Light of a Clear Blue Morning

"Light of a Clear Blue Morning" was a Dolly Parton song that first appeared on her 1977 New Harvest - First Gathering album, and provided a top twenty country music hit for her as a single. As Parton has told a number of interviewers over the years, the song came out of the pain from her break with longtime singing partner Porter Wagoner. (Parton left Wagoner's band in 1974, in an effort to aim her career in a more mainstream pop direction; Wagoner responded by taking legal action, and the next couple of years were reportedly painful for both performers.) According to the unauthorized 1978 biography, Dolly, by Alanna Nash, "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" was written as Parton felt the figurative clouds lifting, as the fruits of her sacrifices of the previous few years were becoming apparent.

Released as a single from New Harvest - First Gathering in February 1977, the song just missed the top ten on the U.S. country charts, peaking at #11.

Parton would rerecord the song to include in her 1992 film Straight Talk; for this recording, she changed the lyrics of verse two. A third recording of it appeared on an album of spirituals Parton released in 2004 entitled For God and Country.