Dolly Parton And Pentatonix Bring New Life To An Old Classic, ‘Jolene’ [Video]
Dolly Parton teamed up with a cappella group Pentatonix to remake her hit “Jolene” and the collaboration has turned into a viral success overnight.
The video version of “Jolene,” which shows Dolly standing in the middle of Pentatonix as they take turns belting out lyrics, has had over 2 million hits on YouTube since being uploaded to Pentatonix’s YouTube channel yesterday. Pentatonix is known for providing a cappella covers of some of the musical greats, so it was only a matter of time that a Dolly Parton song would make it into their repertoire.
“Singing with Dolly was a dream come true for us, and we had so much fun arranging the song!” Pentatonix said on their official Facebook page. Parton seemed equally as thrilled with the collaboration.
“It was absolutely magical singing with such a talented group!”
This wasn’t Dolly’s first time working with another artist to create a new version of “Jolene.” In 2010 Parton brought Miley Cyrus on stage to sing it as a duet and that video also paid off in spades with more than 14 million views.
And let’s not forget Dolly’s multi-song duet with Katy Perry, which included “Jolene,” at the Academy of Country Music Awards in April.
Dolly Parton is one of music’s most iconic artists and other musicians are often clambering for the opportunity to work with her. Dolly has performed duets in recent years with Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley, but is probably most famously known for her hey day of singing and performing duets with Kenny Rogers in the 1980s. Last year, as previously reported by Inquisitr, Dolly made headlines for a viral video in which Parton sang a duet with a young fan with Down Syndrome.
Pentatonix became a breakout group after winning Season 3 of The Sing-Off. Besides the duet with Parton on “Jolene,” Pentatonix is best known for their a cappella covers of other popular artists such as Beyonce, Macklemore, and Justin Beiber. Last year, Pentatonix announced they would be making the transition to providing original music. The hard work paid off as Pentatonix’s first original album, Can’t Sleep Love, went gold.
Along with the release of their duet with Dolly Parton for “Jolene” yesterday, Pentatonix announced that they would have a new Christmas album this year. The Pentatonix albums of Christmas past have been some of the more successful musical releases for the group.
Both Pentatonix and Dolly Parton seem to have insurmountable amounts of energy to squeeze in the “Jolene” collaboration, new albums, and touring. Pentatonix is currently overseas with dates in Singapore and Hong Kong before returning to the U.S. next month for more engagements. Dolly Parton just started on a 60 city U.S. tour herself, which is pretty impressive considering Dolly just turned 70 this year.
As if that’s not impressive enough, Parton told Billboard magazine that she named her new album Pure & Simple because that’s the way this music was played in the recording studio and will be performed in person. Dolly will have minimal bandmates on stage and intends to play up to nine instruments herself.
“I thought I’d call this tour Pure & Simple because we really broke it down. I don’t have a whole big band onstage. It’s just four of us onstage,” Dolly said.
Whether or not Parton will have any surprise guests remains to be seen. Perhaps if there is some overlap in tour dates, Pentatonix can join her and give fans the live version of “Jolene.” After all, what could be more pure and simple than an a cappella group?
[Featured image of Dolly Parton by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for SiriusXM]
[Featured image of Pentatonix by Jason Merritt/Getty Images]
