6 Songs Dolly Parton Wrote About Her Late Husband Carl Dean, Besides "Jolene" (2025)

It’s fairly well-known that Dolly Parton wrote her 1974 hit “Jolene” about a situation with her late husband Carl Dean and his extra trips to the bank, early on in their marriage. Written by Parton on the same day she wrote another No. 1 hit, “I Will Always Love You,” “Jolene” was inspired by an auburn-haired bank teller, who developed a crush on Dean during the late ’60s.

“She got this terrible crush on my husband,”Parton toldNPR in 2008. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us when I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.’ So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”

Along with “Jolene,” from the late ’60s onward, Parton also wrote more songs about her relationship with Dean, including a final tribute to him after he died in 2025.

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The title track of Parton’s second album in 1968, “Just Because I’m a Woman” was inspired by a conversation she had with Dean earlier in their relationship about their previous lovers. “My husband doesn’t particularly like for me to tell this, but he’s old enough now, so he don’t really give a big s–t,” recalled Parton in 2003.

“See, I had had sex before we met, but I hadn’t mentioned it, and he hadn’t asked,” Parton added. “We were married for eight months, happy as we could be, and all of a sudden he decides to ask. I told him the truth, and it broke his heart. He could not get over that for the longest time. I thought, ‘Well, my goodness, what’s the big damn deal?’”

I can see you’re disappointed
By the way you look at me
And I’m sorry that I’m not
The woman you thought I’d be
Yes, I’ve made my mistakes
But listen and understand
My mistakes are no worse than yours
Just because I’m a woman

So when you look at me
Don’t feel sorry for yourself
Just think of all the shame
You might have brought somebody else

Just let me tell you this
Then we’ll both know where we stand
My mistakes are no worse than yours
Just because I’m a woman

In 1970, Parton released “Tomorrow Is Forever” on her duet album with Porter Wagoner,Porter Wayne, and Dolly Rebecca. The song went to No. 9 on the Country chart, and early 40 years later, Parton rerecorded the song for her 2016 albumPure & Simple, featuring songs inspired by her decades-long love with Dean.

Take my hand and run with me out of the past called yesterday
And walk with me into the future of tomorrow
Yesterday must be forgot
No looking back no matter what
There’s nothing there but memories that bring sorrow
Yesterday is gone gone but tomorrow is forever
No more crying tears leave tracks and mem’ries find their way back
Tomorrow’s waking let’s journey there together
Yesterday is gone gone gone but tomorrow is forever
I care not for yesterday I love you as you are today
Yesterday just helped to pass the time while waiting
We must forget the passing time my love for you is the real kind
The kind that won’t hurt you no never
Yesterday is gone gone gone but tomorrow is forever
Yesterday is gone gone gone but tomorrow is forever

“I wrote those back in the early, early days of our marriage,” said Parton of older songs she revisited on Pure & Simple. “So I just pulled those out again because I thought they were precious.”

Say Forever You’ll Be Minewas the 12th collaborative album Parton released with Wagoner. The title track was another love song to Dean and went to No. 5 on theBillboardHot Country Singleschart. Parton also rerecorded “Say Forever You’ll Be Mine” on Pure & Simple in 2016.

Forever is the love that
Is filled with understanding
Forever is the love that
Is true and undemanding
Forever is the love that can
Stand the test of time forever I am yours
Say forever you’ll be mine

Trouble clouds may fill our skies
It might even rain awhile
But the rain will go away
There’s always a brighter day

Darling, I won’t promise you
That we’ll be happy all the time
But forever I am yours
Say forever you’ll be mine
Forever I am yours
Say forever you’ll be mine
Say forever you’ll be mine
Forever I am yours
And I’ll do anything that you ever ask me to
And I’ll do what you want me to

When Partonwas working on the 2012 filmJoyful Noise, co-starringKris Kristofferson, Queen Latifah, and Keke Palmer, she ended up writing 12 songs for the soundtrack. When director Todd Graff (The Abyss, Strange Days), asked Parton to revise one song she wrote, shesaid“If you don’t like it, I’ll write another one. It only takes me an hour.”

