Country Singles Jubilee 4.27.09: The Dolly Parton Edition
Posted by Jasper Jones on 04.27.2009
This week The Jubilee spotlights the big chested, charismatic, backwoods Barbie...Dolly Parton!
Welcome back to another Country Singles Jubilee! Glad to have you. I experienced a first this week. Last Tuesday I attended my very first punk rock show. It was quite different from any other concert I've seen. Country concerts are full of older people who just sit and clap on cue. Rock shows are much more energetic but sane. Punk shows are freakin' crazy! I saw Against Me!, Off With Their Heads, and Glossary play at The End in Nashville. The vibe, the heat, and the energy of the show was absolutely memorizing! For two small hours I wasn't just some dude at a concert. I was a part of the show. I was a part of a collective being of hardcore, take no prisoners, spastic youths who wanted to yell along with their favorite songs and bounce off of each other. Plus the show was only ten bucks. Can you beat that? I'm certainly going to catch them again when their close.
Now I am going to totally switch gears and talk about Dolly Parton.
MUSIC TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton is a Grammy winning singer-songwriter, author, actress, and philanthropist. American treasure can be added to that list as well. Music fans all over the world have been drawn to her beautiful pipes, flamboyant style, humor, charisma, and "voluptuous" figure. If you don't like Dolly Parton, chances are that you have no soul. Over the span of her forty plus years in the music business, Dolly has racked (pun intended) up twenty-five Number One country hit singles and forty-two Top Ten country albums. This makes her the most successful female country act in history. Hear that, Taylor Swift? You've got some catching up to do!
1964 in Sevierville, TN is when and where Dolly Parton was born. She was raised along with twelve siblings in a dilapidated one-room cabin in The Great Smokey Mountains. It sounds like rough living, but it was from this adversity that Dolly would be inspired to write her music. She grew up in a Christian home, but despite singing gospel tunes on stage, she claims no denomination. She simply claims to be "spiritual" and that all people are God's children.
It seems that Dolly always had the musical bug. Even before she could read or write she was "making up songs". Eventually, she started singing on local Eastern Tennessee radio programs. By the age of thirteen she began appearing on the Grand Ole Opry radio show in Nashville. It was there that she got advice from "The Man In Black" Johnny Cash, who told her to not to be afraid to do what she wanted to do. Dolly took his advice to heart. After graduating high school, Dolly packed up her bags and moved to Nashville to be a country music star.
She found early success in Nashville as a songwriter. Big acts like Hank Williams, Jr. and Skeeter Davis recorded some of her songs. Dolly was soon signed to a recording contract herself. Her label intended to maker he a pop star, but that failed right out of the gate. Someone finally wised up and realized that all the songs she had written that became big hits for other people were country songs, so Dolly was repackaged as a country singer. Her first country single was released in 1966. "Dumb Blonde" peaked at Number Twenty-Four. Her second single, "Something Fishy" was a little more successful, making it all the way to Number Seventeen. A couple more songs were thrown together and Dolly Parton had her first country album, Hello, I'm Dolly.
In 1967, Dolly Parton was asked to join The Porter Wagoner Show, a very popular syndicated country music television program hosted by Porter Wagoner. Dolly accepted and began her seven year business relationship with Wagoner. Since women country singers were not very popular in the late 1960s, it was decided that Dolly would record a series of duets with Porter to introduce her to the country masses. "Last Thing On My Mind" was released in 1968 and it became a Top Ten hit, which started a six year streak of Top Ten hits for the duo.
Even though Dolly was having big hits with Porter, her solo stuff was still tanking. In 1970, Porter Wagoner devised a plan. He had Dolly Parton record the old Jimmie Rogers song "Mule Skinner Blues" and release it as a single. He figured that maybe they could get a gimmicky hit out of it a woman singing a cattle-calling song. Porter was right. Dolly's cover of "Mule Skinner Blues" was a big hit, going all the way to Number Three! Riding on the success, Dolly soon released another single, "Joshua". It became her first Number One hit! After three years of trying, Dolly Parton was finally a successful solo country act.
Over the next two years, Dolly would have a string of other hits. One of which was her signature song, "Coat of Many Colors" in 1971. She finally become a mega-star with her smash hit "Jolene" in 1974. "Jolene" is one Dolly Parton's most well-known songs. In fact it's been covered by everyone from The White Stripes to Olivia Newton-John.
Later that same year, Dolly Parton finally left The Porter Wagoner Show. Porter had been like a father-figure to her, helping her early-on in her career. Needless to say, it was an emotional goodbye. It inspired Dolly Parton to write the infamous song, "I Will Always Love You". The song was a huge hit and scored Dolly another Number One. Elvis Presley showed interested in covering the song. However once Dolly learned that Col. Tom Parker wanted half the publishing rights to the song signed over to him, she said no. This smart business move has earned Dolly millions of dollars in publishing fees. She once bragged that the money she received from Whitney Houston's cover of the song earned her enough money to "buy Graceland". Take that, Elvis!
Between 1974 and 1980, Dolly scored eight more Number One hits. At the same time, artists were still recording and covering songs that Dolly had written. Some of these acts included Kitty Wells, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris.
In 1977, Dolly Parton's music took a turn to pop. She released the album Here You Come Again and it became her first million selling album. The title track became Dolly's first Top Ten pop hit and was also a country hit as well. The success of Here You Come Again earned her a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Dolly soon had a string of pop hits on her hands with "Heartbreaker", "Baby, I'm Burning", and "Two Doors Down".
1980 was a stellar year for Mrs. Parton. She scored three Number One hits in a row. One of which was "9 to 5", from her hit movie of the same name. The song would go on to top the country, the pop, and the adult contemporary charts at the same time. This made Dolly the first female Triple Number One winner.
From 1981 to 1985, Dolly had twelve more Top Ten hits. Half of those made it all the way to Number One. All this success led to a small backlash. Some country fans began to complain that Dolly was spending too much time courting pop music, movies, and other business ventures. They began to believe that she was leaving her old fans behind. However, her old country fans had nothing to fear. In 1987, Dolly teamed up with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt and released the album Trio. It was a back to the roots album that topped the Country Albums Chart for five weeks and spawned four Top Ten hits. The album would go on to win a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance - Duo or Group.
Dolly rode the wave of Trio until 1989 when she released her next solo album. White Limozeen spawned the hits "Why'd Ya Come In Here Looking Like That" and "Yellow Roses". It appeared that the old Dolly was back in full swing. However, that was short lived. The early 90s brought contemporary country which shoved a lot of the older acts out of the way. Unfortunately, Dolly Parton's country comeback was a causality.
She did have some sporadic success throughout the 90s though. She recorded a duet with Ricky Van Shelton, "Rockin' Years", that became a Number One hit in 1991. She won a CMA award for re-recording "I Will Always Love You" with Vince Gill in 1996. Dolly released a series of bluegrass albums in the late 90s and early 2000s that received some critical acclaim. 1999's The Grass is Blue and 2001's Little Sparrow both won Grammy Awards.
Her latest album, Backwoods Barbie, might be a turn-around for Dolly though. The album debuted at Number Two on the Country Album Chart, her highest debut since 2002's Halos and Horns. The album also debuted at Number Seventeen on the All Albums Chart, her highest showing there ever.
Dolly Parton's contribution to entertainment in general earns her a spot among great all-round entertainers like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe. Her backwoods charm has always kept her head out of the clouds, even when she had every right to brag. Her good nature and charity work make her an excellent role model for young people in a time when excellent role models are few and far between.
Top 5 Favorite Dolly Parton Singles
5. "Dagger Through The Heart"
"Dagger Through The Heart" can be found on Dolly's 2002 bluegrass album Halos and Horns. It's a straightforward broken heart song that compares the pain of a cheating lover to the pain of being stabbed in the heart. It also contains one of my favorite lines from any Dolly Parton song. "Tossed around like a used box of crayons/ It's like a dagger through the heart".
"After the Goldrush" can be found on Trio II, the sequel to the highly successful Trio album. "After the Goldrush" is one of my favorite Neil Young songs, and apparently one of Dolly's favorites too. Sorry, Neil. Your voice is really piercing on this song and doesn't compare to the awesome harmonies of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt. I have no idea what the song is about, but it's sure beautiful. Dolly and Emmylou look great in the video too. Ronstadt, unfortunately, looks like a hot air balloon.
3. "Down from Dover"
I cannot believe that she wrote this song when she was eighteen! Technically, "Down from Dover" isn't a single, but who cares. These are my rules and I can break them if I want. As Dolly said at the beginning of the video, there was some big time controversy over the contents of the song. This is the major reason why it was never a single, but the song is so great that Dolly constantly gets request to play the song live. It was recently covered by Marianne Faithfull on her 2008 album Easy Come, Easy Go.
2. "Hard Candy Christmas"
I can tell I'm getting old because I've just recently decided that I like Christmas music. Dolly wrote "Hard Candy Christmas" for the movie The Best Little Whore House In Texas, in which she starred. It's a somber Christmas tune about someone who's having a down in the dumps holiday, but they will not allow it to bring them all the way down. Just a little, I guess. I didn't included the clip from the movie because Dolly only sings a portion of the song. Most of it is sung by various hookers. Sounds like a great movie.
1. "Jolene"
Was there any doubt as to what my number one would be? "Jolene" is an incredible song. The music and Dolly's pleading vocals produce a haunting sound that captivates the listener. If Jolene would take someone' man just because she can, that would make her a bitch. Let's hope she didn't. The fabled inspiration for "Jolene" came from a tall, red-head bank teller who Dolly thought was successfully hitting on her husband, but Parton has changed the story a few times. Many of Dolly's colleagues enjoyed this song so much they recorded cover versions. The White Stripes, Olivia Newton-John, Mindy Smith, and Me First and The Gimme Gimmes are just a few.
That's it for this week's Jubilee! Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to stop by again next week when the spotlighted artist will be David Allen Coe!
