Growing up, Dolly Parton often sang with her sisters Stella, Cassie, and Willadeene as part of the family gospel group. Early on in Dolly’s career, Cassie and Stella also provided backing vocals to some of the songs Uncle Bill wrote, including “Vagabond” and “It Seems Like a Lifetime.” Dolly, Stella, and Cassie also appeared on The Porter Wagoner Show in 1970, performing a cover of George Hamilton IV’s “Break My Mind” with Dolly.

By 1987, Freida and Stella joined Dolly for a performance of “On Top of Old Smoky” on her TV special, Tennessee Mountain Thanksgiving. In 1990, all five of Dolly’s sisters—Stella, Rachel, Cassie, Freida, and Willadeene—united for her Home for Christmas special, singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

Dolly’s musical family bond has always remained tight, with collaborations with her sisters and brothers. Her sister, Freida, who sang backup as a member of Dolly’s Travelin’ Family Band in the mid-1970s and on many of her albums, was also in a punk band in the 1980s and released three albums of her own: her 1984 debut Two-Faced, featuring the Band’s Rick Danko, Pleasant Memories (1989), and Live at Dollywood from 1990.

I Can’t Believe That No One Remembers These 4 Hit Rock Songs From 1977

Also a singer and songwriter, her sister Rachel Parton George released her debut album, Light Up the Night, in 1984 and also starred in the early ’80s television series 9 to 5, based on the 1980 hit film starring Dolly. In 2024, Rachel and Dolly also co-wrote the 2024 cookbook, Good Lookin’ Cookin’.

Stella Parton, who has released music since her 1968 debut In the Garden, shared Mountain Songbird: A Sister’s Tribute, a tribute to some of her favorite songs by Dolly in 2016. “I’ve always loved my sister’s writing,” said Stella Parton. “She’s always been one of my very favorite songwriters. And she’s so prolific. And over the years, randomly, I’ve cut different songs that I just loved of hers and put on different albums.”

Here’s a look behind four songs Dolly wrote or collaborated on with three of her sisters througout the years.

“Sister” was originally written by Cass Morgan for the 1982 musical Pump Boys and Dinettes, which coincidentally features the song “The Night Dolly Parton Was Almost Mine” on the soundtrack. Years later, Stella Parton repurposed the song as “Sisters” and sang it as a duet with Dolly on her 1989 album Always Tomorrow. T

We grew up together
In the same little town
On the same street
In the same house
In the same hand-me-downs
We shared the same room
And we played the same games
But I never knew you

Our daddy was gone
And our momma worked hard
So we acted out dreams
In our little backyard
We were cowgirls and pirates
And gypsies and queens
But I never knew you

Could we go back to when we were children?
The best of sisters
But never friends
You were a stranger then
You are a stranger now
Could we ever be children again?

You say you’ve been feeling weaker, weaker by the day
You say you can’t make the joy of your Salvation stay
But good things come to them that wait, not to those who hesitate
So, hurry up and wait upon the Lord

More power to ya when you’re standing on His word
When you’re trusting with your whole heart
In the message you have heard
More power to ya when we’re all in one accord
They that wait upon the Lord, they shall renew
They shall renew their strength

Jesus promised His Disciples He’d give strength to them
Jesus told them all to tarry in Jerusalem
When they were all in one accord, the power of His Spirit Poured
And they began to tell the world around

“I’ve been working on this project for about 10 years, trying to put together what I felt like were the songs that resonated with me the most, which are her story songs,” said Stella of the album in 2016. “She’s [Dolly] written 3,000 songs, so it was a daunting task to try to choose 10 or 11 songs to just do an album. But I feel like I’ve picked the ones that people would want to hear and that I wanted to sing. And I’ve tried to do them as pure and simple as I would like to hear them when she would write them just in the basement with her guitar back in the ’70s some of these songs are from—like ‘Down from Dover,’ and ‘Jolene,’ and ‘Coat of Many Colors,’ and ‘I Will Always Love You.’”

She added, “And I just tried to sing with the harmonies that I grew up singing around her.”

Smoky Mountain DNA: Family, Faith and Fables was a family affair album for Dolly, featuring a collection of songs with friends and family. On the album are rerecordings of her early hit “Put it Off Until Tomorrow,” which she co-wrote with her uncle Bill Owens and was first recorded and released by Bill Phillips in 1967. More recordings feature Dolly’s late mother Avie Lee, sisters Freida and Stella, brother Floyd, her nieces Lainey Mae and Danielle, and many others.

The album also features a ballad co-written by Dolly’s younger sister Rachel, “I Will Know,” sung by the two sisters.

Written by Freida Parton

On Freida’s second solo album, Pleasant Memories, in 1989, “The Crops Came In” is a reminisce of growing up on the family farm in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Freida later re-recorded the song as “Crops Came In” with Dolly on the 2024 album Smoky Mountain DNA: Family, Faith and Fables.

Feels so good when the fields are clear
And poor boy grinnin’ from ear to ear
And women’s got to can ’til the canning’s done
Then we’ll all be a-watchin’ for the snow to come

‘Cause the crops came in, daddy’s whistlin’ Dixie
It’s a heavy load on his shoulder
He can feed us kids right through the winter
‘Cause the crops came in
You can hear mama singin’ in the kitchen
She’s a-praisin’ the Lord that the crops came in
It’s a heavy load off her shoulders
She can feed us kids right through the winter