Dolly Parton: That Song Where She ‘Killed’ A Little Girl and Her Puppy

Dolly Parton's "Me and Little Andy" from 1977's Here You Come Again album is a fan favorite. The song was never a hit and the subject is quite dark. The lyrics tell the story of a little girl and her dog, and they both meet a dire end. The little girl knocks on the narrator's door and begs to come in and get out of the cold. Dolly sings in the little girl's voice, "Ain't you got no gingerbread? Ain't you got no candy... ain't you got a little bed for me and little Andy?"

We are not sure why the character in the song did not let the little girl and her dog inside. But the consequences were not good. Dolly sings, "She was just a little girl/not more than six or seven/but that night as they slept/he angel took them both to heaven/God knew little Andy would be lonesome with her gone/Now Sandy and her puppy dog will never be alone."

Parton told me a few years ago, when she embarked on her "Pure and Simple Tour," she used to sing it all the time on stage. However, an incident in Las Vegas led her to avoid performing the song in certain situations. Dolly told me, "So I was singing this sad song, and so this old drunk was in Vegas; I guess he'd come there to have a good time, and he came in to see my show, and I started singing that song, and he (laughing) sat, and he hollered out, 'Do you have to sing that GD sad ass song?' It was bad enough the kid died. Did you have to kill the dog?'" Parton chuckled, "And of course, everybody was laughing… I couldn't finish the song, and I thought, 'I'm not singing it anymore in a nightclub type thing.' He was drunk, and he was feeling bad. I thought, 'Nah, this is not the kind of song to sing in a nightclub."

You can see Dolly perform the song Live in London in 1983 here.

Dolly Parton celebrates her 77th birthday today (1/19). And to mark the occasion, she's releasing a new song. She told The View, "I had written a song a few months ago. I had a dream about God standing on a mountaintop saying, 'Don't make me have to come down there.' So, I write this song about it to try to draw attention to what's going on and what we can do to help it, and I just felt like this song was very blessed." She added, "So I thought I am going to put something out very special on my birthday, and I thought it might draw a little bit of attention for us shaping our lives up a bit in the coming new year."

Parton has often said that she writes a new song on her birthday every year, which makes one wonder what huge songs she wrote on January 19th.

As Dolly is preparing her rock album with many rock icons including Paul McCartney, Steve Nicks, Cher we look at 77 songs that we feel are her very best.

This bluegrass album of Dolly's won Best Bluegrass Album at the 2001 Grammy Awards.