Dolly Parton’s 30 Greatest Songs

Aug 26, 2026 11:47am PT Dolly Parton’s 30 Greatest Songs Michael Ochs Archives ‘I Will Always Love You’ Imagine the most popular song of the ’90s as it was first conceived and released in the ’70s, without an octave change or any due or undue drama. It’s easy when you try, and easier when you actually listen to Dolly’s seminal take on the song, before it was turned into something very different — valid, but different — for a movie kicker. As most people know by now, Parton wrote it as a platonic farewell, not the romantic one it is nearly always taken as, when it was time to spread her wings and fly away from professional partner Porter Wagoner. It’s the goodbye that any of us who’ve been left behind by a lover, comrade or the dearly departed wish we could get from them, or the one we’ve b