How Dolly Parton Inspired Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Please Please Please’

Sometimes musical inspiration comes from the most unlikely places. For example, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” is a glorious nugget of modern pop, but it was inspired by Dolly Parton and a 1970s movie star. Carpenter rejected the idea that she worked with the wrong producer for the track.

Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” was inspired by two 1970s country stars.

Carpenter’s next album, Short n’ Sweet, was produced by Jack Antonoff, one of the most important producers of the current century. He got his start in the successful indie rock band Fun. Since then, he has worked on critically acclaimed albums by Taylor Swift, Lorde and Lana Del Rey.

In a 2024 interview with Rolling Stone, Antonoff compared “Please Please Please” to the music of two successful singers who peaked in the 1970s and 1980s. “There’s like a feeling of Olivia Newton ( John), there is a feeling of Dolly,…