Single Women

Album: Heartbreak Express (1982)
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Songfacts®:

  • This Country/Blues single continued Dolly Parton's string of Country hits, charting at #8. The song is about lonely women (either single or divorced) who are looking for Mister Right in singles bars, which was not as well established in the South and rural areas as it was in the cities. It doesn't glamorize that life at all, portraying it as desperate and frustrating. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Mike - Santa Barbara, CA
  • Michael O'Donoghue, who was a writer for Saturday Night Live, wrote this song for a 1981 sketch based on a singles bar featuring Christine Ebersole.
  • Parton's version was used as the theme song to the 1984 TV movie Single Bars, Single Women, starring Tony Danza, Paul Michael Glaser, and Shelley Hack.
  • After her foray into pop in the late '70s, Dolly wanted to fully embrace her country roots on Heartbreak Express, her 24th solo album, which is exemplified on this honky-tonk ballad.

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