Dolly Parton may have scored dozens of hits across pop and country music charts over the years, but if you ask her, there should have been three more.
The 77-year-old singer-songwriter has a special place in her heart for a trio of old songs of hers that she said radio DJs refused to play.
"There was a song I wrote years ago called 'The Bargain Store,' and nobody played it on the radio because they were acting like I was implying something else," Parton told Vulture.
"My life is likened to a bargain store: I may have just what you’re looking for / If you don’t mind the fact that all the merchandise is used / But with a little mending, it could be as good as new … The bargain store is open, come inside," she continued, quoting from the song, which appeared on her 1975 album of the same name.
DJs misinterpreted the song to be "vulgar" when it was really about finding love after loss, Parton explained.
"I’m saying come inside my heart. I’m talking about a broken heart and how we can put the pieces back together if we’re willing to try," she said.
"I thought that was one of my most clever songs, and it’s still one of my favorites," she added. "But at that time, they were saying it was vulgar and I was saying something else. The bargain store, open, come inside. You get it."
Another song Parton thinks could have been a hit is "Down From Dover," from her 1969 album "The Fairest of Them All." The ballad, which Parton said is “a favorite of a lot of people," was controversial at the time because its protagonist was a single mom.
"I wrote that back during a time when people didn’t talk about unwed mothers — much less a child dying and all that," she told Vulture, adding, "They wouldn’t play that on the radio. And now you can just get pregnant on TV."
"I felt those songs were strong when I wrote them and I thought both times, 'Oh, man, this could be a big hit. A lot of people will relate to this and it’s a great story. It would make a great movie,'" said the singer.
Parton recalled that she also got not radio support for “Evening Shade,” also released in 1969.
The song tells the story of abused children at an orphanage who decide to "burn the place down," killing the "old matron" who ran the place.
"They thought it was going to incite violence or something," said Parton, adding, "I don’t write songs thinking like that. I come up with all of these stories. They make good movies in my mind when I write. They paint pictures."