Coat of Many Colors - Dolly Parton (1971) 11/10/21

When Dolly Parton was a little girl, her family was extremely poor. Dolly's mama worked overtime sewing clothes for Dolly and her siblings. She was also quite religious.

One day, as she was sewing together a patchwork coat for Dolly, she recited the Biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors (Genesis 37:3).

When the coat was finished, Dolly rushed to school to show it off...but the kids laughed and made fun of her coat of rags.

Needless to say, this hurtful little episode stuck with Dolly for a long time.

Several years later--in 1971--she was on concert tour with her partner Porter Wagoner, and while riding the tour bus, the idea for writing a song about the incident came to her in a flash.

Dolly couldn't find a blank sheet of paper, so she grabbed one of Porter's dry cleaning receipts and wrote it all down.

Before long, she had recorded the song, made it the title cut of her next album, and when "Coat of Many Colors" was released as a single, it reached #4 on Billboard's Country Chart.

And Porter had the dry cleaning receipt framed.

Over the past 50 years, "Coat of Many Colors" has been recognized for being the "Great Song" that it is!

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

And in the recent revamp of Rolling Stone's Top 500 Songs of All Time, "Coat of Many Colors" came in at #263!

Today, a newer version of the coat (also made by Dolly's mama) is displayed at the Chasing Rainbows Museum at Dollywood, and hanging next to it...is Porter's dry cleaning receipt.

TRIVIA: Dolly wrote a final verse of the song that she has never recorded:

"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."

And in 2015, Dolly produced a film based on the story, Here's the trailer:

"Coat of Many Colors" by Dolly Parton: A "Great Song of 1971!"