In the film, Parton plays G. G. Sparrow, who helps lead a Georgia church choir into the national finals after the death of her husband and their choir director Bernard Sparrow, played by Kristofferson. “From Here to the Moon and Back” is a tender love letter to her late husband and how she’ll love him till the end of time. Though Parton sings the song with Kristofferson, her lyrics were written with Dean in mind.

I could hold out my arms, say “I love you this much”
I could tell you how long I will long for your touch
How much and how far would I go to prove
The depth and the breadth of my love for you?

From here to the moon and back
Who else in this world will love you like that?
Love everlasting, I promise you that
From here to the moon and back
From here to the moon and back

I want you to know you can always depend
On promises made and love without end
No need to wonder how faithful I’ll be
Now and on into eternity

I would blow you a kiss from the star where I sat
I would call out your name to echo through the vast
Thank heaven for you and to God, tip my hat
From here to the moon and back
And I’ll spend forever just proving that fact
From here to the moon and back

“When I wrote ‘From Here to the Moon and Back,’ I needed to write a beautiful love song,” said Parton. “I picked my husband, who I love, and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll write some beautiful song about him.’ It was about my husband in the movie, played byKris Kristofferson, so I thought in order to make it really real and really touching, I would write it about my real, true emotions about someone I really do love and have loved for more than half of my life.”

In 2016, Parton and Dean had a big blowout celebration for their 50th wedding anniversary. For the big event, Parton wore a dress designed by her longtime costume designer Steve Summers, and she and Dean spent their second honeymoon in their camper by the lake, in Ringgold, Georgia, where they were married five decades earlier
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“If I had it to do all over, I’d do it all over again, and we did,”said Dollyin a press release. “I’m dragging him kicking and screaming into the next 50 years.”

The event inspired her 45th albumPure and Simple. “I thought, ‘Well I’m going to write about mine and Carl’s relationship,”she said. “It’s just a pure and simple relationship,’ so it started with that and then I thought, ‘Well why don’t I just write a whole album of love songs?’”

Along with the rerecordings of “Say Forever You’ll Be Mine” and “Tomorrow is Forever,” the album features older songs Parton wrote about Dean, along with some new ones including the title track, “Head Over High Heels,” and her closing ballad “Forever Love.”

You touch me it’s like no one else ever touched me
Kiss me and all other kisses just fade
No other arms come to mind when you hold me
As if ever knew that for you, I was made

You are my joy and my laughter
You are the moon and you gave the stars light
You are my ever-after
Forever love, the light of my life

You wrote the book, each page, and each chapter
You are my poetry, story, and song
Each moment I try to capture
All of the magic that you bring along

Parton also called “Forever Love” her new wedding song. “That’s the one I considered our wedding song because we got remarried on May 30th, on our 50th anniversary,” she added. “I thought I’d have to have a little wedding song, so that was the one. I purposely tried to write a wedding song and I thought it would be a good wedding song for anybody’s wedding.”

On March 7, 2025, four days after Dean’s death, Parton released a song she wrote and recorded as a tribute to him. “Carl and I fell in love when I was 18 and he was 23, and like all great love stories, they never end,”Parton wroteon her social media, along with an early picture of the couple and the title of her new song. “They live in memory and in song,” added Parton, “and I dedicate this to him.”

“If You Hadn’t Been There” is a heartbreaking ballad, reflecting on the impact Dean had on Parton’s life and career.

If you hadn’t been there
Where would I be?
Without your trust
Love and belief
The up’s and down’s
We’ve always shared
And I wouldn’t be here
If you hadn’t been there

If you hadn’t been there
Well, who would I be?
You always see the best in me
You’re loving arms have cradled me
You held me close, and I believe

I wouldn’t be here
If you hadn’t been there
Holding my hand
Showing you care
You made me drеam
More than I dared
And I wouldn’t be hеre
If you hadn’t been there

“He is in God’s arms now, and I am okay with that,”wrote Partonfollowing Dean’s death. “I will always love you.”