Two of the all-time greats.
Yesterday, Dolly Parton passed away yesterday morning at 80-years-old in Nashville Tennessee. Dolly had been dealing with undisclosed health issues for the last year or so, and she previously shared that she was having issues with severe kidney stones. Aside from that, she understandably didn’t share more, though it has since been revealed that she suffered a “brief battle with cancer.”
And one of her longtime friends, one of country music’s last living legends, Willie Nelson, shared a simple, yet powerful, tribute to Dolly on Instagram, posting a video of their performance of “Everything’s Beautiful (In It’s Own Way)” from December of 1984.
It was a song Dolly actually wrote before she ever moved to Nashville, and it remained unreleased for years, though she ultimately recorded it in 1967, but it did not make onto an album before she left Monument Records. It was later released as a single and reached #7 on the country charts. In 1982, Monument Records brought together Dolly, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Brenda Lee for The Winning Hand tribute project, prompting Willie to overlay his vocals onto Dolly’s original recording.
This performance is so special, you can feel the love between them, and of course, the meaning of the song has taken on an entirely different meaning since Dolly’s passing as she sings about finding beauty in nature, life’s wonders, and even in difficult times:
As far as modern day legends who crossed over in such a big way for so many decades, Dolly and Willie are two giants, and in fact, they are the only two artists in country music history to have a song on the Hot Country Songs chart for SEVEN straight decades since 1960. Their talent and music speaks for itself…
And while they did perform together a handful of times over the years, after first meeting in 1965 in Nashville when they were on staff as songwriters for Combine Music Publishing, and signed to Monument Records. They became fast friends, I think their musical connection and similarities are obvious, and they have
Back in the late 80’s Dolly Parton had her own TV show, Dolly, where she often invited fellow country legends to sing with her, like Merle Haggard and Loretta Lynn, but I think my favorite one she did was her medley on the program with Willie.
They went through five of his biggest hits, where she introduced him by saying how much she loved him and his music:
“I love your band, I love your sound, I love your music, I love your songs, I love you… you know, you’ve recorded tons of records, and you’ve done a lot of songs that other people wrote, that you didn’t write.
But there’s tons of songs I’d bet you a million dollars people don’t have any idea that you wrote. Like songs, well sing Patsy’s song, well the song Patsy made famous.”
He then went into “Crazy”, as well as one of my personal favorites “Funny How Time Slips Away”, and the fan-favorite “On The Road Again”.
Dolly then told the story of how Willie gave her a bible for Christmas one year with lyrics from his song “Family Bible” in it, saying it’s something she’ll treasure forever.
It was also her grandma Parton’s favorite song, and she had always wanted Dolly to sing it at her funeral, which Dolly says she was ultimately unable to do because she was so upset at the time her grandma passed away. So on the show, they did a duet for her there, and it’s beautiful.
Dolly also called Willie’s classic, “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain”, “the prettiest song he didn’t write”, and told him she listened to the record it was featured on, his iconic 1975 album Red Headed Stranger, a million times. Same, Dolly, same.
It’s hard to put into words just how one-of-a-kind they both are, true originals in every sense, and that is beyond rare, as we all know. I like to think they had a deep connection because, at their core, they valued similar things and grew up similarly, even being from Texas and Tennessee. I know they recognized the greatness in each other, and I have to imagine there weren’t many people in the business that went as far back as they did.
To have met before either of them were even a minor celebrity, and to become what they both did, is just beyond incredible and I feel fortunate to have the performances of them together that we do. And the final part they did of “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain’… sheesh. I needed a tissue for that one.
If you’ve never seen this before, do yourself a massive favor and check it out:
Dolly was featured on Willie’s 2013 duets album To All the Girls…. on a song called “From Here to the Moon and Back,” and in 2020, they reunited to sing a duet of Willie’s Christmas classic “Pretty Paper” for Dolly’s A Holly Dolly Christmas album.
I can only imagine how sad Willie must be, and on stage, they were pure MAGIC together:
