For the eleventh legendary artist in The Legend Slot we’re talking all things country with Dolly Parton. It only made sense that the month that Dolly released her ‘Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square’ Netflix film would be the month that I included her in this series! So I listened to all 47 of her studio albums in one month and picked out what I thought were her greatest songs. This is the eleventh post in my ongoing blog series The Legend Slot. To read the other posts in the series, click here.
Dolly Parton: A Brief History
Born in Tennessee, USA in 1946, Dolly Parton is most well known as a singer-songwriter, instrumentalist and actress. With a country music career spanning across seven decades, Dolly is nothing short of an absolute icon. Throughout her career Dolly has been nominated for, and won, an incredible amount of awards and recognition for her music. She’s been awarded ten Grammy’s including the Lifetime Achievement Award (49 nominations), 10 Country Music Awards, 4 People’s Choice Awards and 3 American Music Awards…amongst many others.
‘Hello, I’m Dolly’ (1967), Dolly Parton.
Not only has she amassed a huge collection of awards but she’s also one of the very few people to have received at least one nomination for an Academy Award, Grammy Award, Tony Award AND Emmy Award. Pretty impressive right? And in 1999, Dolly was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. As well as her incredible music career, she’s also had a thriving career in films as an actress. 9 to 5, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk to name a few. I could go on and on about all of the incredible things Dolly Parton has achieved in her career so far but I’ll stop here and let you do your own reading. If you want to learn a little bit more about Dolly Parton you can check out her full Wiki page here.
The Legend Slot: Dolly Parton
So I knew going into this that it was going to be bloody difficult listening to all 47 of Dolly’s studio albums. It was definitely going to be the hardest one so far (even more so than Prince). Then when you add in the fact that Kylie Minogue, Ariana Grande AND Miley Cyrus all released absolutely banging albums this month (and all I wanted to do was listen to them on repeat) it was so nearly impossible for me to finish all the listening for this month. But, I did it…somehow. Here’s the full playlist.
A Few Of My Favourites…
Okay so for the favourites…let’s get the big hits out the way first shall we? Of course Jolene and I Will Always Love You are two of my favourites. The latter is the reason that I put Dolly Parton after Whitney Houston in this series. I love a good artist connection/crossover when it comes to this series and Dolly wrote I Will Always Love You after all so it only felt right for her to follow Whitney! A few weeks back I was actually watching her latest interview on The Graham Norton Show and I still can’t believe that she wrote both I Will Always Love You and Jolene in one night (video below). “I very well may have written those at the same time, if so it was a really good writing night!” YEAH NOT HALF DOLLY!!
One of my other favourite songs has to be Here You Come Again from Here You Come Again (1977). There are always a few songs each month that I get really excited to listen to when it comes to his series and Here You Come Again was definitely one of them. Then there’s 9 to 5 from 9 to 5 And Odd Jobs (1980) and Coat Of Many Colors from Coat Of Many Colors (1971) as well. Two classic Dolly tunes. To finish off the favourites I’ve gone for Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That from White Limozeen (1989). It was a song that I hadn’t heard of before until I watched Dolly’s 2014 Glastonbury set in The Glastonbury Experience this Summer, and I absolutely loved it.
‘Here You Come Again’ (1977), Dolly Parton.
New Discoveries
When there are 47 albums to listen to there’s definitely going to be more than a few new discoveries. Dolly’s first two albums had so many great tracks on them so I really enjoyed listening and discovering them in particular this month. Some of the stand-out tracks on Hello, I’m Dolly (1967) and Just Because I’m A Woman (1968) for me were Dumb Blonde, Your Ole Handy Man, You’re Gonna Be Sorry and Just Because I’m A Woman. The Bargain Store from The Bargain Store (1975), Fresh Out of Forgiveness from In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad) (1969) and I’m Fed Up with You from My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy (1969) were a few other new discoveries (and new favourites) of mine as well.
‘Just Because I’m A Woman’ (1968), Dolly Parton.
And finally…erm, HELLOOOOO to the Led Zeppelin sample on We Used To from Dolly (1975). What a nice surprise that was. I did a bit of digging into Dolly after hearing the sample and as it turns out she’s a huge Led Zeppelin fan. As if I needed another reason to absolutely love her! Anyway, give it a listen and let me know in the comments what Led Zep song she sampled.
‘The Bargain Store’ (1975), Dolly Parton.
What did you think of this months legend? Are you a Dolly Parton fan or not so much? Maybe you’re completely new to her music! Either way, let me know what you thought in the comments! And for more exclusive content make sure to sign up to the F O monthly newsletter below.
