Studio Album · No. 26
Something Special Songwriting Credits by Dolly Parton
Holds writing credit on 10 of 10 tracks
Authorship Breakdown 10 / 10 documented
Scored across the 10 tracks with documented writers, by whether Dolly Parton carries a lyricist or composer credit.
Share of the 10 tracks where a band member is credited, by role.
By the Numbers
Awards & Recognition 1
Something Special is built almost entirely from Dolly Parton compositions, with nine of the ten songs written solely by her and the closer co-written with Gene Golden. Parton frames a set of new originals around fresh recordings of three of her own classics, re-cutting "Jolene" and "The Seeker" and reworking "I Will Always Love You" as a duet with Vince Gill. That duet, sparked by an unplanned Grand Ole Opry performance, turned a deep catalog cut into a new hit and reaffirmed Parton's ownership of the song she first wrote in 1973.
Released August 22, 1995 on Columbia Records and Parton's own Blue Eye Records imprint, Something Special was recorded across four Nashville studios earlier that year and produced by Steve Buckingham. Parton wrote all ten tracks herself, with Gene Golden sharing a co-writing credit on 'Teach Me to Trust,' making the album a strong statement of her enduring songwriting identity. The album includes a duet with Vince Gill on 'I Will Always Love You,' which reached number 15 on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart and won Vocal Event of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards. Commercially it peaked at number 10 on Billboard's Top Country Albums and number 54 on the Billboard 200. Critical reception was mixed, with AllMusic's three-out-of-five-star review observing that the newer compositions could not quite match the power of her revisited classics.