Dolly Parton is continuing her look back on her life’s journey through song.
The musical legend, 80, is remembering the process of penning her 2020 book Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, with the help of resurfaced interviews and anecdotes on her Substack page.
Her latest is an analysis of her 1974 hit “Love is Like a Butterfly,” with Dolly comparing the idea of finding butterflies and their delicate touch to the idea of being in love.
Dolly Parton is looking back on her life in song through “Songteller” (Getty Images)
She especially drew connections to being “newly in love.” By that point, Dolly had already been with her husband Carl Dean for 10 years, and married for eight.
“I love the song ‘Love Is Like a Butterfly’,” the singer-songwriter recalled. “I wrote that one, and it’s very poetic. It’s very descriptive and very innocent and very flowery, but it touches on that. Love is like a butterfly, you know, as soft and gentle as a sigh, especially when you’re newly in love.”
Her love for butterflies, as it turns out, has lasted her entire life. “I’ve loved butterflies from the time I was little. I used to get lost in the woods chasing them because I wasn’t afraid of them.”
The singer was married to her husband Carl Dean for nearly 60 years
“They were gentle, colorful and I knew they weren’t going to bite me or sting me. There were so many different kinds where we grew up, so I’d find one and follow it for as long as I could.”
She continued: “When I wrote ‘Love Is Like a Butterfly’, it became a really big hit in France. After I had success with it, a famous singer there recorded it as ‘Le Papillon’. She sang it so sweetly, and I just loved her version.”
Dolly released her hit “Love is Like a Butterfly” in 1974, tied to the album of the same name (Getty Images)
As it turns out, the butterfly as a symbol has meant a lot more to Dolly than just new love. “Over time, the butterfly became my symbol. When we created Dollywood, the ‘W’ in wood became a butterfly. It just naturally became something people associated with me, and it’s stayed that way ever since.”
Written in 1974, “Love is Like a Butterfly” was the title track of the album from the same name. Her 14th studio LP, it was a top 10 hit on the country albums chart, and went to number one on the (now defunct) Cashbox Country chart.
The song was a number one country hit in the United States and was briefly considered her signature (Getty Images)
The song itself was a number one hit on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, her fourth number one at the time, and also reached the top five of the Bubbling Under chart, aka the songs that just missed out on reaching the Billboard Hot 100 itself.
At that point in her career, Dolly was already established as a very successful country music star in the United States, boasting hits like “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “I Will Always Love You,” and the aforementioned “Love is Like a Butterfly,” which was considered her signature hit at the time.
“Love is like a butterfly, you know, as soft and gentle as a sigh, especially when you’re newly in love.” (Getty Images)
Her success as a country music artist continued for the next three years, before she finally broke into the mainstream with 1977’s Here You Come Again, her first album to be certified Platinum in the United States and reach the top 20 of the main Billboard 200.
