Country Legends: Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton was born in Sevierville, Tennessee on January 19^th 1946, and with 25 number one singles and 41 top ten country albums to her name, she can rightly be called “The Queen of Country Music”.

In addition to her talents as a country singer she is also a very competent song writer, author, actress and philanthropist and if that were not enough, she can also play several musical instruments – although not at the same time. I just knew there had to be a flaw somewhere.

The fourth of twelve children born to Robert Lee Parton and Avie Lee Parton her family was, as she herself described them, ‘dirt poor’. This lack of money was inspirational in a number of her early songs, most notably “Coat of Many Colors” and “In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)”.

Dolly Parton always loved singing and by the age of nine she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. By the time she was thirteen she was recording on a small Louisiana label called Goldband Records, and even appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee!

It was at the Opry she first met Johnny Cash who encouraged her to go where her heart took her, and ‘not to care what others thought’. The day after she graduated from high school in 1964, Dolly moved to Nashville taking many traditional elements of folklore and popular music from East Tennessee with her.

On her first day in Nashville Dolly visited the ‘Wishy-Washy Laundromat’ where she met her future husband Carl Dean. His first words to her were: "Y'all gonna get sunburnt out there, little lady." They were married two years later and have been together ever since.

Following some minor success’s in song writing and harmony singing Dolly released her first country single, "Dumb Blonde" (one of the few songs during this era that she recorded but did not write), reaching number twenty-four on the country-music charts in 1967, followed the same year with "Something Fishy," which went to number seventeen. The two songs anchored her first full-length album, ‘Hello, I'm Dolly’.

In 1967, country entertainer Porter Wagoner invited Dolly Parton to join his organization, offering her a regular spot on his weekly syndicated television program ‘The Porter Wagoner Show’, as well as in his road show.

Wagoner also convinced RCA Victor to sign Dolly Parton for their label. RCA decided to protect their investment by releasing her first single as a duet with Wagoner. That song, a cover of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind," released in late 1967, reached the country top ten in January 1968, launching a six-year streak of virtually uninterrupted top ten singles for the pair.

In February 1971, Dolly released her first number-one single, "Joshua", and for the next two years she had a number of solo hits – including her signature song "Coat of Many Colors".

In 1974, she wrote perhaps her most famous song, "I Will Always Love You," written about her professional break from Wagoner, and it went straight to number one on the country music charts. Since its release the song has been covered by a number of top singers such as Whitney Houston, LeeAnn Rimes and the opera singer Katherine Jenkins.

From 1974 to 1980, she consistently charted in the country Top 10, with no fewer than eight singles reaching number one. Dolly had her own syndicated-television variety show, Dolly! (1976–1977), and during this period a number of singers, including Rose Maddox, Kitty Wells, Olivia Newton-John, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt, covered her songs. Praise indeed.

In 1994 Dolly collaborated in the album “Honky Tonk Angels” with both Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. It was certified as a Gold Album by the Recording Industry Association of America and helped revive both Wynette's and Lynn's careers.

Dolly Parton was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1969, and in 1986 into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1999 she received country music's highest honour - an induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In total so far she has received eight Grammy Awards and a total of 45 Grammy Award nominations.

Dolly, when asked about her looks repeatedly jokes about her physical image and surgeries by saying, "If I see something sagging, bagging, and dragging, I’m going to nip it, suck it and tuck it. Why should I look like an old barn yard dog if I don't have to?" and "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap."

To get your own slice of Dolly Parton music just go to the search box on the right and type her name in. If you don’t fancy that why not go to my website at www.countrysongscountrysingers.com and look there instead.