Coat of Many Colors

And to be selected to be one of the voices that gets to honor her tonight is truly an honorable thing to get to do.

And to be chosen to sing Coat of Many Colors, all I got to do is make her proud.

She made my coat of many colors.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Parton's Imagination Library.

You can catch that special tonight right here on ABC7 at 9 p.m. Then stick around for ABC7 Eyewitness News at 11.

Specific is more relatable than generic.

So our focus here is the Coat of Many Colors, the classic Dolly song.

So it was scraps of fabric, her mother sewing the coat, kids laughing at school.

Like, Dolly told her actual story, right?

We actually played Dolly in the delivery room, which I don't know if it was allowed, but the doctors loved it.

And we did play her autobiographical hit, Coat of Many Colors, which is a tale of a little girl who was bullied for wearing a beautiful handmade coat that her mama made her.

This song reminds me of today's guest.

See what I did there? Who has written a children's book that has a similar feel to it.

We're chatting with someone who dons many hats of different colors, Craig Conover.

The record reached number three, followed by her first number one single, Joshua, in February 1971.

For the next two years, she had numerous solo hits, in addition to her duets, including her signature Coat of Many Colors.

While her solo singles and the Wagner duets were successful, her biggest success from this period was Jolene.

Released in late 1973, the song topped the country chart in February 1974 and reached the lower regions of the Hot 100.

It also reached number two on the US Country Chart.

The album was released in Europe on June ninth and reached number two on the UK Album Chart.

On June twenty-ninth, 2014, Parton performed for the first time at the UK Glastonbury Festival, singing songs such as "Jolene", "Nine to Five", and "Coat of Many Colors" to a crowd of more than a hundred and eighty thousand.

In early 2022, Parton was nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Beautiful song, hopeful song.

Those are probably my two favorites, but when we think about Dolly Parton, the person that everyone recognizes, I mean, I think a song like Coat of Many Colors is probably her most definitive song for her personal brand.

So those three are, are, are, I think- ... good options.

Ooh, and this point of personal brand is something that we're really excited to get into.

It gives us such strong anchors for the rest of this conversation.

But in terms of that personal branding, I was really taken when you pointed to Parton's childhood, the fact that she always knew a good story was gonna sell or get an A, whatever it was, right? Before we talk about "9 to 5," we're gonna talk about these other songs.

Can you talk a little bit about, like, "Coat of Many Colors" maybe as an example of the way she weaved this narrative? Again, I'm just thinking it's about her mom, right? And again, the strong, like, country, Southern Appalachian woman Who would have never quite been called a feminist or identified as a feminist.

And there's also a lot of work it's doing to give Parton a kind of authenticity as a working class person.

And she's like, "Now, Jewel, I really love your song.

Now, it reminds me of my song Coat of Many Colors.

Now, I come in here and I'm gonna do as good a job for you as I can, but I'm not always perfect now, and I want you to boss me around.

Now, if I'm not doing good, I need you to tell me where you want it.