As Long as I Love

As Long as I Love captures the sound of a superstar in the making, long before the rhinestones and global icon status. These recordings from the mid-1960s find Dolly Parton navigating the specific demands of the Nashville Sound, where Fred Foster attempted to mold her into a crossover pop sensation. It is a fascinating listen because it feels less like the mountain-folk storyteller we know now and more like a country-inflected version of the girl-group era. The songs are shorter, the hooks are sharper, and there is a palpable sense of a young artist testing the limits of her range.

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