"Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You" is a country song written by singer-songwriter
Pebe Sebert
Rosemary Patricia "Pebe" Sebert ( ; born March 17, 1956) is an American singer and songwriter from Brentwood, Tennessee, and the mother of pop singer Kesha. Sebert has co-written number-one hits for Dolly Parton, Pitbull (rapper), Pitbull, and K ...
and
Hugh Moffatt. It was a number 14 U.S. country hit for
Joe Sun in 1978, and a number 86 hit for
Brian Collins the same year. It was later covered by
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...
, who took it to the top of the U.S. country singles charts in August 1980.
Parton included her version on her 1980 ''
Dolly, Dolly, Dolly'' album, and it was released as the album's second single after the success of "
Starting Over Again". In 2013, Sebert's daughter,
Kesha
Kesha Rose Sebert (born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. Her first major success came in 2009 when she was featured on rapper Flo Rida's number-one single, "Right Round".
Kesha's music and ima ...
, released an acoustic cover of the song as part of her
extended play
An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
''
Deconstructed
Deconstruction is a philosophical theory.
Deconstruction or Deconstructed may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''Deconstructed'' (Bush album), a 1997 compilation album
* ''Deconstructed'' (EP), an EP by Kesha
* ''Deconstructed'' (Steve Swallow a ...
''. A new version featuring Parton is a track on Kesha's 2017 album ''
Rainbow
A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...
''.
Content
In the song, the narrator tells their lover not to feel threatened by past affairs for these "old flames" are in the past and disappear from memory because of the current love.
Chart performance
Joe Sun
Brian Collins
Dolly Parton
References
External links
Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You lyrics at Dolly Parton On-Line
{{Authority control
1978 singles
1980 singles
Brian Collins (1970s singer) songs
Dolly Parton songs
Joe Sun songs
RCA Records singles
Songs written by Hugh Moffatt
Songs written by Pebe Sebert
1978 songs
Song recordings produced by Gary Klein (producer)
Kesha songs