3 Hit Songs Written but Not Originally Performed by Dolly Parton

When it comes to the world of music, most people know it was Dolly Parton who wrote the smash hit “I Will Always Love You,” which was made even more famous by the big-voiced singer Whitney Houston. But that was a song Parton had recorded and released years before Houston got to it for the soundtrack for the movie The Bodyguard. Parton, though, did pen some songs she gave away to other artists before she ever played them in public.

Here below, we wanted to explore three such songs. A trio of tracks Parton put to paper but then passed along to friends and family so that they could bask in the lyrical bliss. Indeed, these are three hit songs written but not originally performed by Dolly Parton.

[RELATED: American Songwriter November Cover Story: Dolly Parton—The Eternal Artist]

“The Last One To Touch Me” by Porter Wagoner from Simple as I Am (1971)

Before she wrote “I Will Always Love You,” Dolly Parton was the performance partner with country star Porter Wagoner. In fact, the tune Whitney Houston made more famous was a professional breakup song with Wagoner, as Parton knew she had to go solo and find her own career. But a few years before they split, Parton wrote this song “The Last One To Touch Me” for Wagoner and his 1971 LP Simple as I Am. And on it the country crooner sang between slide guitars, offering an ode to the object of his affection, singing,

If there ever was an angel then surely you must be one
If there ever was a perfect love when I look at you I see one
If there’s heaven on earth then this must surely be
And I want you to be the last one to touch me
The last thing I remember before I go to sleep
Is the touch of your sweet lips softly kissing me

“In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)” by Merle Haggard and The Strangers from Mama Tried (1968)

Country star Merle Haggard cut this song a few months before even Parton, who wrote it, was able to track it herself. In the liner notes of the 1994 collection from Haggard’s Down Every Road, it’s said that Bonnie Owens showed Haggard the Parton song. Owens and Parton had gotten to know one another when she and Haggard did a short tour with Wagoner and Parton. “She sang to me all night long,” Owens said, “songs that she’d written …” And on the song, Haggard sings about family,

We got up before sunup to get the work done up
We’d work in the fields till the sun had gone down
We’ve stood and we’ve cried as we helplessly watched
A hailstorm a beating our crops to the ground
And I’ve gone to bed hungry many nights as a lad
In the good old days when times were bad

“Steady as the Rain” by Stella Parton from Love Ya (1979)

This Top-40 hit from Stella Parton was originally written by her sister Dolly. The song peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was also a Top-15 hit (peaking at No. 13) in Canada. A driving heartbreak song that includes a bubbly bass and fast-paced electric guitars, Stella sings about the rain, tears, and sadness, offering,

Raindrops tumble to the ground
Making puddles all around
Drops of rain that look like tears
Fall on my window pane
Raindrops seem to harmonize
With teardrops falling from my eyes
And my tears keep falling down
As steady as the rain

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Photo by Pete Still/Redferns