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Dolly Parton | |
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 Parton in 1977 | |
| Born | Dolly Rebecca Parton January 19, 1946 |
| Died | August 25, 2026 (aged 80) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1956–2026 |
| Spouse | Carl Dean (m. 1966; died 2025) |
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| Awards | Full list |
| Musical career | |
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| Website | dollyparton |
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Dolly Parton (born January 19, 1946, Locust Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.—died August 25, 2026, Nashville) was an American country music singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress who pioneered the interface between country and pop music styles and became one of the most iconic entertainment figures of the late 20th century. Equal parts sensitive songwriter and savvy businesswoman, Parton crafted timeless tunes such as the touching and autobiographical “Coat of Many Colors” (1971) and the crossover hit “9 to 5” (1980), a critique of workplace inequality set to a spirited melody. She went on to build a successful theme park called Dollywood and develop a wide range of philanthropic projects. Fans and critics alike considered her a national treasure. She died on August 25, 2026.
Appalachian upbringing
Parton was born in Appalachia, in the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, into a poor farming family. She was the fourth of 12 children born to Robert Lee Parton, a sharecropper and construction worker, and Avie Lee Parton, a homemaker. She displayed an aptitude and passion for music at an early age, having learned church songs and traditional folk ballads from her mother. Parton told People magazine in 2020, “All my mother’s people were very musical, so I was always around people playing instruments and singing, and my mom singing the old songs.” As a child Parton was a featured singer and guitarist on local radio and television shows in Knoxville. In 1964, immediately following her high-school graduation, she set out for Nashville to pursue a career in music.
“I never really found my place ’til I moved to Nashville and got in the music business. That was my real place, so I fit in. I was born restless, I really was.”—Dolly Parton to Rolling Stone, 1977
Beginnings in Nashville
In Nashville Parton became the protégée of country music singer and Grand Ole Opry star Porter Wagoner. Through repeated appearances on Wagoner’s syndicated television show, Parton gained coast-to-coast recognition. She soon attracted the attention of the music industry moguls at RCA Records and subsequently recorded more than a dozen hit songs—together with Wagoner—on the RCA label. Owing much to her association with Wagoner, Parton rapidly emerged as one of country music’s most popular singers.
During this time she also released solo albums and several singles that proved her undeniable songwriting talent. Many of Parton’s early songs tell poignant stories that present love and life from a woman’s perspective, such as “Just Because I’m a Woman” (1968). In 1970 she scored her first number-one hit on the Billboard country chart with the bouncy “Joshua.” The next year saw the release of “Coat of Many Colors,” featuring intimate lyrics that blend the biblical story of the many-colored coat given to Joseph with Parton’s recollections of childhood poverty and her mother’s love. In 1973 she had another country chart-topper with “Jolene,” in which Parton pleads with the titular heartbreaker, “I’m begging of you please don’t take my man.”
Parton began to cultivate a “blonde bombshell” image early in her career, and she soon became famous for her towering bouffant hairstyle, buxom physique, and glitzy dresses. She often played up the camp appeal of her image, commenting, “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap!” Another of her famous witticisms dismantles a stereotype concerning blonde women and her public persona (one that Parton first addressed in her 1966 hit “Dumb Blonde”): “I’m not offended by dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb. I also know I’m not blonde.” At the same time, Parton wrote and recorded songs that expressed pride in her Appalachian roots, such as the heartfelt “My Tennessee Mountain Home” (1972).
Solo career and pop crossover
Parton had intended to stay with Wagoner’s show only five years, but she had difficulty convincing him to let her go out on her own, even after another two years with the program. In 1974 Parton parted ways with Wagoner; she captured the poignancy of their split in her song “I Will Always Love You.” Many years later Parton told The Tennessean:
I said, “Porter, sit down. I’ve written something I think you need to hear.” I started singing “I Will Always Love You,” and he started crying. When I finished, he said, “Well, hell! If you feel that strong about it, just go on—providing I get to produce that record because that’s the best song you ever wrote.”
“I Will Always Love You” went to number one on the country chart that year. It would become one of Parton’s most popular and enduring songs.
Fully solo, she enjoyed immediate success. In both 1975 and ’76 she was chosen female singer of the year by the Country Music Association (CMA) on the strength of such songs as “Jolene” and “Love Is Like a Butterfly” (1974). About the same time, Parton began to cross over to the pop music market, without losing her country music credibility. In 1978 she won a Grammy Award for her song “Here You Come Again” and was named entertainer of the year by the CMA.
As her career developed, Parton received more Grammys, both for her songs—including “9 to 5” (1980), her first song to top the Billboard pop chart, and “Shine” (2001)—and for her albums, including Trio (1987; with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris) and The Grass Is Blue (1999). Parton’s crossover success was solidified in 1983 when she topped both the pop and country charts again with “Islands in the Stream,” a duet with fellow country legend Kenny Rogers. She garnered two Academy Award nominations for best original song, for “9 to 5” in 1981 (from the movie of the same name) and “Travelin’ Thru” in 2006 (from Transamerica).
Later music career and honors
Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001. She received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2011. That same year the U.S. Library of Congress added her song “Coat of Many Colors” to the National Recording Registry, a list of audio recordings deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Parton continued to release hit albums, including Blue Smoke (2014) and Pure & Simple (2016). She also recorded an album for children, I Believe in You (2017), and several gospel and Christmas albums. In 2022 Parton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Although she had earlier asked to be removed from consideration—she did not believe she had “earned the right,” because she was not a rock performer—she accepted the honor.
Acting and producing career
In the 1980s Parton appeared in several successful films, notably the comedy Nine to Five (1980; also called 9 to 5), in which she starred with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as three women who plot revenge on their male chauvinist boss (played by Dabney Coleman). For her role in the Burt Reynoldsvehicle The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), she revived her 1974 hit “I Will Always Love You.” (In 1992 Whitney Houston recorded the song for the film The Bodyguard, and it went on to sell millions of copies.)
In 1989 Parton played a principal role in the comedy-drama Steel Magnolias, a weeper about a close-knit group of Southern women who rally around a friend (Sally Field) whose daughter (Julia Roberts) dies after complications from diabetes. Parton had a short-lived television variety show called Dolly from 1976–77 and again in 1987–88, and in the 1990s and 2000s she guest-starred in many TV series and appeared in several feature films and TV movies.
Dolly Parton was an uncredited executive producer of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In 2009 Parton wrote the music and lyrics for a Broadway musical adaptation of 9 to 5; the score was nominated for a Tony Award. Three years later she starred with Queen Latifah in the film Joyful Noise. She served as producer on many TV projects, including a TV movie about her early life, Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors (2015), followed the next year by a Christmas-themed sequel, in which Parton appeared. In addition, she provided the music and was the guiding spirit behind the movie Dumplin’ (2018). Her music also inspired Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, an anthology series that debuted on Netflix in 2019; Parton was featured in the program and served as executive producer. She later produced and portrayed an angel in Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (2020), which won an Emmy Award for outstanding television movie.
Later music career and honors
Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001. She received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2011. That same year the U.S. Library of Congress added her song “Coat of Many Colors” to the National Recording Registry, a list of audio recordings deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Parton continued to release hit albums, including Blue Smoke (2014) and Pure & Simple (2016). She also recorded an album for children, I Believe in You (2017), and several gospel and Christmas albums. In 2022 Parton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Although she had earlier asked to be removed from consideration—she did not believe she had “earned the right,” because she was not a rock performer—she accepted the honor.
Acting and producing career
In the 1980s Parton appeared in several successful films, notably the comedy Nine to Five (1980; also called 9 to 5), in which she starred with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as three women who plot revenge on their male chauvinist boss (played by Dabney Coleman). For her role in the Burt Reynoldsvehicle The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), she revived her 1974 hit “I Will Always Love You.” (In 1992 Whitney Houston recorded the song for the film The Bodyguard, and it went on to sell millions of copies.)
In 1989 Parton played a principal role in the comedy-drama Steel Magnolias, a weeper about a close-knit group of Southern women who rally around a friend (Sally Field) whose daughter (Julia Roberts) dies after complications from diabetes. Parton had a short-lived television variety show called Dolly from 1976–77 and again in 1987–88, and in the 1990s and 2000s she guest-starred in many TV series and appeared in several feature films and TV movies.
Dolly Parton was an uncredited executive producer of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In 2009 Parton wrote the music and lyrics for a Broadway musical adaptation of 9 to 5; the score was nominated for a Tony Award. Three years later she starred with Queen Latifah in the film Joyful Noise. She served as producer on many TV projects, including a TV movie about her early life, Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors (2015), followed the next year by a Christmas-themed sequel, in which Parton appeared. In addition, she provided the music and was the guiding spirit behind the movie Dumplin’ (2018). Her music also inspired Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, an anthology series that debuted on Netflix in 2019; Parton was featured in the program and served as executive producer. She later produced and portrayed an angel in Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (2020), which won an Emmy Award for outstanding television movie.
A Broadway musical based on Parton’s life is scheduled to premiere in 2027.
Dollywood, the Imagination Library, and other projects
Aside from her stage and screen activities, Parton was involved in a broad array of entrepreneurial and charity projects. In 1986 she opened Dollywood—a theme park centered on Appalachian traditions—in the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee. Two years later she created the Dollywood Foundation with the aim of providing inspiration and educational resources to children. The foundation’s Imagination Library, a children’s literacy project created in 1995, was inspired by her father’s inability to read and write. By the 21st century the Imagination Library had expanded from Parton’s home county in Tennessee to communities throughout the United States and around the world and had donated hundreds of millions of children’s books.
Parton’s other philanthropic efforts include helping to fund the development of the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 in 2020. That year she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, explaining to fans that she was a friend of Naji Abumrad, a doctor and researcher at the university. After Moderna’s vaccine was approved, Abumrad told The Washington Post, “Without a doubt in my mind, [Parton’s] funding made the research toward the vaccine go 10 times faster than it would be without it.” Receiving her vaccine shot the following year, Parton encouraged others to get inoculated and shared a video on social media of her singing “Jolene” with the title lyrics changed to “Vaccine.”
In 1994 Parton published the autobiography Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, which was a best-seller in the United States. The memoir Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics (written with Robert K. Oermann) was published in 2020. With best-selling author James Patterson, Parton wrote and published Run, Rose, Run (2022), a thriller about a young country music singer with a mysterious past that was released with a companion album.
Honors: A true icon
Parton’s contributions to the arts and culture of the United States earned her numerous awards from organizations beyond the music and film industries. In 2004 she was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress for her enrichment of the American cultural heritage. The following year she received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2006 she was recognized at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., for her lifetime artistic achievement.
Parton’s music and philanthropic efforts drew fans and admirers of all political persuasions, but she rarely made her own views public. She declined the Presidential Medal of Freedom three times—twice from Donald Trump during his first administration (2017–21) and once from Joe Biden (2021–25). She explained to The Today Show,
I couldn’t accept it [from the Trump administration] because my husband was ill, and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn’t travel because of the COVID. So, now I feel like if I take it [from the Biden administration], I’ll be doing politics, so I’m not sure. I don’t work for those awards.
Personal life
In 1964 Parton met Carl Dean outside a laundromat in Nashville. He owned an asphalt-paving business. The couple married two years later. Although he maintained a low profile, Dean was influential in Parton’s career, and he inspired the song “Jolene.” Parton once said, “God has been good to me. He gave me Carl Dean. And that was the perfect man that I needed.” Parton and Dean were together until his death in 2025, when he was 82.
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Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean (née Parton; January 19, 1946 – August 25, 2026) was an American musician, songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman. Dubbed the "Queen of Country", she was one of the most honored country performers in history. Parton received various accolades, including eleven Grammy Awards, three Emmy Awards and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, along with nominations for two Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award.
Parton wrote her first song at the age of six, began performing regularly on television at the age of ten, and made her first recording at the age of 11. She became a professional songwriter at the age of 16 and, after writing hits for other artists, her debut album, Hello, I'm Dolly, was released in 1967, beginning a career spanning nearly 60 years and 49 studio albums.
Parton composed more than 3,000 songs, including "I Will Always Love You" (a two-time U.S. country chart-topper and an international hit for Whitney Houston that sold 40 million copies worldwide), "Jolene", "Coat of Many Colors" and "9 to 5". As an actress, she starred in 9 to 5 (1980) and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), earning Golden Globe nominations for both, as well as Rhinestone (1984), Steel Magnolias (1989), Straight Talk (1992), and Joyful Noise (2012).
With estimated sales exceeding 100 million records, Parton is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Her music includes Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)-certified gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards. Twenty-five of her singles reached number one on the Billboard country music charts, tied with Reba McEntire for the most by a female artist. She had 44 career top-10 country albums, a record for any artist, and 110 career-charted singles over 40 years. Her 49th and final solo studio album, Rockstar (2023), became her highest-charting Billboard 200 album, peaking at number three.
Early life
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin[2] on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Center, Tennessee.[3][4] She was the fourth of 12 children born to Avie Lee Caroline (née Owens; 1923–2003) and Robert Lee Parton Sr. (1921–2000).[5] Her siblings are: Willadeene (born 1940), David Wilburn (1942–2024),[6] Coy Denver (1943–2026),[7] Robert Lee "Bobby" (born 1948), Stella Mae (born 1949), Cassie Nan (born 1951), Randle Huston "Randy" (1953–2021),[8] Larry Gerald (1955–1955),[9] twins Frieda Estelle (born 1957) and Floyd Estel (1957–2018),[10] and Rachel Ann (born 1959).[11][12] Parton's middle name came from her maternal great-great-grandmother Rebecca (née Dunn) Whitted.[13]
Parton's father, known as "Lee", worked in the mountains of East Tennessee, first as a sharecropper and later tending his own small tobacco farm and acreage. He also worked construction jobs to supplement the farm's small income. Despite her father's illiteracy, Parton often said he was one of the smartest people she had ever known with regard to business and making a profit.[2][14][15] Parton's mother cared for their large family. Her 11 pregnancies (the tenth being twins) in 20 years made her a mother of 12 by age 35. Parton credited her musical abilities to her mother's influence; often in poor health, she still managed to keep house and entertain her children with Great Smoky Mountain folklore and old ballads. With Welsh ancestry, Avie Lee knew many songs that immigrants from Europe brought to southern Appalachia.[16][17][18] Avie Lee's father, Jake Owens, was a Pentecostal preacher, and Parton and her siblings attended church regularly.[19]
Parton long credited her father for her business sense and her mother's family for her musical abilities. When she was a young girl, her family moved from the Pittman Center, Tennessee area to a two‑room cabin and farm on nearby Locust Ridge. Most of her cherished childhood memories happened there. A replica of the Locust Ridge cabin is displayed at her namesake theme park Dollywood.[20] The farm acreage and surrounding woodland inspired her to write the song "My Tennessee Mountain Home" in the 1970s. Years after the farm was sold, Parton bought it back in the late 1980s. Her brother Bobby helped with building restoration and new construction.[2] Parton said her family was "dirt poor".[21] Her father paid missionary Dr. Robert F. Thomas with a sack of cornmeal for delivering her.[22] Later in life, Parton wrote a song about Dr. Thomas.[23] She also outlined her family's poverty in her early songs "Coat of Many Colors" and "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)".[24]
The Partons' small subsistence farm on Locust Ridge was in a predominantly Pentecostal area located north of the Greenbrier Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains.[25] Music played an important role in Parton's early life and she was brought up in the Church of God,[26] in a congregation pastored by her grandfather, Jake Robert Owens. Her earliest public performances were in the church, beginning at age six. At seven, she started playing a homemade guitar. When she was eight, her uncle bought her first real guitar.[27][28] The Parton family was well-fed despite their poverty, and her 2024 cookbook, Good Lookin' Cookin' (co-written with her sister Rachel), recalls numerous family meals.[29] After graduating from Sevier County High School in Sevierville, Tennessee, in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville, Tennessee, the next day.[2][30]
Music career
1956–1966: Early work and songwriting
Parton began performing as a child,[31] singing on local radio and television programs in the East Tennessee area.[32] By age 10, she appeared on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. At 13, she recorded the single "Puppy Love" for the Louisiana label Goldband Records[30] and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, where she first met Johnny Cash. He introduced her as "a little girl here from up in East Tennessee" and encouraged her to follow her own instincts regarding her career.[33][34]
Parton's initial success came as a songwriter. She signed with Combine Publishing shortly after her arrival in Nashville.[35] Working with her frequent songwriting partner, her uncle Bill Owens, she wrote several charting singles, including two Top-10 hits for Bill Phillips: "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" and "The Company You Keep" (1966). She also wrote Skeeter Davis's number 11 hit "Fuel to the Flame" (1967).[36] Her songs were recorded by many other artists during this period, including Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr.[37]
