Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton came out of East Tennessee, born in 1946, and she started early and never let up: a first song written at six, regular television spots by ten, a first record a year after that, and a professional songwriting career at sixteen. After writing for others, she made her debut album, Hello, I'm Dolly, in 1967, recorded duets with Porter Wagoner, and by the early '70s she was turning out songs that cut straight to the bone. Coat of Many Colors, in 1971, gave her a title track of rare plainspoken grace, and Jolene, in 1974, paired the title song's nervy, galloping urgency with "I Will Always Love You", a ballad so tender it went to the top of the country chart twice.

She sang, and played guitar, banjo and autoharp, and she wrote at a staggering clip: more than 3,000 songs and 49 studio albums across a career of nearly six decades. The Country Music Association named her Entertainer of the Year in 1978, "9 to 5" took her to the top of the Hot 100, and she logged 25 number-one country singles and 11 Grammys, plus the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006. There were films too, from 9 to 5 to Steel Magnolias, and Dollywood, and her last solo album, Rockstar, in 2023, became her highest-charting record on the Billboard 200. She died on August 25, 2026.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.