The chorus of Sabrina Carpenter‘s smash “Please Please Please” includes one extremely bad word — but in the version Sabrina recorded as a duet with Dolly Parton for her Short n’ Sweet deluxe edition, the word is gone. And Dolly confirms that’s because she told Sabrina she doesn’t do profanity.
In an interview with Knox News, Dolly says of working with Sabrina, “I told her, I said, ‘Now, I don’t cuss. I don’t make fun of Jesus. I don’t talk bad about God, and I don’t say dirty words, on camera, but [I’m] known to if I get mad enough.’”
Accordingly, the bad word, which in the radio version was changed to “little sucker,” has now been replaced with “like the others.”
Dolly’s duet with Sabrina is just one of several high-profile duets the country legend has recorded over the past few years. In 2023 she recorded an album called Rockstar that featured everyone from Paul McCartney and Elton John to Miley Cyrus and Pink. In 2024 she appeared on Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning album Cowboy Carter.
“I think that’s been the greatest joy, is just thinking, ‘Yay, Beyoncé wants to sing with me! She wants to sing my song!’ Yeah, absolutely. Which train do I get on that’s going to get me there the quickest?” she said of her many collaborations.
“I’m just having fun with all of it,” she told Knox News. Asked who’ll she sing with next, she says, “Whoever calls me that I like. [And] I’ll say, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that!’”
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