At 19, she signed with Monument Records in 1965, where she was initially pitched as a bubblegum pop singer. She released several singles, but only "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby" charted, and it did not reach the Billboard Hot 100. Although she wanted to record country material, Monument resisted, thinking her unusually high soprano voice was not suited to the genre.[38]
After Bill Phillips' recording of her composition "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" reached number six on the country chart in 1966, the label relented and allowed her to record country. Her first country single, "Dumb Blonde," written by Curly Putman, reached number 24 on the country chart in 1967. It was followed by "Something Fishy", which reached number 17. Both appeared on her first full-length album, Hello, I'm Dolly.[39]
1967–1975: Country music success
In 1967, musician and country music entertainer Porter Wagoner invited Parton to join The Porter Wagoner Show, offering her a regular spot on his weekly syndicated television program and in his road show. As documented in her 1994 autobiography,[40] much of Wagoner's audience was initially unhappy that Parton had replaced previous performer Norma Jean, who had left the show, sometimes chanting loudly for Norma Jean from the audience.[41] With Wagoner's assistance, Parton was eventually accepted. Wagoner convinced his label, RCA Victor, to sign her. RCA decided to protect its investment by releasing her first single as a duet with Wagoner. That song, a remake of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind", released in late 1967, reached the country Top-10 in January 1968, launching a six-year streak of virtually uninterrupted Top-10 singles for the pair.[42]
Parton's first solo single for RCA Victor, "Just Because I'm a Woman", was released in the summer of 1968 and reached number 17.[43] For the next two years, none of her solo efforts – , even "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)", which later became a standard – were as successful as her duets with Wagoner. The duo was named Vocal Group of the Year in 1968 by the Country Music Association,[44] but Parton's solo records were continually ignored. Wagoner had a significant financial stake in her future; as of 1969, he was her co-producer and owned nearly half of Owe-Par, the publishing company Parton had founded with Bill Owens.[45]
By 1970, both Parton and Wagoner had grown frustrated by her lack of solo chart success. Wagoner persuaded Parton to record Jimmie Rodgers' "Mule Skinner Blues", a gimmick that worked. The record reached number three,[46] followed by her first number-one single, "Joshua" in February 1971.[47] For the next two years, she had numerous solo hits in addition to her duets, including her signature song, "Coat of Many Colors" (number four, 1971). Further Top-20 singles included "The Right Combination" and "Burning the Midnight Oil" (both duets with Wagoner, 1971); "Lost Forever in Your Kiss" (with Wagoner), "Touch Your Woman" (1972); "My Tennessee Mountain Home" and "Travelin' Man" (1973).[48]
Although her solo singles and the Wagoner duets were successful, her biggest hit of this period was "Jolene". Released in late 1973, the song topped the country chart in February 1974 and reached the lower regions of the Hot 100.[49] It also eventually charted in the UK, reaching number seven in 1976, representing Parton's first UK success. Parton, who had always envisioned a solo career, decided to leave Wagoner's show and stopped appearing in mid-1974. The pair performed their last duet concert in April 1974, although they remained affiliated, with Wagoner helping to produce her records through 1975.[40] Their final release as a duo was 1975's Say Forever You'll Be Mine.[48]
In 1974, Parton's song, "I Will Always Love You", written about her professional break from Wagoner, went to number one on the country chart. Around the same time, Elvis Presley indicated that he wanted to record the song. Parton was interested until Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her that it was standard procedure for the songwriter to sign over half of the publishing rights to any song recorded by Presley.[50] Parton refused. That decision was later credited with earning her many millions of dollars in royalties from the song.[51]
In 1974, Parton had three solo singles reach number one on the country chart, "Jolene", "I Will Always Love You" and "Love Is Like a Butterfly", and the duet with Wagoner, "Please Don't Stop Loving Me". She again topped the singles chart in 1975 with "The Bargain Store".[52]
1976–1986: A broader audience
Between 1974 and 1980, Parton had a series of country hits, with eight singles reaching number one. Her influence on pop culture was reflected in the many performers who covered her songs, including mainstream and crossover artists such as Olivia Newton-John, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt.[40]
Parton began a high-profile crossover campaign, aiming her music in a more mainstream direction and increasing her visibility outside country music. In 1976, she began working closely with Sandy Gallin, who became her personal manager for the next 25 years.[53] With her 1976 album All I Can Do, which she co-produced with Wagoner, Parton took a more active role in production and began specifically aiming her music toward a pop audience. Her first self-produced effort, New Harvest...First Gathering (1977), highlighted her pop sensibilities in both song choice and production; the album included covers of the pop and R&B classics "My Girl" and "Higher and Higher".[54] Though well received and topping the U.S. country albums chart, neither the album nor its single "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" made much impact on the pop charts.[55]
After New Harvest's unsuccessful crossover performance, Parton turned to pop producer Gary Klein for her next album. The result, 1977's Here You Come Again, became her first million-seller, topping the country album chart and reaching number 20 on the pop chart. The Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil-penned title track topped the country singles chart and became Parton's first Top-10 single on the pop chart (no. 3). A second single, the double A-sided "Two Doors Down"/"It's All Wrong, But It's All Right", topped the country chart and crossed into the pop Top-20. For the remainder of the 1970s and into the early 1980s, many of her singles climbed both charts simultaneously. Her albums during this period were developed specifically for pop-crossover success.[56]
In 1978, Parton won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for Here You Come Again album.[57] She continued to have hits with "Heartbreaker" (1978), "Baby I'm Burning" (1979), and "You're the Only One" (1979), all of which charted in the pop Top 40 and topped the country chart. "Sweet Summer Lovin'" (1979) became her first single in two years not to top the country chart, though it reached the Top-10. Her visibility increased with multiple television appearances. A highly publicized candid interview on a Barbara Walters Special in 1977, timed to coincide with Here You Come Again's release, was followed by appearances in 1978 on Cher's ABC television special and her own joint CBS special with Carol Burnett, Dolly & Carol in Nashville.[58]
Parton served as one of three co-hosts, along with Roy Clark and Glen Campbell, on the CBS special Fifty Years of Country Music.[59] In 1979, she hosted the NBC special The Seventies: An Explosion of Country Music at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., a performance attended by President Jimmy Carter.[60] Her commercial success grew in 1980, with three consecutive number-one country hits: "Starting Over Again", "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You", and "9 to 5", which topped both the country and pop charts in early 1981.[40] She had another Top-10 single that year with "Making Plans" from her 1980 album with Wagoner,[61] released as part of a lawsuit settlement between the pair.[62]
The theme song from the 1980 feature film 9 to 5 (1980), in which she starred with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, reached number one on country, pop, and adult-contemporary charts in February 1981, giving her a triple number-one hit.[63] Parton became one of the few female country singers to have a number-one single on the country and pop charts simultaneously. The song received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Her singles continued to appear consistently in the country Top-10.[40]
Between 1981 and 1985, she had twelve Top-10 hits, half of them reaching number one. She continued to make inroads on the pop charts. A re-recorded version of "I Will Always Love You", from the feature film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), reached the lower end of the Top-50 that year, and her duet with Kenny Rogers, "Islands in the Stream", written by the Bee Gees and produced by Barry Gibb, spent two weeks at number one in 1983.[40]
In the mid-1980s, her record sales were still relatively strong. "Save the Last Dance for Me", "Tennessee Homesick Blues", "God Won't Get You" (1984), "Real Love" (another duet with Kenny Rogers), "Don't Call It Love" (1985), and "Think About Love" (1986) all reached the country Top-10. "Tennessee Homesick Blues", "Think About Love", and "Real Love" reached number one and became modest crossover hits. Despite this success, RCA Records did not renew her contract after it expired in 1986, and she signed with Columbia Records in 1987.[40]
1987–2005: Country and bluegrass period
Along with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, Parton released Trio (1987) to critical acclaim. The album revitalized Parton's music career, spending five weeks at number one on Billboard's Country Albums chart and reaching the Top-10 on the Billboard 200. It sold several million copies and produced four Top-10 country hits, including Phil Spector's "To Know Him Is to Love Him", which went to number one. Trio won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and was nominated for Album of the Year. After a further attempt at pop success with Rainbow (1987), which included the single "The River Unbroken", its poor commercial performance led Parton to refocus on country material. White Limozeen (1989) produced two number-one hits, "Why'd You Come in Here Lookin' Like That" and "Yellow Roses". Although her career appeared revived, it proved brief before contemporary country music in the early 1990s moved most veteran artists off the charts.[40]
