Dolly Parton: The Iconic Singer, Songwriter, and Multi-Instrumentalist

Dolly Parton is an iconic singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist known for her powerful voice, personality, and message through songwriting. This article explores her early life, rise to fame, and lasting impact on pop and country music.

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Dolly Rebecca Parton is an America born songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist
who was mainly renowned for her contribution in the country music. Along with her career as
a singers and song writer, she displayed her talents in other fields of art and culture. In her
highly celebrated career, she became an actress, record producer author and even a business
woman. With a successful debut of her album, ‘Hello, I'm Dolly’, she started her career both
as a solo performer as well as recording duet with Porter Wagoner. She was beloved by the
pop as well as country music fans as a cultural icon due to her powerful voice, personality
and message through song writing1.
Dolly Parton was born in 1946 in Tennessee but moved to Nashville to pursue music.
Her initial public performances could be found in the churches, at the age of six. Gradually,
she started playing her homemade guitar thus started to play instruments. Parton started
performing by singing on the local radio as well as television programs which were confined
within the Eastern Tennessee area2. Within few years she appeared on The Cas Walker
Show on both WIVK Radio as well as WBIR-TV in Tennessee. At the age of only 13, she
recorded a solo performance "Puppy Love" on Gold band Records. After this she appeared
at Grand Ole Opry here she met Jonny Cash. From thereon, Dolly started to follow her
instincts regarding career as advised by Jonny Cash.
After completing her school education, she moved to Nashville and gained success as
a song writer. Here she signed with Combine Publishing and wrote a considerable number of
1 Zilberg, Jonathan. "Yes, it's true: Zimbabweans love Dolly Parton." The Journal of Popular
Culture 29.1 (1995): 111-125.
2 Wolfe, Charles K., and James Edward Akenson, eds. The women of country music: a
reader. University Press of Kentucky, 2003.

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charting singles along with her frequent songwriting partner Bill Owens. At this point of
time, Dolly gave two top-10 hits among which was the 1966 record of Bill Phillips "Put It
Off Until Tomorrow" and the 1967 hit "Fuel to the Flame" by of Skeeter Davis. At this time,
her own songs were being sung by the prominent singers like Kitty Wells as well as Hank
Williams Jr. In the year 1965, she signed with a famous American label, the Monument
Records. At the age of only 19 she was pitched with a renowned singer of the bubblegum pop
genre. She published a string of singles which cracked the Billboard Hot 100. Despite the fact
that she desired to record the country material, she was forbidden by Monument Records as
they though Dolly’s unique voice would not suit to the genre of this string vibrato. However,
when her composition “put it off until tomorrow” was recoded by Bill Philips and hit the
country chart, Monument allowed her to sing country pop. This time she sang some songs
which were composed by some other song writers like Curly Putman, also reached the
country chart. The two songs which Dolly sang were Dumb Blonde and Something Fishy
reached the country chart in the year 1967 hence appeared in “Hello, I’m Dolly” her first full
length album.
This year she was invited by Wagoner to join his organization and offered her a
regular member on the weekly syndicated program named The Porter Wagoner Show in the
television as well as in his road show3. Despite the fact Dolly was not initially accepted by
the audience in the place of Norma Jean whom she had replaced, Wagoner assisted her to be
accepted partially through convincing his own Label to sign Dolly. RCA Victor, Wagoner’s
label however, made the decision to protect their own investment though releasing her first
duet with Wagoner. This song was released in 1967 as the cover of “The last thing on my
mind” of Tom Paxton. This reached the top ten of country chart and launched a six-year
3 Miller, Stephen. Smart Blonde: The Life of Dolly Parton. Omnibus Press, 2008.

