{"id":5199,"date":"2026-08-27T12:24:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/?p=5199"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:30:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T17:30:51","slug":"the-little-known-person-behind-jolene-by-dolly-parton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/the-little-known-person-behind-jolene-by-dolly-parton\/","title":{"rendered":"The Little-Known Person Behind \u201cJolene\u201d by Dolly Parton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The girl threatening <a href=\"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/the-meaning-behind-9-to-5-by-dolly-parton-and-a-workers-anthem-from-an-american-treasure\/\">Dolly Parton<\/a>\u2019s relationship in \u201cJolene\u201d drew inspiration from a much less intimidating source. But most know the name by Parton\u2019s desperate plea to the titular character:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,<br>I\u2019m begging of you, please don\u2019t take my man.<br>Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,<br>Please don\u2019t take him just because you can<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dolly Parton - Jolene (Official Audio)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ixrje2rXLMA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Parton goes on to describe the girl\u2019s beauty in vivid detail:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Your beauty is beyond compare,<br>With flaming locks of auburn hair,<br>With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green.<br>Your smile is like a breath of spring,<br>Your voice is soft like summer rain,<br>And I cannot compete with you, Jolene<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But she\u2019s not bitter. Parton seeks empathy from Jolene. I know you can, but please, don\u2019t, she implores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the Jolene in \u201cJolene\u201d was inspired by a young fan from her early days on a 1960s country-music television show. While on stage, Parton spotted an 8-year-old girl who waited patiently for an autograph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2008\/10\/09\/95520570\/dolly-partons-jolene-still-haunts-singers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> NPR, \u201cAnd she had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, these beautiful green eyes, and she was looking up at me, holding, you know, for an autograph. I said, \u2018Well, you\u2019re the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?\u2019 And she said, \u2018Jolene.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. Jolene.\u2019 I said, \u2018That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I\u2019m going to write a song about that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Flirty Bank Teller<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though the young fan may have provided the hair, the skin, and the eyes for Parton\u2019s character, another woman\u2014a redhead too\u2014inspired the threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Parton noticed her husband, Carl Dean, had been spending a lot of time at the bank. It seems a flirty bank teller had his attention. So she teased Dean about it and the running joke led to one of Parton\u2019s defining songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She released \u201cJolene\u201d in 1973, and the song topped the Country chart. Although it only peaked at No. 60 on the <em>Billboard<\/em> Hot 100, \u201cJolene\u201d remains a standard, and everyone from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yXlULkwhgrc\">Jack White<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=x9XHMK3nWr4&amp;list=RDx9XHMK3nWr4&amp;start_radio=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Beyonc\u00e9<\/a> has sung that little girl\u2019s name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Photo by David Redfern\/Redferns<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The girl threatening Dolly Parton\u2019s relationship in \u201cJolene\u201d drew inspiration from a much less intimidating source. But most know the name by Parton\u2019s desperate plea to the titular character: Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,I\u2019m begging of you, please don\u2019t take my man.Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,Please don\u2019t take him just because you can. And Parton goes on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":973477,"featured_media":5202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"byline":{"profiles":[{"type":"byline_id","atts":{"term_id":316,"post_id":2139}}]},"savage_platform_role_ideator":[],"savage_platform_role_editor":[],"savage_platform_role_senior_editor":[],"savage_platform_role_photographer":[],"savage_platform_role_illustrator":[],"savage_platform_role_translator":[],"savage_platform_role_as-told-to":[],"savage_platform_role_reviewed-by":[],"savage_platform_disable_recirculation":false,"savage_platform_article_type":"news","savage_platform_vice_article_type":"article","savage_platform_article_intent":"","savage_platform_show_affiliate_disclaimer":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"wp_curate_deduplication":false,"wp_curate_unique_pinned_posts":false,"savage_platform_featured_image_caption":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"savage_platform_subheadline":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[30,113],"byline":[316],"class_list":["post-5199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-country-music","tag-dolly-parton"],"savage_platform_primary_term":{"category":{"term_name":"Features","term_id":12,"term_link":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/category\/features\/"},"post_tag":{"term_name":"Country Music","term_id":30,"term_link":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/tag\/country-music\/"}},"hide_from_homepage":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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