainbowland" with her goddaughter, Miley Cyrus, for Cyrus's 2017 album Younger Now. The song became a rallying cry for acceptance.

"It's really about if we could love one another a little better or be a little kinder, be a little sweeter, we could live in rainbow land," Parton said in a 2017 interview, per Mental Floss. "It's really just about dreaming and hoping that we could all do better. It's a good song for the times right now."