1986 Soft Rock Hit Ranked Among 'Best Dramatic Duets of All Time' Was Originally Written for a Country Superstar

Considering she’s one of the most iconic singers of all time, in any genre, it’s safe to say Dolly Parton could turn just about any song into a hit. That doesn’t mean every tune is right for her, though. When another legendary singer, Peter Gabriel, approached the country superstar about singing a song he’d written called “Don’t Give Up,” she turned him down…but Parton’s rejection might have been a blessing in disguise, at least for Kate Bush.

While “Don’t Give Up” appears as a duet between Bush and Gabriel on his fifth solo studio album, So (1986), it didn’t begin that way (and wouldn’t have ended up that way, either, if Parton had accepted).

“It started off as a solo song,” Gabriel explained in a 1989 interview with Tony Bacon. “I just thought the story would work better with a man–woman relationship. It’s really nice when Kate comes in, and she’s there.”

Gabriel went on to say that he was lyrically inspired by the photos of Dorothea Lange.

“She had these classic pictures from the dust bowl Depression in America, and there was one called In This Proud Land, although I haven’t been able to find it since,” he recalled. “I used that for the first line in the song. I’d also seen a TV program about the effect of unemployment on family life, so that played into my own problems at that time. I think a combination of that and domestic difficulties.”

Ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the “Best Dramatic Duets of All Time,” “Don’t Give Up” is just as emotionally powerful as its inspiration.

After joking that it sounded like “music for jumping off bridges,” Gabriel pointed out that “Don’t Give Up” is “very positive actually. A lot of people like that song, a lot of people say to me that it came at a very good time in their life.”

“It’s fantastic that, a great feeling,” he added. “This person, let’s say, ‘a well-known American comedian,’ was very depressed. I was a great admirer of his, and he said, ‘This song saved my life.’ Totally unexpected.”

‘Don’t Give Up’ was played at Matthew Perry’s funeral

While it’s not clear which “American comedian” Gabriel was referring to in 1989, one comedic actor who was open about his love for “Don’t Give Up” was late Friends star Matthew Perry. As Perry explained in an interview with Tom Power, it’s the song he imagined as the soundtrack to his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.

‘It’s just beautiful,” he said. “I don’t know if you’ve heard it as this was a long time ago but it’s beautiful and it’s saying don’t give up. I mean come, how am I not gonna like that?”

‘The music video of that was just them hugging each other and the camera just went around until the song was over,” Perry continued, adding that he’d been signing copies of his book with “Don’t give up.”

As Metro reported, “Don’t Give Up” was played at the end of Perry’s funeral in a fitting (and heartbreaking) tribute.

Related: 1981 No. 1 Hit Ranked ‘Biggest Duet of All Time’ Became a Beloved Classic