“Coat of Many Colors” by Dolly Parton

"Coat of Many Colors" is the title track of Dolly Parton's 1971 album and went out as its second single, a song she wrote herself and recorded that April. It came to her back in 1969 on a tour bus with Porter Wagoner, and with no paper to hand she wrote it on the reverse of a slip from the dry cleaner's that had come back with one of Wagoner's suits; when the song took off, Wagoner framed that slip, as she told it in her 1994 memoir, My Life and Other Unfinished Business.

The story is her own: her mother piecing together a coat for her out of rags the family had been given, and telling her the Bible tale of Joseph and his many-colored coat as she sewed. Bob Ferguson produced it, with Al Pachucki recording.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.