Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton’s 10,000-watt charisma made her reunion with Porter Wagoner the highlight of his 50th anniversary performance at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry on May 19.

“I could always tell when a song Dolly brought me was a hit,” says Wagoner, who mentored Parton when she was a struggling singer and songwriter just arrived in Nashville in 1967. “I knew it when I heard ‘Jolene,’ ” he says of Parton’s 1974 smash, “because that rhythm made it feel so good.”

He felt the same when he heard “I Will Always Love You,” a tune that twice rose to the apex of the country charts: first on Parton’s 1974 Jolene (RCA), then on the soundtrack for her 1982 movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. In 1992 Whitney Houston recorded the song and it became an international pop sensation. So far it has earned more than $25 million in royalties.

“I Will Always Love You” was Parton’s way of telling Wagoner her apprenticeship was over. After seven years under a contract to Wagoner that made Parton his musical sidekick on his popular TV show, on stage, and on duet albums — and gave him a significant piece of her publishing royalties and control as producer — she was eager to break loose.

Years after the legal entanglements were settled in court, Parton and Wagoner became friends again. “Most of the stuff I learned about entertaining an audience, I learned from Porter,” the irrepressibly perky Parton, who’s 61, said at a pre-show press conference where she appeared in a Pocahontas outfit. “ ‘Jolene’ and ‘Coat of Many Colors’ I wrote on Porter’s bus.”

Their Opry duet of “Just Someone I Used To Know” was the anniversary show’s emotional highlight — until Parton sang “I Will Always Love You” to Wagoner as he perched on a stool, resplendent in a white rhinestone Nudie-style suit with matching shoes.

Three excellent early solo albums Parton recorded under apprenticeship to Wagoner have just been reissued as part of RCA’s Great American Milestones series: 1971’s Coat of Many Colors, ’73’s Tennessee Mountain Home, and Jolene.