A duet with Ricky Van Shelton, "Rockin' Years" (1991) reached number one, though Parton's greatest commercial fortune of the decade came when Whitney Houston recorded "I Will Always Love You" for the soundtrack of The Bodyguard (1992). Both the single and the album were massively successful. Parton's own soundtrack album from the 1992 film Straight Talk was less successful. Her 1993 album, Slow Dancing with the Moon, earned positive reviews from critics and achieved strong chart success, reaching number four on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and number 16 on the Billboard 200. It was later certified Platinum.[64][65]
In 1993, she recorded "The Day I Fall in Love" as a duet with James Ingram for the feature film Beethoven's 2nd. Songwriters Ingram, Carole Bayer Sager, and Clif Magness were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and Parton and Ingram performed it at the telecast. Similar to her earlier collaborative album with Harris and Ronstadt, Parton released Honky Tonk Angels in the fall of 1993 with Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette.[66] It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and helped revive both Wynette and Lynn's careers. Also in 1994, Parton contributed "You Gotta Be My Baby" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization.[67] A live acoustic album, Heartsongs: Live from Home, featuring stripped-down versions of her hits and traditional songs, was released later that year.[68]
Parton's recorded music during the mid-to-late 1990s remained steady and eclectic. Her 1995 re-recording of "I Will Always Love You", performed as a duet with Vince Gill from her album Something Special, won the Country Music Association's Vocal Event of the Year Award. The following year, she released Treasures, an album of covers of 1960s and 1970s hits, featuring material by Mac Davis, Pete Seeger, Kris Kristofferson, Cat Stevens, and Neil Young. Her recording of Stevens' "Peace Train" was later remixed and released as a dance single, reaching Billboard's dance singles chart.[66]
Her 1998 country-rock album Hungry Again consisted entirely of her own compositions. Although neither of its singles, "(Why Don't More Women Sing) Honky Tonk Songs" and "Salt in My Tears", charted, videos for both songs received significant airplay on CMT. A second, more contemporary collaboration with Harris and Ronstadt, Trio II, was released in early 1999. Its cover of Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" won a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999.[66]
Parton recorded a series of bluegrass-inspired albums beginning with The Grass Is Blue (1999), which won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album, and Little Sparrow (2001), whose cover of Collective Soul's "Shine" won the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. The third, Halos & Horns (2002), included a bluegrass version Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven". In 2005, she released Those Were The Days, consisting of her interpretations of folk-rock hits from the late 1960s and early 1970s, including "Imagine", "Where Do the Children Play?", "Crimson and Clover", and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"[66]
2005–2020: Touring and holiday album
Parton earned her second Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Travelin' Thru", which she wrote specifically for the feature film Transamerica (2005).[69] Because the song and film centered on a transgender woman, Parton received death threats.[70] She returned to number one on the country chart later in 2005 by lending her harmonies to Brad Paisley's ballad, "When I Get Where I'm Going".[66] In September 2007, she released her first single on her own label, Dolly Records, "Better Get to Livin'", which eventually peaked at number 48 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.[42]
It was followed by the studio album Backwoods Barbie, released on February 26, 2008, which reached number two on the country chart. Its debut at number 17 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart was the highest in her career.[71] The album produced four additional singles, including the title track, written as part of her score for 9 to 5: The Musical. After the death of Michael Jackson, whom Parton knew personally, she released a video expressing her feelings about him and his death.[72][73]
On October 27, 2009, Parton released a four-CD box set, Dolly, featuring 99 songs spanning most of her career.[74] She released her second live DVD and album, Live From London, in October 2009, filmed during her sold-out 2008 concerts at London's The O2 Arena. On August 10, 2010, Parton's longtime friend Billy Ray Cyrus released the album Brother Clyde. Parton was featured on the track "The Right Time", which she co-wrote with Cyrus and Morris Joseph Tancredi. On January 6, 2011, Parton announced her new album Better Day. In February 2011, she announced the Better Day World Tour, beginning July 17, 2011, with shows in northern Europe and the U.S.[75] The album's lead-off single, "Together You and I", was released on May 23, 2011, and Better Day followed on June 28, 2011.[76]
In 2011, Parton voiced the character Dolly Gnome in the animated film Gnomeo & Juliet. On February 11, 2012, after the sudden death of Whitney Houston, Parton stated, "Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston. I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.'"[77]
In 2013, Parton joined Lulu Roman for a re-recording of "I Will Always Love You" for Roman's album, At Last.[78] In 2013, Parton and Kenny Rogers reunited for the title song of his album You Can't Make Old Friends. For their performance, they were nominated at the 2014 Grammy Awards for Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance.[79] In 2014, Parton embarked on the Blue Smoke World Tour in support of her 42nd studio album, Blue Smoke.[80] The album was first released in Australia and New Zealand on January 31 to coincide with tour dates there in February and reached No. 1 on album charts in both countries.[81][82]
It was released in the United States on May 13 and debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 chart, making it her first Top-10 album and her highest-charting solo album ever; it also reached the number two on the U.S. country chart. The album was released in Europe on June 9 and reached number two on the UK album chart. On June 29, 2014, Parton performed for the first time at the UK Glastonbury Festival, singing songs such as "Jolene", "9 to 5" and "Coat of Many Colors" to a crowd of more than 180,000.[83] On March 6, 2016, Parton announced that she would be embarking on a tour in support of her new album, Pure & Simple. The tour was one of Parton's biggest tours within the United States in more than 25 years.[84] 64 dates were planned in the United States and Canada, visiting the most requested markets missed on previous tours.[85]
In the fall of 2016 she released "Jolene" as a single with the a cappella group Pentatonix and performed on The Voice with Pentatonix and Miley Cyrus in November 2016.[86] Also in 2016, Parton was one of 30 artists to perform on "Forever Country", a mash-up of the songs, "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "On the Road Again" and her own "I Will Always Love You". The song celebrates fifty years of the CMA Awards.[87] At the ceremony itself, Parton was honored with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented by Lily Tomlin and preceded by a tribute featuring Jennifer Nettles, Pentatonix, Reba McEntire, Kacey Musgraves, Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride.[88]
In 2017, Parton appeared on Rainbow, the third studio album by Kesha performing a duet of "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You". The track had been co-written by Kesha's mother Pebe Sebert. It was previously a hit for Parton and was included on her 1980 album Dolly, Dolly, Dolly. She also co-wrote and provided featuring vocals on the song "Rainbowland" on Younger Now, the sixth album by her goddaughter Miley Cyrus.[89]
In July 2019, Parton made an unannounced appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island and performed several songs accompanied by the Highwomen and Linda Perry.[90] In 2019, Parton collaborated with Christian alternative rock duet For King and Country and released a version of their hit "God Only Knows". She followed this by recording a duet with Christian music artist Zach Williams in the song "There Was Jesus". In 2020, Parton received worldwide attention after posting four pictures, in which she showed how she would present herself on social media platforms LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The original post on Instagram[91] went viral after celebrities posted their own versions of the so-called Dolly Parton challenge on social media.[92][93]
On April 10, 2020, Parton re-released 93 songs from six of her classic albums: Little Sparrow, Halos & Horns, For God and Country, Better Day, Those Were The Days and Live and Well.[94] On May 27, 2020, Parton released the song "When Life Is Good Again" to lift the spirits of those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. She also released a music video for the song, which premiered on Time 100 talks on May 28, 2020.[95]
In October 2020, Parton was featured on the single "Pink" alongside Monica, Jordin Sparks, Sara Evans and Rita Wilson. The single was released in aid of Breast Cancer Research.[96][97][98] Parton released A Holly Dolly Christmas in October 2020.[99] On December 6, CBS aired a Christmas special, "A Holly Dolly Christmas", where Parton performed songs from her album.[100][101]
2022–2026: Rockstar and Las Vegas residency
In 2021, a duet version of the song "Does He Love You" with singer Reba McEntire was released.[102] In early 2022, Parton was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[103] Parton initially declined the nomination believing that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was "for the people in rock music",[104][105] but after learning that this was not the case, Parton said she would accept her induction if
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