“Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That”
Dolly Parton
Written by Bob Carlisle and Randy Thomas
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
August 5, 1989
Dolly Parton’s ability to read the market and pivot has been nearly as important to her lengthy success as her status as one of the greatest songwriters in the history of popular music.
As good as that pen of hers is, when New Harvest…First Gathering didn’t provide the big pop breakthrough she was looking for, she went to established pop songwriters for “Here You Come Again.” Pop and film superstardom followed, but by the mid-eighties, she was an afterthought under the new RCA Nashville staff. So she signed an innovative deal with CBS/Columbia, where she’d alternate releasing country and pop albums.
She kicked things off with Rainbow, which was her most poorly received studio album since her commercial breakthrough. The purely pop record was her least visible project of this time period, overshadowed by her variety series and more critically the Trio project. That rootsy record with Linda and Emmylou scored four top ten country hits and a slew of awards while becoming her highest-charting album on the pop charts.
Ever the smart businesswoman, she ditched the pop/country dichotomy and went into the studio with Ricky Skaggs to create her most purely country solo album since the mid-seventies. She’d write the second No. 1 hit from White Limozeen herself, but again she chose to launch a critical project with outside material. The result is one of her most popular and entertaining records, showcasing the Dolly Parton personality that had made her so popular on film and television. She’s warm and giggly and engaging in a performative way that you didn’t see as much of on her earlier records, but slowly became the norm as time progressed, especially in her live performances.
Parton picked up on the growing popularity of the music video medium as well, and made her first truly memorable clip in support of the song. That was enough to earn her a CMA nomination for Music Video, and the song also returned her to the Best Country Female Vocal Performance category at the Grammys for the first time in four years. By 1990, she’d returned to the Entertainer of the Year and Top Female Vocalist races at the ACMs and earned her first gold studio album since 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs.
All that can mostly be credited to the winning country comeback single that launched the project, though her next chart topper is just as good.
“Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That” gets an A.
Every No. 1 Single of the Eighties
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I like the summary of Parton’s savvy, but you barely talk about the actual song in question here.