Never in history (or at least since 1973) has a bank teller caused all this conversation. The story behind Dolly Parton’s timeless plea “Jolene,” as she tells it, was that a smokin’ hot redhead down at the bank had a crush on her husband. She called the situation “a running joke” and “innocent,” but the song it inspired was an emotional heavy hitter, and its sneakily dark tone and earworm chorus helped turn it into Dolly’s most-covered track.
Unlike other love songs, or heartbreak songs, or jealousy songs, “Jolene” comes from a place of vulnerability and desperation: Please don’t take my man, you beautiful ginger minx. It’s not an easy subjectivity for artists to take on, but it’s a challenge men and women alike are drawn to. Some have made it totally their own, adapting the tale in genres ranging from punk to reggae. Others have enshrined its status as a country standard with their own straightforward covers. Some artists have even written response tracks, from the narrator’s or Jolene’s perspective, essentially making fanfic about these characters.
For the release of Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé has added her own name — one of the few on earth even bigger than Dolly’s — to the list of “Jolene” obsessives, with anewtake: Back off, bitch. (“I’m warning you, don’t come for my man.”) In honor of Bey Day, we’ve ranked … well, not every cover of “Jolene,” because they’d number in the thousands, but 37, judging each on how well they succeed at what they’re setting out to do.
37. Destructo Remix (2001)
This Dolly-sanctioned take is an abomination. An electro remix of “Jolene” is all wasted potential; it should have been a house or trance mix instead — a bit more ambient, a bit more queer. Instead, this thing sounds like the sort of dubstep you hear in commercials for vodka coolers.
36. Cas Haley ft. SunDub (2023)
On Spotify, this song is listed as “Jolene — Reggae Cover,” but the result is more boring than that; without any reverb or texture, it sounds like Disney Channel reggae, which makes sense when you learn that Haley got famous on America’s Got Talent … for being a white guy who does reggae.
35. Pentatonix ft. Dolly Parton (2017)
It’s going to be an “absolutely not” from me. A cappella is impressive to see live the way a magician is impressive to see live, but who is going home and just listening to prerecorded magician routines? At least the video is compelling; every member of this group feels menacing in a different way, and they filmed on a soundstage in front of a fake Cracker Barrel. (Would it absolutely break you to learn that this recording is the only version of “Jolene” to win a Grammy?)
34. Straight No Chaser ft. Dolly Parton (2013)
Gee, Dolly sure likes to hop in on these a cappella covers. Maybe she was a Barden Bella in a past life? Anyway, Straight No Chaser’s 2014 rendition edges out Pentatonix because it’s a slightly more dynamic arrangement. Watching all ten members sing at once is funny the way the seven dwarvesall sleeping in their little beds next to each other is funny.
33. The Petersens (2019)
This Branson, Missouri–based family band’s cover has over 24 million views on YouTube, and while the traditional bluegrass sound is nice, the overall vibes are giving Quiverfull.
32. Trixie Mattel on Instagram Live (2019)
She should do it for real, though.
31. Maddie & Tae (2017)
This very perfunctory cover unfortunately does nothing to build on the original. Their two-part harmonies are tight, but not new. They sing like they’ve never been the Jolene or the Dolly in this situation.
30. Wendy Moten (2021)
A pretty standard cover, differentiated by some subtle backing bongo.
29. Jimmy Fallon ft. Miley Cyrus (2017)
Fallon brings a supremely dark energy to this cover, done as a prank in a subway station. (This entry withholds judgment on Miley’s performance because she pops up again in a much more crucial way further down the list.) Wearing a wig and a cowboy hat, he mumbles along to Cyrus’s vocals and plays tambourine. At first, it seems like he is hung-over, but he’s full of life when they follow it up with “Party in the USA,” which raises the question: Does Jimmy Fallon just not know the words to “Jolene?”
28. Reinaeiry (2021)
This cover stood out in my Spotify search because the track is literally called “Jolene but it’s gay,” which is very fun and amounts to small lyrical alterations like, “I’m begging of you, please just leave your man.” The thing is, the way Dolly sings about the other woman in this song has always felt super sapphic. What’s fun about it is how sublimated it is, like the narrator doesn’t even realize how gay she’s being about Jolene under the auspices of singing about her man (based on interviews with Dolly on the subject … she doesn’t seem to realize it either). But when everything gets literalized, it ends up less fun and less queer.
27. Maneskin ft. Dolly Parton (2024)
The second-most-recent cover on this list. I can’t say it sounds like the Eurovision-minted “Beggin’” band even really knows what they’re singing about. But Dolly gives it her all.
26. Postmodern Jukebox ft. Maris (2017)
The appeal of Postmodern Jukebox lies in novelty and juxtaposition: Take a familiar song, transpose it into a style of music you’d never think would work for it. These were the original Bridgerton Regency pop covers. Unfortunately, this one isn’t novel at all: Despite a harp and strings, the style of the song hasn’t really been changed. At least the lead singer, Maris, has a stellar voice.
