Dolly Parton’s first single, “Puppy Love,” has lived two lives: one as a forgotten 1959 release that drew only minor airplay, and another as the song that Donny Osmond turned into a No. 1 hit in the UK in July 1972.
Parton was 13 when she traveled with her grandmother, Rena Owens, on a 30-hour bus ride to southwestern Louisiana in March 1959 to record the song at Goldband Records. She later wrote in her 2020 book Songteller that she was astonished to hear her own voice on the radio for the first time, saying she “about killed myself” getting to the dial after realizing, “I was sitting up on the counter, and the radio was on,” and then “I jumped off the counter and slid and fell trying to get to the radio to turn it up.”
Goldband Records released “Puppy Love” on April 20, 1959, the record that marked the start of Parton’s official recording career 67 years ago. The song had been co-written by Parton and her uncle, Bill Owens, when she was 11 years old. It never reached the charts, but it did enough to put her voice on the air for the first time.
That early recording returned to the stage in February 2024, when Parton performed “Puppy Love” during Dolly Parton’s Pet Gala and then uploaded a new version called “Billy’s Version” to her official YouTube channel. The move came as she approached her 80th birthday and after a career that has made her a 10-time CMA Award winner and one of country music’s most durable figures.
The twist in the song’s history is that the version most listeners remember is not Parton’s at all. Osmond’s cover gave “Puppy Love” a much bigger life than the original ever had, but the song’s return in 2024 pointed back to the teenage recording that started it all. The answer to which version mattered most is both of them: Osmond’s made it famous, and Parton’s made it hers again.