- Taylor Swift's recent re-recording and re-release of her 2012 album "Red" under her own label is the story of a widely celebrated and popular female music artist reclaiming, not just ownership and control over her music, but of her life and career.

Other contemporary female artists like Britney Spears, Kesha and The Chicks, to name a few, have faced similar struggles over financial and creative independence over the last few years.

But the story of female music artists fighting for power over their own careers and lives - most often against men exploiting their talent and fame for financial gain - is not new.

It has been a constantly recurring theme throughout the history of popular music.

I want to show you the story of another young woman who in the mid-1970s, much like Taylor Swift and others today, fought to reclaim her life and career from a man who wielded financial and creative control.

Her name?

Dolly Parton.

(upbeat music) Dolly Parton first rose to fame in the late 1960s on the syndicated television show of country music singer Porter Wagoner, who also served as her de facto manager and owned a significant portion of her early recordings.

After eight years behind Wagoner, with her own career taking off, Dolly's attempt to break free from Wagoner's shadow turned bitter, but led to one of her most successful songs.

- [Narrator] In the early 1970s, Parton had five number-one country solo hits, all of them self-written; Wagoner had none.

Insiders could see tensions building.

- [Ralph Emery] Dolly got smart.

I guess she came smart.

I think Dolly learned that she was not going to go any further with her career as long as she was in Porter's shadow.

- [Dolly Parton] Well, I think Porter had a real hard time after other people started recording my songs and I was writing, and I was getting to be pretty popular and it was his show.

I wasn't trying to hog it, but I just kind of carved out a little, you know, place for myself.

But it was a love-hate relationship.

We fought like cats and dogs.

We were just both very passionate people.

There was no way that I wasn't going to do what I was going to do, and no way I was going to not do what he thought I was going to do.

- [Narrator] "Porter dreamed of me staying with his show forever," Parton said, "and I dreamed of having my own show."

I wrote more and more songs and dreamed bigger and bigger dreams.

- [Dolly Parton] When I was trying to leave the show I had told Porter I'd stay five years.

It had been five, then it was six, then it was seven.

He was just having a real hard time 'cause it was going to mess up his show.

We were very bound and tied together in so many emotional ways and he just would not hear it.

And so he was going to sue me; he was going to do this; he was going to do that.

And so I went home.

I thought, "He's not going to listen to me."

'Cause I've said it over and over.

And so I thought, "Do what you do best.

Just write a song."

So I wrote the song, took it back in the next day.

And I said, "Porter, sit down.

I've got something I have to sing to you".

So I sang it and he was sitting at his desk and he was crying.

He said, "That's the best thing you ever wrote."

"Okay, you can go.

But only if I can produce that record."

And he did.

And the rest is history.

- [Narrator] Released a few months after she left, it would go on to become Dolly Parton's best-selling song.

- If I should stay, I would only be in your way.

- Porter Wagoner did end up suing Dolly for $3 million, as well as a sizable portion of royalties from her past and future records.

Dolly settled - paying him 1 million, an amount that despite her success, she couldn't afford, and had to pay in installments over several years.

Years later, Dolly and Wagoner would forgive one another and become close again; they even came together to record a reunion album in 1980, but Dolly had learned her lesson with Wagoner, and remained insistent on self-ownership of her music throughout her career, despite tempting offers from powerful men.

Most famously, Elvis Presley was set to record his own version of "I Will Always Love You."

But while in the studio, Colonel Parker, Elvis's manager, pulled Dolly aside and insisted that he and Elvis be given partial ownership of the song before Elvis recorded it.

Dolly refused and the session was canceled.

Decades later, when Whitney Houston re-recorded the song and made it the best-selling single by a female artist of all time, Dolly retained her songwriter's rights, saying that she had made enough money from the release of Whitney's version to buy Graceland.

For decades, women in the music industry have been forced to fight for control of their music and lives, often not so successfully.

This story is not new.

This is just Taylor's version.