Coat of Many Colors (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Coat of Many Colors" is a 1971 song by Dolly Parton which was the title song of a 1971 album. Parton has stated numerous times that it is her favorite of the songs she has written.
The song tells of how Parton's mother stitched together a coat for her daughter out of rags given to the family. As she sewed, she told the child the Bible story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colors. The excited child, "with patches on my britches and holes in both my shoes," rushed to school, "just to find the others laughing and making fun of me" for wearing a coat made of rags.
I couldn't understand it, for I felt I was rich
And I told them of the love my mama sewed in every stitch
And I told them all the story mama told me while she sewed
And how my Coat of Many Colors was worth more than all their clothes
The song concludes with Parton singing the moral of her story:
One is only poor, only if you choose to be
Although we had no money, I was rich as I could be
In my Coat of Many Colors my mama made for me
Parton kept the original coat, now on display in her Chasing Rainbows Museum at Dollywood.
Shania Twain recorded a cover version of the song on the album Just Because I'm a Woman, a compilation of cover versions of some of Parton's songs.
