Even before Beyoncé’s remake, Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” was clearly embedded in popular culture for a lot of listeners. It was propelled there by a series of remakes (White Stripes, Miley Cyrus, and almost anybody who did a duets project with Parton), interpolations (Cyrus again with “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart”), and Parton’s own rising star over the last decade.
In other parts of the world, “Jolene” has always been in Classic Hits/AC libraries. Five years ago, in my music-researcher capacity, I began encouraging stations to consider it. Some were unwilling to test a 45-year old Country hit that hadn’t crossed over at the time (except in Des Moines). Even when it came back strong, some PDs remained skeptical. For a brief time, I harped so predictably on “Jolene” that I imagined some of the Classic Hits PDs at the other end of the phone taking a drink every time I brought it up. Besides, Classic Hits was doing great back then. I mostly backed off.
But as I write this, Beyoncé’s “Jolene” is No. 1 in the iTunes store. It is the third-most-played new song from Cowboy Carter at CHR, although the Cyrus collaboration “II Most Wanted” and Post Malone duet “Levii’s Jeans” are the leaders. It has received 361 spins after six days and nine adds at Country. The rewritten lyrics are one of many heated Cowboy Carter-related topics online, although any attempt at controversy is grasping, since Parton has clearly endorsed the song and would have had to approve any changes of that magnitude.
So shouldn’t Classic Hits and other gold-based stations be playing “Jolene”? According to Mediabase, Parton’s version received a total of 98 spins this week, 66 of them from Country stations. (All but two of those were from non-reporters, meaning they were either gold-based or Classic Country stations.) There were 15 spins at Adult Hits, mostly from syndicated Jack-FM affiliates. The only Classic Hits station with significant rotation was WISM Eau Claire, Wis.
In Canada, there’s a little more acceptance. There were 170 spins on the song last week, with 142 coming from Country radio (and 56 of those from reporters). Canada’s Soft AC “Breeze” stations have been playing the song since their launch in 2018. There are other spins at Classic Hits and AC as well.
For some of the PDs I spoke to five years ago, it was hard to think of “Jolene” as anything other than Classic Country. But a lot of its current fans don’t really have any such fixed perceptions. It came to them through the remakes (Mediabase has 65 in their library) or through American Idol. They don’t have any memories of it as a radio record of any sort. A few years ago, I wrote that radio still seems to set the agenda for Classic Hits, even when it comes to streaming, but “Jolene” was already an exception at the time.
Being Classic Country isn’t necessarily a negative for younger listeners. Those Country stations that have expanded their library after years of narrowly focusing on “New Country” often report that the greatest excitement is often from young listeners. But there are many listeners who just don’t file “Jolene” anywhere. Wedding DJ and regular commenter Michael Bills often gets requests from couples who don’t ask for other Country (and who don’t seem to care that it’s barely more topically appropriate than “I Will Always Love You” or “Every Breath You Take”). When I asked Facebook friends about the song’s place in pop culture, readers were effusive about the song’s relatability or its intro. Nobody said much about how they knew it.
Beyond that, consider how no listener who remembers any hit song from 1974 is in the Classic Hits target demo. For that matter, not that many of the listeners who remember a seemingly timeless hit like “Summer of ’69” as a current are still in the demo. Some older songs may have been learned as gold titles when today’s 35-54’s began listening to radio. Others, like “Tiny Dancer,” took on currency later. That 53-year-old song doesn’t sound like much like anything else on Classic Hits, except “Rocket Man.”
Finally, if it’s really hard to get Dolly out of the Classic Country pile mentally, remember that she had six years as a recurring presence at Top 40 and AC radio. Having three big hits (and numerous other mid-charters) in that period means Parton had more of a pop footprint than Kansas, Cutting Crew, Mr. Mister, the Outfield, or Modern English, and she certainly has more currency than any of those current Classic Hits mainstays.
Classic Hits wasn’t getting hurt by what it didn’t play 3-4 years ago. It’s a little less consistently successful now. Trying to swap the ’70s for the ’90s isn’t working for every station. Some Classic Rock stations, unconflicted about still playing the ’70s, are starting to pull ahead, in part because younger listeners aren’t hung up about older songs. In that regard, an older song that works better with younger demos should be especially valuable.
Play it. Play anything reasonable that became a Top 40 hit. Country, R&B, soul, new wave, rock. I suspect your biggest fans of the radio station would enjoy it. You have to present it properly though. Call attention to it. If you play it between two usual hits and just segue then don’t bother. “Novelty” works in this case.
