BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY
credit: Getty Images
Happy birthday to my dear friend, Dolly Parton. She turned 80 years young this week. To celebrate that milestone, she re-recorded one of my favorite songs of hers, “Light of a Clear Blue Morning.” It is our reason to smile.
The new recording features some of music’s biggest stars, many of whom also happen to be Parton’s close friends: Miley Cyrus, Queen Latifah, Reba McEntire, and Lainey Wilson. David Foster is on piano, and the Christ Church Choir of Nashville provides beautiful harmonies.
Parton wrote the song in 1976, calling it her “song of deliverance,” after a painful split from her longtime business partner Porter Wagoner.
Of the new rendition, Parton said in a statement, “I wrote ‘Light of a Clear Blue Morning’ during a season when I was searching for hope, and 50 years later that message still feels just as true. As I celebrate my 80th birthday, this new version is my way of using what I’ve been blessed with to shine a little light forward, especially by sharing it with some truly incredible women.”
Parton released the song to celebrate her birthday and to raise money for pediatric cancer research at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital in Nashville.
Some of you sharp-eyed, longtime Steady readers may remember we have chosen a Parton song as our reason to smile more than once. To that I say, you can never have too much Dolly in your life.
NYA Thanks Dan Rather and Team Steady!