Dolly Parton’s “Love Note” to Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr Led to a Collaboration With the Beatles, Mick Fleetwood, and Peter Frampton
While working on her 2023 album Rockstar, Dolly Parton landed on a Beatles classic she wanted to cover and sent Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney a “love note” asking for their blessing and participation on her recording of “Let It Be.”
“I just sent them a love note through their managers, and I just said what I was doing,” said Parton. “And I said, ‘I didn’t want to put you on the spot, but I’d love to have you sing with me on my rock album. And if you’re interested, call me at this number.’ And all the people I reached out to said, ‘Yes, we’d love to,’ and I was very honored and very proud and very humbled by that.”
Always one of her favorite Beatles songs, once Parton recorded the song, she reached out to McCartney to see if he would also play on it and sing. “I had recorded it, and I thought, ‘Wow, I wonder if Paul would even consider playing and singing on it,’” recalled Parton. “And so I contacted him. He was so gracious. I’d met him different times through the years. He’s always so nice, and he said he’d be on it, and I was so honored that he was honored.”
She added, “So actually he did a wonderful job, and the fact that these people are so busy, and they all took the time to do it, and then I thought, ‘Well, we got to have Ringo, because that’s the last of the Beatles. So I asked Ringo if he would do it. Same thing: ‘I’d be glad to do it’.”
Videos by American Songwriter
Following the release of Parton’s “Let It Be,” McCartney responded to their new rendition. “Thanks, Dolly, for doing my song,” wrote McCartney on social media. “I love your version and am very pleased to be by your side on this one. Rock on.”
Along with McCartney on vocals and piano and Starr on drums, Parton’s Rockstar version also features Mick Fleetwood on percussion and Peter Frampton on guitar.
“Well, does it get any better than singing ‘Let It Be’ with Paul McCartney, who wrote the song?” said Parton. “Not only that, he played piano. Well, it did get even better when Ringo Starr joined in on drums, Peter Frampton on guitar, and Mick Fleetwood playing percussion. I mean, seriously, how much better does it get?”
“Help!” and “Imagine”
A longtime fan of the Beatles since she first heard “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1964, Parton also started covering some of the band’s songs early in her career. “The first time I ever remember totally being jarred and feeling all kinds of emotions was when that song came out,” said Parton.
“I couldn’t get enough of it,” she added. “This girlfriend of ours had an old trap car, so we used to ride around — she was a little older than us. I just remember us hearing that on the radio any time we had a chance, because they played it night and day when the Beatles first came on the scene.”
By the time Parton was working on her twenty-first album, Great Balls of Fire, a nod to Jerry Lee Lewis’ 1961 classic, she recorded a bluegrass rendition of the Beatles’ “Help!”
In 2005, Parton also revisited John Lennon’s classic “Imagine” for her album, Those Were the Days. Parton’s music video also features private home videos of Lennon and Yoko Ono.
