One of my favorite parts of writing ONCE MORE FROM THE TOP was going back through decades of country and pop music and imagining my protagonist Dylan Read in the context of music history and in conversation with the greats. While you can listen to the official ONCE MORE FROM THE TOP playlist on Spotify, here are five songs that were left on the cutting room floor:
- Here You Come Again – Dolly Parton
I listened to loads of Dolly as I was writing OMFTT; the podcast “Dolly Parton’s America” was a key research text for me. “Here You Come Again” is, ironically, one of Dolly’s very few hits that she herself did not write—and yet it’s important in the canon because it’s her first true crossover single. The saying goes that country girls can’t go pop, but before Dylan does it in OMFTT, there was Taylor, and before Taylor there was Shania, and before Shania there was Dolly.
- Dear Miss Loretta – Carly Pearce feat. Patty Loveless
Dylan is drawn to country music because it has a language and a set of conventions that—as a chronic Good Girl and rule-follower—she can learn and feel safe inside. She makes herself a student of the genre—just like I did to write the novel! Country is full of tropes, from the torch song to the other woman track (e.g. “Jolene”), and one of the ones I love most is the name drop: Where an artist builds an entire song around a songwriter who came before them. In this one, Carly Pearce traces her musical roots and her experiences as a woman back to Loretta Lynn, asking her for advice: “Dear Miss Loretta / We both grew up too fast / And I wish you could tell me / How you made it last.”
- It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels – Kitty Wells
Dylan performs this Kitty Wells song in OMFTT; she talks about learning that women country artists had to hide their feminism in plain sight (or sound), wrapping it in a tinkling production or a honeyed delivery. Like Loretta Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind),” “Honky Tonk Angels” dares to hold a man accountable for his behavior—a radical concept in 1952, especially in Nashville.
- Sweet Honey Buckin’ – Beyoncé feat. Shaboozey
For someone who’s been eagerly awaiting the Beyoncé country record since 2016’s “Daddy Lessons,” it’s hardly an overstatement to say that Cowboy Carter was one of the most anticipated musical events of my lifetime. ONCE MORE FROM THE TOP was long off to print by the time the record dropped, but if it had been out, Cowboy Carter would have been an essential text: Beyoncé looks to both the past and future, placing her artistry in the context of American music on the whole; Shaboozey, featured here, would go on to have one of the songs of the summer (“A Bar Song”) in 2024, proving Beyoncé’s prescience (or power of anointing). Country’s cool again, indeed.
- One Step Up – Bruce Springsteen
Fun fact: ONCE MORE FROM THE TOP initially had so many Springsteen references that I forced myself to do a find + replace editorial pass swapping out the Boss for other artists. Dylan is very much concerned with her legacy, and how her age and gender have prevented the world from recognizing her as an artist on par with Springsteen—a generation-defining, genre-traversing American icon. This country-tinged track off 1987’s solo record (unofficially, Bruce’s Divorce Album), in which the narrator unpacks the push-pull of a relationship that’s falling apart, is alternately hopeful and heartbreaking, a drinking song that replaces self-pity with self-awareness—a very similar journey to the one Dylan finds herself on in OMFTT.
A propulsive, layered novel about the meteoric rise of a legendary pop star and the secret she’s kept hidden for fifteen years, for fans of Megan Abbott and Daisy Jones & the Six.
Everyone in America knows Dylan Read, or at least has heard her music. Since releasing her debut album her senior year of high school, Dylan’s spent fifteen years growing up in the public eye. She’s not only perfected her skills when it comes to lyrics and melody; she’s also learned how to craft a public narrative that satisfies her fans, her label, and the media. In the circles of fame and celebrity in which she now travels, the careful maintenance of Dylan Read pop star is often more important than the songs themselves.
And so lots of people think they understand everything about Dylan Read. But what no one knows is the part of her origin story she has successfully kept hidden: her childhood best friend Kelsey vanished the year before Dylan became famous. Now, as Dylan’s at the height of her career, Kelsey’s body is found at the bottom of their hometown lake—forcing Dylan to reckon with their shared past, her friend’s influence on her music, and whether there’s more to their story than meets the eye.
Immersive, page-turning, and psychologically astute, Once More from the Top is a riveting and keenly observant novel about friendship, ambition, and the cost of fame.
Women's Fiction Friendship | Mystery [Mariner Books, On Sale: September 10, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063315099 / eISBN: 9780063315112]
EMILY LAYDEN is a graduate of Stanford University, and has taught at several girls' schools nationwide. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Marie Claire, The Billfold, and Runner's World.
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