Female Original
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November 30, 2020
I love Dolly, so glad you included her in your legend slot series! My family always listen to her and I love the film Dumplin’ with her music in 🙂 x
https://www.wooloftheking.com/
November 30, 2020
Aw so happy you enjoyed reading! Oh I loved Dumplin’, it was such a great film 🙂 x
November 30, 2020
I didn’t know about her. Thanks for sharing
November 30, 2020
I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about her music! 🙂
November 30, 2020
A lovely tribute to this woman and humanitarian. I enjoy her music and her movie productions/shows. Thanks for sharing.
November 30, 2020
Thank you so much! She really is an icon isn’t she 🙂
November 30, 2020
I read an article about Dolly recently and was really heartened to know she has been happily married for 50+ years! I feel like a lot of celebrities go through a lot of spouses, which is not something I am a big fan of. Knowing that Dolly’s personal life is as inspiring as her music and career changed the way I saw her, so I loved seeing her here today.
Thanks for sharing!
December 1, 2020
Yeah I completely agree, I love the fact that she’s been happily married for so long! So glad you enjoyed reading the post – I loved putting this one together 🙂
November 30, 2020
Love Dolly. Dislike country music, but still love Dolly! She is a class act. Her charity work is also worth a mention. A great choice for a legend spot.
December 3, 2020
She really is a class act, and an incredible person as well! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
December 1, 2020
always been a big fan of Dolly! Wonderful article x
December 3, 2020
Thanks so much! 🙂
December 1, 2020
Dolly is such a legend! She’s got me into country music and she’s such an inspiration as a strong woman as well. Thank you for sharing this!
December 3, 2020
Ahh love that! She really is incredible 🙂
December 1, 2020
Good post on Dolly Parton. I used to listened to her songs when I was a little girl. My Dad is a fan of her. Thank you for sharing this post.
December 13, 2020
Thanks so much! 🙂
December 1, 2020
Love this tribute to Dolly! As soon as I saw it I thought “Jolene Jolene….”
December 3, 2020
Thank you so much! 🙂
December 1, 2020
Who doesn’t love Dolly?! And that’s SO MANY albums. I don’t know how you did that in one month. Like basically everyone on earth I know all of the big hits but not so many of the album tracks so I have a lot of listening to do. This might be cheating a little but I think my favourite Dolly track was actually a live performance of Jolene with Miley – they sounded incredible together x
Sophie
December 1, 2020
Omg, I genuinely thought that Prince was going to be the biggest one…little did I know! :’) Hahaha definitely not cheating – who doesn’t love a Miley/Dolly duet? x
December 1, 2020
I love Dolly Parton, as an artist and as a really kind human being. She is someone I’ve listened to throughout my life and always like to listen to her whenever she’s on a show being interviewed. I’m so glad you included her!
December 1, 2020
She’s incredible isn’t she! Her Graham Norton interview was amazing, she seems like such a lovely and genuine person. Glad you enjoyed the post! 🙂
December 1, 2020
I am a huge Dolly Parton fan, both of her singing and how amazingly philanthropic she is too. I had no idea she was so prolific though – 47 albums! I have a lot of catching up to do!
December 2, 2020
She’s such an incredible person (and talent!). Hahaha, it might take a while! 🙂
December 1, 2020
Dolly is just an amazing singer and just a lovely person, I love watching her being interviewed on chat shows as she’s always so nice! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
December 3, 2020
She’s incredible isn’t she! I loved her on Graham Norton – she seems like such a genuine person 🙂 x
December 2, 2020
I loved reading this! I’ve been meaning to check out more of her music, your playlist definitely gave me a good place to start! Thanks for sharing all of this! 🙂
melissakacar.blogspot.com
December 3, 2020
So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you 🙂
December 3, 2020
I really enjoy your Legend Slot posts! So many different types of music too. Dolly is an interesting one! Jolene will always be up there for me!
December 5, 2020
Aw thanks so much! Hope you enjoy the playlist 🙂
December 5, 2020
Wow what a legend, so many things I didn’t know about her..
December 16, 2020
She’s so amazing isn’t she! 🙂
December 7, 2020
I loved this post! It was so lovely learning more about Dolly! Thank you for sharing xx
http://www.dellalovesnutella.co.uk/
December 9, 2020
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed learning a bit about Dolly 🙂
December 10, 2020
Despite the fact that I’ve been listening to country music for a couple of years now, I’m ashamed to say I haven’t listened to the queen herself all that much! Other than her biggest hits, I’m generally unfamiliar with most of her music, and I’ve been aiming to hear more. I was excited to read this post because I knew it would be the perfect motivator!! x
December 22, 2020
It was the same for me – aside from her hits I really didn’t know many of her other songs! Hope you enjoy discovering a bit more about her and her music 🙂 x