As you imply, Greatest Hits Radio and BBC Radio 2 wouldn’t have an issue about playing it – but the latter is the more interesting story, because GHR was only set up five years ago. “Jolene” peaked at number 7 on the mainstream UK charts in the summer of 1976. When I was listening to Radio 2 as a disgraceful young fogey 30 years ago, it was merely one of many country crossovers (many of them not in the US, some never even here) from that period that the station played, but it has found a new audience – much more within Radio 2’s current target demo, as opposed to its audience of 30 years ago – who would have no concept whatsoever of the existence of the Don Williams (“I Recall a Gypsy Woman”, never even a *country* hit in the US) & Billie Jo Spears (“What I’ve Got in Mind”) songs which also charted here in the summer of 1976 which were played heavily (I nearly said “rinsed” but that’s clearly the wrong phase for old-style Radio 2) on the station circa 1994, and would find them unbearably corny and embarrassing if they did. And that is before we even start on what that new audience for “Jolene” would make of “Combine Harvester” and “No Charge”, two of the most derided and mocked UK number ones of all time, both from the exact same time in June 1976 and both heavily representative of what people find cringemaking about the conception of country music and relationship with it of that older generation here …
Obviously, the fact that country radio in the American sense isn’t really a thing here, beyond a couple of national or quasi-national DAB stations which are sub-brands of more mainstream stations owned by the “big two” UK groups (Global & Bauer), helps to give “Jolene” a place on more general stations here.
Australia went through a similar run of Country hits–many of them not remotely crossover in the U.S.–in the early ’70s as well. Part of why “Jolene” works in the UK is because people didn’t know they weren’t supposed to hear it in the mix then, or now. But if you don’t remember the song to begin with, it’s not likely to be in a different pile, either.
I certainly wouldn’t be against Classic Hits stations playing it, but maybe another reason “Jolene” doesn’t get tried is because it’s seen as too slow or depressing. What about “9 to 5” though? I haven’t seen research since I’m just a radio nerd that’s not actually employed in the industry, but have programmers tried to test that one lately? People of all ages certainly know it, and they love Dolly. Is it also seen as too much of a “classic country” record, or even an “oldies” record? I feel like it would be a nice change of pace.
I’ve seen “9 To 5” test as well. That it disappeared is also a function of many Classic Hits stations that treat the ’80s as if they begin with “Tainted Love” and “Don’t You Want Me”–the earliest MTV-driven hits. If it shows up again, it might be as the Dolly/Pitbull reworking that I heard KMVQ San Francisco play a few times.
Luc Anthony here from WISM/Greatest Hits 98.1 — it was actually your prior article on “Jolene” that made me think to add it, so I asked my co-workers about the song and Dolly Parton, and ultimately decided to put it in rotation.
However, “9 To 5” might be even more intriguing. Every time I hear the song, it feels like it should be a core Classic Hits-style song: uptempo, bouncy, sing-along chorus, tons of folks know it, it’s streamed really well…and, yet, it never show up on the national radio charts for the format. Is this more “it’s country” thinking? Is it trying to avoid the hits of the legendary early-’80s doldrums (and, like you noted, really playing MTV-era songs and beyond)? What am I missing?
Hopefully some proactive CHRs will pick up on Beyoncé’s version of Jolene and get the ball rolling.
Given last years success of Morgan Wallen it would seem to be a no brainer.
Funny thing about “Jolene” here in Australia, it was the Olivia Newton-John version that became a Top 5 hit here smartly released from the vault as a single in 1978 on the back of Grease. Up to that point the Dolly original was barely even known down here, and as time has moved on many have since forgotten the ONJ hit version, assuming Dolly had the original hit with music history tending to re-write itself.
Play it on two of my nine stations!
I like the song, but I would likely change the station if I were listening to classic hits and heard “Jolene.” I have similar opinions about “Devil Went Down to Georgia” when it gets played on classic hits or classic rock. I tend to be in specific moods when listening to classic hits and classic rock, and those two songs just don’t maintain either. I enjoy them in a country mood, but I don’t want to hear them when rocking along with WCBS-FM or WMGK at work. I would be fine with hearing “Here You Come Again” or “9 to 5” on classic hits, but “Jolene” is a step too far in the wrong direction for me. When I want to go back to my Texas and Oklahoma roots, I know where I can find that music.
Similarly, the song is fine when I’m listening to SXM Prime Country or KKYX, but “I Hope You Dance” by Leeann Womack elicits an almost visceral reaction in the pit of my stomach when listening to AC. I don’t know what it is about the song that does that to me, but “This Kiss” and “There You’ll Be” by Faith Hill and “How Do I Live” by Leeann Rimes don’t bother me when listening to AC.