36 min

The Only One For Me, Jolene Dolly Parton's America

    • Music History

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

One of Dolly’s most iconic and successful songs is “Jolene,” a song that, at first listen, is about a romantic rival trying to steal her man: a prime example of the classic “cheating song.”  But some see it as flipping a popular country music trope on its head. This idea takes shape when Nadine Hubbs, a professor at the University of Michigan, writes a fourth verse to “Jolene," which makes us reimagine Dolly's songs in entirely new ways. 

One of Dolly’s most iconic and successful songs is “Jolene,” a song that, at first listen, is about a romantic rival trying to steal her man: a prime example of the classic “cheating song.”  But some see it as flipping a popular country music trope on its head. This idea takes shape when Nadine Hubbs, a professor at the University of Michigan, writes a fourth verse to “Jolene," which makes us reimagine Dolly's songs in entirely new ways. 

36 min

More by WNYC

Radiolab
WNYC Studios
The New Yorker Radio Hour
WNYC Studios and The New Yorker
The Anthropocene Reviewed
Complexly, John Green
On the Media
WNYC Studios
The Stakes
WNYC Studios
Science Friday
Science Friday and WNYC Studios