Dolly Parton - Coat of Many Colors

"Coat of Many Colors" reached the number # 4 on the U.S Hot Country Songs, on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks charts, would reach at number # 15. The song was included in Dolly's eighth solo studio album, Coat of Many Colors (RCA 1971)

Story behind the song:

Dolly composed the song in 1969 while traveling with Porter Wagoner on a tour bus. (He explained in his 1994 memoirs, My Life and Other Unfinished Business, because he couldn’t find paper, since the song came to it, he wrote it on the back of a dry cleaning receipt for one of Wagoner’s suits; when the song became a success, Wagoner had the receipt framed.)

Parton was born in Locust Ridge, Tennessee and grew up in poverty, the fourth of 12 children, and his mother really made him that coat. Her classmates made fun of her, but Parton was proud of the coat and tried to make them understand that, although her family didn’t have much money, they were rich in other more important ways.

Parton kept the famous coat, which later became a popular attraction in his Dollywood Museum, where it is preserved in an exhibition along with his handwritten lyrics of the song. >>

Even after Parton became a great star, this song remained his favorite of the more than 3,000 songs he had written. Dolly said about the song: “Tell about the people I grew up with, talk well about my family and particularly from my mother, “I can always sing that sincerely from my heart.”

Dolly Parton would present this song in concert as “a true story about a small patchwork coat that my mom made me with a box of rags.”

After Parton’s mother, Avie, died in 2003, Dolly found it very difficult to perform this song. She says it was months before I could sing it without crying.

Dolly wrote a children’s book based on the song (illustrated by Judith Sutton), which was published in 1996.

A movie based on the song was also made, which premiered on NBC on December 10, 2015. 13 million viewers tuned to the premiere of the television movie. It was the most watched movie on American television since May 2012 and also earned NBC its best total audience results since the end of the 2009 ER series.

Some versions:

Noma Jean 1972 (RCA)

Emmylou Harris 1975 (Reprise Records)

Carroll Baker 1978 (TeeVee Records)

Porter Wagoner 1982 (Fire)

The Lynn Morris Band 1992 (Rounder)

Joey + Rory 2014 (Spring House)

Stella Parton 2016 (Raptor)

Dolly Parton - Coat of Many Colors

Back through the years I go wanderin' once again

Back to the seasons of my youth

I recall a box of rags that someone gave us

And how my momma put the rags to use

There were rags of many colors

But every piece was small

And I didn't have a coat

And it was way down in the fall

Momma sewed the rags together

Sewin' every piece with love

She made my coat of many colors

That I was so proud of

As she sewed, she told a story

From The Bible, she had read

About a coat of many colors

Joseph wore and then she said

"Perhaps this coat will bring you

Good luck and happiness"

And I just couldn't wait to wear it

And momma blessed it with a kiss

My coat of many colors

That my momma made for me

Made only from rags

But I wore it so proudly

Although we had no money

Oh, I was rich as I could be

In my coat of many colors

My momma made for me

So with patches on my britches

And holes in both my shoes

In my coat of many colors

I hurried off to school

Just to find the others laughing

And making fun of me

And my coat of many colors

My momma made for me

And oh I couldn't understand it

For I felt I was rich

And I told them of the love

My momma sewed in every stitch

And I told 'em all the story

Momma told me while she sewed

And how my coat of many colors

Was worth more than all their clothes

But they didn't understand it

And I tried to make them see

That one is only poor

Only if they choose to be

Now I know we had no money

But I was rich as I could be

In my coat of many colors

My momma made for me

Made just for me