Touch Your Woman

Album: Touch Your Woman (1972)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this slow-tempo ballad, Dolly Parton assures her lover they can overcome their disagreements with intimacy: "All you have to do to make it right is just touch your woman." Though innocuous by today's standards, the song was deemed too sexually explicit, and was cut from a number of radio stations' playlists when it was released in early 1972. It still managed to reach #6 on the Country singles chart.
  • Later in 1972, this was covered by R&B artist Margie Joseph. >>>
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  • Dolly elaborated on the song's meaning in her 2020 book, Songteller: "I think this is a very sweet song, and a really good love song. It talks about the couple's sensuous, sexual, tender relationship. But it also says, 'We're bound to fight.' When it is all said and done, all you gotta do is just touch your woman, and let me know that everything's gonna be okay. It's sexy, and it's intimate. But it is also innocent and pure. It's 'just let me know you love me.' Touch me, and let’s get back to where we've been and how we got together to start with. We can't let some little upset make us get bitter and calloused. Let our love build and grow. Just touch me, tell me that you're sorry, or let me say that I'm sorry. Whoever is sorry, let's just do it and touch again."
  • This was nominated for Best Female Country Vocal Performance at the 1973 Grammy Awards but lost to Donna Fargo's "The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA."
  • This is the title song from her ninth solo album. Her other album that year was My Favorite Songwriter, Porter Wagoner, a tribute to her duet partner who helped launch her career by enlisting her as a regular on his eponymous TV show.

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