DOLLY PARTON & THE STONES, 'COAT OF MANY COLORS'

Today, The Stones and The Grandma has received a new surprise in Las Vegas. Dolly Parton, the American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actress, author, businesswoman, and humanitarian, known primarily for her work in country music, has visited the family and has sung especially for them. The family has wanted to thank Dolly Parton and her foundation, which is working very hard to find a new vaccine against COVID19. The Grandma loves Dolly Parton's music, and she has been very happy when Dolly has sung her favourite song, Coat of Many Colors.

Coat of Many Colors is a song written and recorded by American country music singer Dolly Parton, which has been described on a number of occasions as her favourite song she has written. It was released in September 1971 as the second single and title track from the album Coat of Many Colors.

She composed the song in 1969, while travelling with Porter Wagoner on a tour bus. She explained in her 1994 memoir, My Life and Other Unfinished Business, because she could find no paper, as the song came to her, she wrote it on the back of a dry cleaning receipt from one of Wagoner's suits; when the song became a hit, Wagoner had the receipt framed. She recorded the song in April 1971, making it the title song for her Coat of Many Colors album. The song reached #4 on the U.S. country singles charts.

The song tells of how Parton's mother stitched together a coat for her daughter out of rags given to the family. As she sewed, she told her child the biblical story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colors. The excited child, with patches on my britches and holes in both my shoes, rushed to school, just to find the others laughing and making fun of me for wearing a coat made of rags.

More information: Dolly R. Parton, Country Music from Tennessee

And oh I did not understand it, for I felt I was rich
And I told them of the love my momma sewed in every stitch
And I told 'em all the story momma told me while she sewedAnd how my coat of many colors was worth more than all their clothes

The song concludes with Parton singing the moral of her story:

But they didn't understand it, and I tried to make them see
One is only poor, only if they choose to be
Now I know we had no money, but I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors my momma made for me

On the original LP release of the 1975 compilation Best of Dolly Parton, the printed lyrics to the song appeared in the inner gatefold of the album, including a final verse that has never been included on any of Parton's recordings of the song:

Through life I've remained happy and good luck is on my side.I have everything that anyone could ever want from life.
But nothing is as precious as my mama's memory,
and my coat of many colors that mama made for me.

More information: Las Vegas Sun

Dolly says the original coat was used for various other purposes, but her mother did make a new one to use on display in her Chasing Rainbows Museum at Dollywood. Wagoner also donated the framed dry cleaning receipt -on which Parton composed the song- to the museum, where it now hangs.

Shania Twain recorded a cover version of the song on the 2003 Parton tribute album Just Because I'm a Woman: Songs of Dolly Parton, with accompaniment by Alison Krauss and Union Station. This version peaked at #57 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, based only on unsolicited airplay.

Other cover versions include a 1976 recording by Emmylou Harris on her Reprise Records debut Pieces of the Sky; decades later, Harris performed the song live in 2017 for the getTV special A Nashville Christmas. A recording of the song by Eva Cassidy was released on the 2008 posthumous collection Somewhere.

Scottish comedian Billy Connolly recorded a version in 1975 on his album Get Right Intae Him (Unicorn Artists). This was a serious version unlike his comical song D.I.V.O.R.C.E. which parodied D-I-V-O-R-C-E, made popular by Tammy Wynette and also covered by Parton. Melinda Schneider and Beccy Cole covered the song on their album Great Women of Country (2014).

In 2005, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ranked Coat of Many Colors number 10 on its list of 100 Songs of the South. A 1996 children's picture book of the song, with illustrations by Judith Sutton, was published by Harpercollins Children's Books.

In 2008, Kristy Lee Cook performed this song on American Idol during Dolly Parton Week.

In 2011, Parton's recording was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.

More information: Las Vegas Sun

Being a star just means that you just find your own special place,
and that you shine where you are.
To me, that's what being a star means.

Dolly Parton