Dolly Parton Names Her Worst Songs

Does Dolly Parton even have bad songs at the very least? That’s a question you might have asked clicking on this article. Because for all we know, there’s nothing this woman will ever write that would ever be not good. 

You might think this is clickbait, but Dolly Parton did honestly name some bad songs of hers in a late-night interview with Conan O’Brien. In the 2011 interview, Conan asked if she regretted any of the songs she wrote in over 73 albums (at that time) that she already released. 

In a cheeky laugh, Dolly said that as a songwriter there, you would think that all your songs are really good. She compared the thought to how everybody thinks kids are pretty even if they’re not. 

One of those songs for her is ‘I’ll Oilwells Love You,’ released in 1968 for her album Just Because I’m a Woman. The song tells a story of a woman who wanted to marry a man who owned a bunch of oil wells. Ironically, she would write a two-time U.S. country chart-topper song which has a same-sounding title. 

She originally wrote and recorded I Will Always Love You in 1973. In 1992, the song was immortalized by Whitney Houston when she rearranged it as a soul ballad which served as the soundtrack for her film debut, The Bodyguard.

It may be a song that wouldn’t rank on Dolly Parton’s own list of good songs she wrote; it was definitely a very witty song and a very funny title as well, which gave it a lot of charm. 

Another one was ‘I Don’t Wanna Throw Rice’ which she penned with Bill Owens released before Valentine’s of 1967. To which Conan O’Brien commented that out of all her great songs, this one doesn’t really roll off the tongue. Dolly even made a joke that if she was going to throw rice, she would cook it first. 

She admitted that she really had some suckers in her long country music career. Nevertheless, Dolly Parton is still Dolly Parton. She is still considered as one of the elite individuals who has received at least one nomination from the four major American entertainment awards, namely the GRAMMY, Oscar, Emmy, and Tony. 

You can watch more of her detailed interview below.