25. Lucy Hale (2014)
Poor Lucy Hale never had the same successful TV-to-music career as her contemporaries, but gosh darn it if she wasn’t trying. The vocals at this Honda Stage at the iHeartRadio Theater performance are nothing to write home about, but this live rendition is worth a watch if only for the looming, frightening, almost aggressive energy of her background singers.
24. 5-year-old on Ellen (2020)
This little girl on Ellen is a bit pitchy and looks like a horror-movie doll. But ultimately, it’s really cute and funny to hear a child singing these particular lyrics. Sometimes kids performing things on TV look unhappy or awkward, but this girl seems to genuinely enjoy singing while her dad plays guitar. (Content warning: Halfway through, there’s a jump-scare cutaway to Ellen tearing up.)
23. Alison Krauss, Suzanne Cox, and Cheryl White (2006)
This live cover is nothing special. But it was performed at the Kennedy Center Honors, so it’s worth watching the video to see just how bored George W. Bush looks while three women sing.
22. Taylor John Williams & Amanda Lee Peers (2015)
This sextuple-barreled-name of a duo is the second cover from The Voice on this list, but it beats the other one out for having kickier instrumentation and the correct amount of a cappella at the very beginning, before the band picks up.
21. Paula Cole (1994)
Paula Cole of Dawson’s Creek theme-song fame really stood out with her 1994 acoustic cover for just how creative she got with the tune. Whether or not you think these are improvements is almost missing the point, because the end result is kind of fun and needlessly intense.
20. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes(2006)
This novelty act that only does punk cover songs of non-punk tracks made a short ’n’ sweet “Jolene” here. Nice work, boys.
19. Reba McEntire (1989)
Leave it to Reba to meet an assignment head on. This version is from her live 1989 album, and the whole thing is great: She opens by saying, “I’ve always been a big fan of Dolly Parton!” and her rendition is pretty flawless, with lots of swelling strings, guitar (banjo? Mandolin?) picking, and background singers. Did you know “Fancy” is also a cover? Is Reba primarily a cover artist?
18. Mindy Smith (2003)
Smith was a young artist who was tapped to perform “Jolene” on the 2003 Dolly Parton cover compilation album, Just Because I’m a Woman. This is a huge way to pop onto the scene! An honor! And she lived up to the task with an ethereal, totally new version of the song, even if the electric guitar bridges between refrains meander a bit.
17. White Stripes (2000)
There are lots of different versions here to contend with. There’s the studio version, which has some really interesting production, with Meg’s shuddering percussion that eventually grates and distracts, and Jack’s very chunky guitar. And then there’s the official music video, from the White Stripes’ live Blackpool Lights performance. Jack is doing a really annoying voice in it — high and shaking and whiny with a weird, almost Police-like inflection. Zero of this is to my taste at all (don’t yell at me), but you can’t deny that this is an example of an artist taking a classic song and making it their own.
16. Rockabye Baby! (2021)
Gotta be honest, this instrumental version from one of those cover compilations of rock songs done lullaby-style for hipster parents is kind of great. It’s more transformative than most entries on the list, and the shakers and marimbas make it sound like a White Lotus theme song. Whether this actually works as a lullaby is another story — there’s way too much tension in this song’s C-sharp-minor key for it to be restful. Lullabies need resolution!
15. Kelly Clarkson (2022)
Kelly Clarkson never disappoints, and her mini Kellyoke covers on The Kelly Clarkson Show are one of the great innovations in daytime television. She manages to make it her own, but this doesn’t live up to the impossible expectations for a “Jolene” Kellyoke. She’s set an unreasonably high bar for herself.
14. Olivia Newton-John (1976)
Olivia Newton-John’s 1976 version just might be the original “Jolene” cover. She hits a whistle note in it! Fabulous.
13. Olivia Newton-John and Dolly Parton (2023)
Never underestimate the power of two divas working in tandem. This sprightly duet between the blonde icons has an element of camp to it, particularly the way they trade off singing the word “Jolene” back and forth at each other. Plus, it’s genuinely cool to hear it sung by two mature, warbly voices, which gives new resonance to the song.
12. Glee Cast (2011)
Against all expectations, the Glee cover of this track is actually good, perhaps because we were all spared the show-choir version or an unnecessary Mr. Shue rap reinterpretation. Instead we got Coach Beiste’s (Dot-Marie Jones’s) only solo performance in the series. She sings it about Sue Sylvester, which is just plain funny and lends the whole thing an element of sexual confusion, but Jones commits to the emotion.
11. Jennel Garcia (2021)
Zero clue who this woman is, but oh my God is she giving a performance. Garcia lends the whole song theater-kid interpretation, essentially acting out the lyrics in pantomime, grasping out in front of her, clutching her face. She makes it sound slutty, burlesque, pleading, desperate, intense. People have an unfortunate tendency to make this song sound dour, but Garcia fills it with energy. Whoever she is!
10. Sisters of Mercy (1983)
Goth “Jolene” rules. It’s totally committed and still manages to feel a wee bit sarcastic. This song sounds great in a baritone.
9. The Little Willies (2012)
TIL Norah Jones has a honky-tonk cover band and it appears to be named after a micropenis joke. This cover is no joke, however, with super-rich, full, moody arrangements.
8. Beyoncé (2024)
This is such a tricky one. On the plus side, the new “I crossed those valleys” stuff — both when she does it herself and with the choral vocals at the end — sounds great. And after listening to like 100 versions of “Jolene” all week, it’s a welcome change of pace. On the minus side … the new lyrics are not exactly the slay Beyoncé thinks they are. The thing that makes “Jolene” such a unique track, and surely one that continues to draw artists in and enchant them after decades, is its subversive and unconventional emotional tenor. The narrator is vulnerable, pleading, totally at the mercy of the other woman. She loves her man, but it’s almost an afterthought, and definitely not the focus. It’s a strange dynamic that few other songs have. But Beyoncé chose to invert it and make it an ode to the strength of her marriage and how much of a flop the other woman is. We’ve seen women tell the other woman to back off in songs before. The jealousy and protectiveness? The making it all about the man and the strength and sanctity of the marriage? The, most damning of all, erasure of all sexual tension between the narrator and Jolene? Bey’s version is conservative. Maybe there is a case to be made that these cartoonish levels of defensiveness — “I’m a queen, Jolene” — are actually a commentary on a woman afraid to show her vulnerability. But that would be a stretch. Love the production on it, love the musical parts she added to the track, love the whole album, but those lyrics are a neigh from me.
7. Pink, Annie Lennox, Pat Benatar, Brandi Carlile, Sheryl Crow, Rob Halford, Simon Le Bon, Dave Stewart ft. Dolly Parton (2022)
How fun! Everyone involved in this Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction performance gives the song full swagger, but all of them are outswagged by the honoree herself, as she opens and ends the song solo.
6. Melissa Etheridge ft. Dolly Parton (2003)
The way the narrator sings about Jolene makes it an ode to her ethereal beauty with the kind of over-the-top flowery language that makes it nearly indistinguishable from something a Renaissance romantic would play on a lute at the base of a fair maiden’s tower. This is all, as mentioned many times in this piece, quite gay, so Etheridge fits the song like a glove.
5. Chiquis and Becky G (2020)
This is the only cover on here that has someone yelling, “Becky G in the house!” and “Dolly, we love you!” and that’s huge. This megaplayful Spanish-language version has fun Latin arrangements (accordions! Horns!) and pop vocals. Would much rather hear this in the club than the Destructo remix.
4. The Highwomen ft. Dolly Parton
Brandi Carlile has covered “Jolene” a number of times (one of the top results when you search is this version where she’s reading the lyrics off printer paper … must have been an off day). These renditions fall into the “Oh, the narrator is definitely horny for Jolene” camp of covers. But a version performed live at the 2019 Newport Folk Festival with her supergroup the Highwomen and Dolly herself is by far the best of the bunch. Carlile is having a total blast smiling and bopping through it, and bandmates Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Hemby’s harmonies are divine. At the end, as Carlile sings that final, higher “Jole-e-ene” background riff, Dolly goes, “You shameless hussy!” What a total treat.
3. Strawberry Switchblade (1985)
Now this is how you make this song a dance track! Scottish New Wave electropop “Jolene” is totally maximalist and delightful, with some especially ripping harmonica.
2. Lil Nas X (2021)
Lil Nas X’s rendition of the country classic is incredible. He has a great voice, deep and clear but without the performative affectation of Orville Peck (who shockingly has yet to cover this song). LNX should really consider doing an album of classic country covers. Like with Cowboy Carter, he used “Old Town Road” to reclaim country sounds and aesthetics in the name of the Black cowboys that historically had a huge hand in inventing them. Plus, in Lil Nas X’s hands, the man being sung about by the song’s narrator is suddenly a chaotic bisexual. He basically made the song’s story into Passages.
1. Miley Cyrus (2012)
Barefoot in her backyard, eyes closed, swaying back and forth in the grass, Cyrus completely reinvigorated and reinvented her godmother’s then 40-year-old song, and in turn reinvented her career. This came out in 2012, in that awkward growing-pains stage between the early post-teenybopper rebellion of Can’t Be Tamed and the suffocating culture wars of Bangerz. This was the signal she had turned the corner away from Disney into something more serious, but before she went all stunty (not a dig; the stunts were fun). It feels like as much of a milestone in the life of the song as it was in the career of Cyrus; one small step for “Jolene,” one giant leap for proving that, oftentimes, the nepo babies do have the goods. With that rasp in her voice and the real sense that she’s feeling the words of the song without doing anything particularly radical, how could this not be No. 1?
By Rebecca Alter , 2024-03-29 22:40:09
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