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streak of virtually uninterrupted top-10 singles of these two singers. Theis duo provided
consequent hits and released songs in 1968 which made the CMA (Country Music
Association) named this pair Vocal Group of the Year4. However, during this time, the solo
songs of Parton were getting low or average reviews which made her frustrated gradually.
This time Wagoner persuaded her to record the duet like "Mule Skinner Blues," by Jimmie
Rodgers as a gimmick which worked. In the year 1971, her first number-one single, "Joshua"
was reared which turned her career in a great deal5. After Joshua, she had numerous solo hits
the next two years ago which "Coat of Many Colors" became her signature song. Dolly
Parton’s Top-20 singles in the year 1971 included "The Right Combination" along with
"Burning the Midnight Oil" both of which were her duets with Wagoner. The list also
included Touch Your Woman” and "My Tennessee Mountain Home”.
The success of Joshua followed constant solo hits by Dolly Parton but her biggest hit
of this particular tie was “Jolene” which was released in the year 1973. This particular song
topped the country chart as well as reached the lower numbers in the Hot 100. Eventually,
this particular song of Parton also charted in the United Kingdom and represented the first
UK success of Parton6. This success was one of the reasons why Parton gradually left the
path of duet song and envisioned to have solo perforce from thereon. This time she was
4 Peterson, Richard A. Creating country music: Fabricating authenticity. University of
Chicago Press, 2013.
5 Tichi, Cecelia. High lonesome: The American culture of country music. UNC Press Books,
1994.
6 Andsager, Julie L., and Kimberly Roe. "Country music video in country's year of the
woman." Journal of Communication 49.1 (1999): 69-82.

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offered to writing song for high reputed labels but she refused all these as she had royalty
from all her hits. From the year 1974 to 1980, Parton had consistently charted the Top 10 of
the Country Chart, where more than six singles reached the number one in he chart. This time
Parton had started her own syndicated television variety show, naming Dolly!
In the year 1978, Dolly Parton won Grammy Award as Best Female Country Vocal
Performance for the album Here You Come Again. She had hits constantly with
"Heartbreaker," "Baby I'm Burning" and "You're the Only One" all of these songs charted in
pop Top 40 as well as topped country chart. After this, Polly Parton had her another big hit as
theme song to the 1980’s famous feature film ‘9 to 5’7. In this particular film she had starred
with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. This particular film "9 to 5" had not only reached the
number one in the country chart in February 1981, but also reached the number one on pop as
well as the adult-contemporary chart. This gave her a first triple number-one hit. This song
also received nomination for the Academy Award in the category of Best Original Song.
Parton had succeeded to earned her second Academy Award nomination in the same category
of Best Original Song for her song "Travelin' Thru”. This song she wrote exactly for the new
feature film namely Transamerica. Most recently On March 6, 2016, Parton announced that
she would be embarking on a tour in support of her new album, Pure & Simple8. Miley Cyrus
is her god daughter.
7 Wilson, Pamela. "Mountains of contradictions: gender, class, and region in the star image of
Dolly Parton." South Atlantic Quarterly 94 (1995): 109-109.
8 Ellison, Curtis W. Country music culture: From hard times to heaven. Univ. Press of
Mississippi, 1995.

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Therefore, it can be concluded that this genius was one of the very few female singers
who has left impression in the music world especially in the pop and country music. Her
talent and foresightedness have helped her to reach the ultimate height of success. From the
very childhood to this age, her passion to music is unmatchable which has made her one of
the most important singer and songwriter of this age who have become an icon for her
contribution in the pop music.

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References:
Andsager, Julie L., and Kimberly Roe. "Country music video in country's year of the
woman." Journal of Communication 49.1 (1999): 69-82.
Ellison, Curtis W. Country music culture: From hard times to heaven. Univ. Press of
Mississippi, 1995.
Miller, Stephen. Smart Blonde: The Life of Dolly Parton. Omnibus Press, 2008.
Peterson, Richard A. Creating country music: Fabricating authenticity. University of
Chicago Press, 2013.
Tichi, Cecelia. High lonesome: The American culture of country music. UNC Press Books,
1994.
Wilson, Pamela. "Mountains of contradictions: gender, class, and region in the star image of
Dolly Parton." South Atlantic Quarterly 94 (1995): 109-109.
Wolfe, Charles K., and James Edward Akenson, eds. The women of country music: a reader.
University Press of Kentucky, 2003.
Zilberg, Jonathan. "Yes, it's true: Zimbabweans love Dolly Parton." The Journal of Popular
Culture 29.1 (1995): 111-125.