Dolly Parton Is A National Treasure
Every year in mid-January, I get to do what I love to do the most: write about Dolly Parton. Yes, Dolly Parton will celebrate her 79th birthday this weekend (1/19). As active as she is and as much stuff as she does, it’s hard to believe that she’s almost 80 years old.
I’ve watched Dolly for most of my life, from when I was a girl getting into music all the way to my career covering country music. They always say never meet your heroes, but in Dolly’s case, that is not true. When I did an interview with her the first time I was so nervous, but she was warm and kind and put me at ease right away. Throughout the years, I’ve been lucky enough to interview Dolly for a number of platforms. In 2016, I even got to work with her as she prepped for what became her final tour called “Pure and Simple.” Working with her was beyond a dream, and she was just as nice as you would think she would be.
There’s a reason Dolly is considered a national treasure. First, there’s her music and the many albums she’s released over the years, starting in the mid-1960s. Five decades into her career, she still is prolific, releasing new music every two or three years. Her 2023 Rockstar album that she released after getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame went on to be the best selling album of her career to date. Then there’s her sense of humor: she is always saying funny stuff to make her audiences and interviewers laugh. She always has. Her personality just shines.
Parton had been a household name for many, many years, but in 2020, things seemed to change even more when she donated $1 million for a COVID-19 vaccine. It’s when people who had never really paid attention to her before began to notice. Of course, Dolly has done charitable work all her life and is responsible for so much from her Dollywood foundation, which still delivers kids books to the age of five so that they can learn to read. One of the reasons Parton told me she started the imagination libraries was because her father could not read, and that always stuck with her.
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Her kindness is as much a part of her personality as her musical talent. I don’t think you could find a person in Nashville who has a bad thing to say about Dolly Parton. She’s just warm and one thing that I always notice is that when she remembers you, she makes a point to tell you that she remembers you, knowing that somehow it’s gonna make your day, and it does. She seeks out something good to say about everyone to make people feel good even when they might be as nervous as heck to come face-to-face with the music icon.
In essence, Parton is what you hope your musical heroes would be: loving, gracious, and kind. It also helps that she is one of the most prolific songwriters the music world has ever known.
Five Best Dolly Songs Ranked By A Lifelong Fan
As a fan of Dolly and her music since I was a young girl, I thought it through (although it was hard to choose) and ranked her five best songs ever.
“9 to 5”
This song is a given, and it’s really the song that brought Dolly into the national spotlight and made her a movie star. The song’s lyrics are now iconic and still hold true forty years after it and the movie came out. I often see people who have tattoos that just read “Cup Of Ambition,” a line from the song. I love to occasionally watch the original 1980 video of her and her band playing the song and having a blast and clips from the movie. Many of those band members in the video are still in her band today. It’s a true testament to how wonderful she is to work for.
“Here You Come Again”
This is one of those rare songs that Dolly did not write herself. it was written by legendary songwriting team Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann. The song has an amazing grove and rhythm, and it won Parton her very first GRAMMY in 1978 for Best Female Country Vocal PerformanceDolly once told me that she was a bit nervous about “Here You Come Again”: she was worried that the song would turn off her country fans, but was relieved when it was a success.
I also love that in the official video, one of the always-perfect wigs she wore in the video was a bit out of place.
“I Will Always Love You”
This may be the one song that Parton will forever be known for. Dolly recorded and took this amazing song to the top of the country charts in 1973, then recorded it again in 1982 when she added it to the movie soundtrack of The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (a movie she did with Burt Reynolds) and that went to number one as well. In 1995, she re-recorded the song as a duet with Vince Gill and made the top 15 on the country charts.
Of course, Whitney Houston recorded the song in 1992 for the movie soundtrack of The Bodyguard and it became a huge hit for her. Houston won the GRAMMY Award for Record of the Year and the GRAMMY Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the song.
“Coat of ManyColors”
This is one song that Dolly says is her favorite. It’s the ultimate story song, telling the story of a coat her mother made for her as a child made of scraps of material. Aside from being one of her first big hits, the song sparked a TV movie on NBC in 2015.
Parton released the song in 1971.
The 2015 movie trailer:
