Dolly Parton: The Split, the Songs, and the Lawsuit

Dolly Parton spent 1974 walking away from the only career she had ever known.

For seven years she had been the featured singer on The Porter Wagoner Show, a job that made her a star but never quite made her the star.

She left anyway, and the timing was not gentle.

Within months of the split she had written two of the most recorded songs in American music.

Within five years her old partner had sued her over it.

Most write-ups treat Dolly Parton as a single, tidy success story.

This one follows the actual chain of events, split to songs to lawsuit to crossover, in the order it really happened.

Editor's Note: Dolly Parton Has Died

Dolly Parton died on August 25, 2026, in Nashville, at age 80.

Her publicist said she died after a brief battle with cancer.

This piece was first published in 2026 to tell the story of her 1970s career, and stays focused on that decade below.

Dolly Parton in a publicity photo from 1977, wearing a denim shirt with her hair styled in her signature big blonde curls

Dolly Parton, publicity photo, March 1977.

Image credit: Publicity photo by RCA Records, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Split From Porter Wagoner

Seven Years Billed as "The Porter Wagoner Show"

Dolly Parton joined Porter Wagoner's syndicated television show in 1967, replacing his previous singer, Norma Jean.

The show ran in front of a huge weekly audience across the South and Midwest.

Wagoner produced her records, co-wrote songs with her, and built her into a genuine country name.

She recorded a run of duet albums with him across the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The partnership made her famous, but it kept her under someone else's creative direction for most of a decade.

By the early 1970s she wanted out from under that arrangement, even as it kept working commercially.

The Announcement and the Last Duet

Dolly Parton announced her departure from the show in 1974, after years of quietly building toward a solo career.

She and Wagoner performed one final duet together, a send-off rather than a clean break.

Wagoner kept producing her solo albums for two more years, through 1976's All I Can Do.

That overlap shows the split was more of a gradual unwinding than a single dramatic exit.

It also meant the professional relationship stayed tangled even after the public goodbye.

One Summer, Two Songs That Defined Her

What She's Said About Writing Them

Dolly Parton has told interviewers for years that she wrote "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" close together, sometimes describing it as the same day.

She has also been honest that she isn't fully certain of the exact timeline anymore.

Studio records tell a more precise story than memory alone can.

She recorded "Jolene" at RCA Studio B in Nashville on May 22, 1973.

She recorded "I Will Always Love You" at the same studio on June 12, 1973, three weeks later.

Both songs came out of the same emotional stretch, as she worked through ending her partnership with Wagoner.

Two Very Different Songs, One Turning Point

"Jolene" is a plea to another woman not to take her man, built around a tense, minor-key melody.

"I Will Always Love You" is the opposite kind of song, a calm goodbye written directly to Wagoner as she prepared to leave his show.

Both were released in 1974 and both hit number one on the country chart.

Together they became the clearest signal yet that Dolly Parton could write and carry material entirely on her own.

Decades later "I Will Always Love You" would become one of the best-selling singles in history through Whitney Houston's 1992 cover, though that fame belongs to a different decade than this one.

The Lawsuit Porter Wagoner Filed in 1979

The professional relationship that started as a mentorship ended up in court.

Porter Wagoner filed suit against Dolly Parton in March 1979, five years after her departure from his show.

He claimed breach of contract tied to their old business dealings from the duet years, and sought roughly three million dollars in damages.

The two sides avoided a full trial and settled out of court.

Reported figures put the settlement at around one million dollars.

It was a hard, expensive coda to a decade-long partnership that had made both of their careers.

Most retrospectives skip straight from the 1974 split to Dolly Parton's later pop stardom, leaving the lawsuit out entirely.

It belongs in the story, because it shows how unresolved the split actually was behind the scenes.

The TV Show and the Pop Crossover

Dolly, the Variety Show

Dolly Parton got her own syndicated variety show, simply titled Dolly, which ran from September 1976 to March 1977.

It gave her a platform entirely separate from Wagoner's show for the first time in her career.

The show put her comic timing and stage presence in front of a national audience on her own terms.

It also set the stage for the bigger crossover push that followed almost immediately.

Here You Come Again's Crossover

Dolly Parton released "Here You Come Again" in 1977, written by pop songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil rather than out of Nashville.

The single spent five weeks at number one on the country chart.

It also climbed to number three on the Billboard Hot 100, her first real foothold in the pop mainstream.

The song won her the Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1978.

It launched the broadest commercial phase of her career, built directly on the independence she had fought for since 1974.

Every Number One Country Hit Dolly Parton Had in the 70s

Billboard's own weekly country chart data confirms eight separate number one singles for Dolly Parton across the decade.

"Joshua" (February 1971): her first number one as a solo act.
"Jolene" (February 1974): one of three solo chart-toppers she had that year.
"I Will Always Love You" (June 1974): written as a farewell to Porter Wagoner.
"Please Don't Stop Loving Me" (October 1974): a duet with Wagoner, his only number one with her as a pair.
"Love Is Like a Butterfly" (November 1974): her fourth number one of 1974 alone.
"The Bargain Store" (March 1975): a single week at the top.
"Here You Come Again" (December 1977): her crossover breakthrough, five weeks at number one.
"Heartbreaker" (October 1978): three weeks at number one, her second chart-topper that year.

She also topped the chart twice more in 1978 and 1979 with "It's All Wrong, But It's All Right" and "You're the Only One," pushing her total run even higher.

No other country artist of the decade combined that kind of chart dominance with a genuine pop crossover.

See how her run stacks up against other acts from the decade with the Random Artist Picker.

Or test your own knowledge of the era with the 70s Music Trivia Quiz.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Dolly Parton leave Porter Wagoner?

Dolly Parton left Porter Wagoner's show in 1974 to build a solo career on her own terms after seven years as his featured singer.

She had grown into a star in her own right, with her own hit singles and her own creative direction.

Wagoner still produced her albums for two more years after the split.

The two performed one final duet together before she moved on.

Did Dolly Parton write Jolene and I Will Always Love You on the same day?

Dolly Parton has said she wrote both songs around the same time, though she admits she can't be certain it was one sitting.

Studio records show she recorded them three weeks apart at RCA Studio B, Jolene on May 22, 1973 and I Will Always Love You on June 12.

Both came from the same emotional stretch, as she was ending her partnership with Porter Wagoner.

Why did Porter Wagoner sue Dolly Parton?

Porter Wagoner sued Dolly Parton in March 1979 for breach of contract, claiming she still owed him money tied to their old business agreements from the duet years.

He sought roughly three million dollars in damages.

The two sides settled out of court for a smaller sum, reportedly around one million dollars.

It was a bitter coda to a partnership that had once defined both of their careers.

What was Dolly Parton's first pop crossover hit?

Dolly Parton's first true pop crossover hit was Here You Come Again, released in 1977.

The song spent five weeks at number one on the country chart and climbed all the way to number three on the Billboard Hot 100.

It won her the Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1978.

The single marked her deliberate move from a country-only audience toward the mainstream pop market.

How many number one country hits did Dolly Parton have in the 70s?

Dolly Parton scored eight number one country singles across the 1970s, based on Billboard's own weekly country chart data.

The run included Joshua, Jolene, I Will Always Love You, a duet with Porter Wagoner, Love Is Like a Butterfly, The Bargain Store, Here You Come Again, Heartbreaker, and You're the Only One.

That stretch turned her from a rising Nashville act into one of the decade's defining country stars.