More than 50 years after its release, “Jolene” remains one of the most enduringly popular country songs of all time and certainly one of Dolly Parton’s greatest hits. Over the years, it’s been covered by a wide range of other artists, from Miley Cyrus and Beyoncé to Pentatonix and the White Stripes. In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked “Jolene” 63rd on their list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” And last year, the magazine gave “Jolene” the coveted #1 spot on their list of the “200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time.”
The lyrics are pretty straightforward, and most people are likely familiar with the line “I’m begging of you, please don’t take my man.” The “Jolene” backstory is also a simple one, involving Parton’s husband, Carl Dean, and a tall, beautiful bank teller who developed a “terrible crush” on him, according to the singer.
In later interviews, however, Parton described the situation in more lighthearted terms than the song’s plaintive tone would suggest. Though the bank teller’s advances clearly made an impression, they became a running joke between Parton and her husband about why he was spending so much time at the bank. The desperation of the song, in which Parton pleads with the fictional Jolene not to “take him just because you can,” seems to be more for dramatic effect than real-life concern about her husband’s fidelity.
And the name Jolene? That didn’t come from the bank teller but rather an extremely pretty young girl who asked Parton for an autograph at a concert. The girl’s name, Jolene, clearly made an impression on Parton, as did her striking red hair and green eyes, becoming the inspiration for the song title, if not the narrative focus of the lyrics.
Dolly and Carl:
- Dolly Parton met Carl Dean met outside a Nashville laundromat in 1964. They married in May 1966, when Parton was 20 and Dean was 23.
- Throughout their decades-long marriage, Dean avoided the limelight and very rarely accompanied Parton to music industry events, instead focusing on his asphalt-paving business and providing behind-the-scenes support.
- Carl Dean died in Nashville in March 2025, at age 82. He had been married to Dolly Parton for nearly 59 years.
- Though it never approached the acclaim of “Jolene,” Parton’s 2012 song “From Here to the Moon and Back” was also inspired by her husband, with lyrics like, “Love everlasting, I promise you that/From here to the moon and back.”
