Months after Dolly Parton released her 1967 debut, Hello, I’m Dolly, Hank Williams Jr. took a liking to her song “I’m in No Condition” and recorded his own version for his second of three albums released that year, My Own Way.
Released in February of ’67, Parton’s version talks about a man who broke her heart and why she’s in no rush to love again.
Don’t look at me with love in your eyes
Go look at somebody that can make it worthwhile
I’m hurt from a love affair I didn’t want in
I’m in no condition to try to love again
Don’t smile at me because it’s no use
Cause I don’t have a smile that
I can give to you
Someday, you might look me up
But let me be till then
For I’m in no condition to try to love again
I’m in no condition to try to love again
Man, I love just broke my heart
And it must have time to mend
He have me the breeze
Now he’s gone with the wind
Williams Jr.’s version, released in April of 1967, revives the same sentiment but switches the sex of the heartbreaking culprit—The girl I love just broke my heart / And it must have time to mend.
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Though they didn’t collaborate on music throughout their careers, in 2005, Parton and George Jones recorded a version of Williams Jr.’s 1980 song “The Blues Man.”
In 2017, Williams Jr. also united with Parton’s Smoky Mountains Rise telethon to help raise money for victims of the fires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and then joined her again for her 50 Years at the Opry TV special in 2019.
Parton also sang a duet with Williams Jr.’s son, Sam Williams, on “Happy All the Time” from his 2021 debut album Glasshouse Children. Williams co-wrote the song with Louisiana singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier and had Parton in mind for the vocals.
“I’d always envisioned Dolly singing on it, so I wrote her this sincere two-page letter, and when it finally got to her, she loved the track and said she’d be honored to sing on it,” said Williams. “That changed everything for me, because suddenly I had this duet with Dolly Parton on my hands, and I knew I was going to have to really push myself if I wanted to write an album powerful enough to stand alongside that.”
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