Oct. 29: Chart Update From Australia Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) loses two places this week on the Australian country albums chart to No. 22 in its 371st chart week since its original 2007 release.
Oct. 27: Dolly Wishes Katy Perry A Happy Birthday
Katy Perry this week shared a birthday greeting video from Dolly, commenting it was the best present she has ever received. Check it out in the media player above or on Facebook here.
Willam Parodies Dolly's 'Jolene' On New Album Drag artist Willam has released a new comedy album, Now That's What I Call Drag Music, Vol. 1, which features a parody of Dolly's "Jolene" called "Aileen," which sets the story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos to the melody of Dolly's song. Read more from Billboardhere or download the album here.
Sharon Osborne Does Dolly For Halloween Every year, some celebrity dresses as Dolly for Halloween, it seems, and this year it's The Talk's Sharon Osborne, who is slated to lip-synch to "9 To 5" on the program, People magazine reports here.
Overseas Chart Updates The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt this week slips two to No. 8 on the British country compilation albums chart in its 111th chart week. Also on the U.K. country compilation albums chart, Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) rises four to No. 12.
A little more information on Dolly's upcoming premiere of the new stage musical Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol came out Tuesday from Playbillhere. As was previously reported here, the new show will be given a staged reading (without costumes or sets) Nov. 17-18 at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minn. The story noted Dolly wrote the music and lyrics while David H. Bell wrote the book (or script) based on an adaptation by Bell, former Dollywood entertainment head Paul T. Couch and Curt Wollan, who also directs. It noted Tim Hayden serves as musical director and that the production features nine local actors and a band of six musicians from Nashville. As was previously reported, the Dickens classic is re-set in the Smoky Mountains, where Scrooge runs a mining company and, as all adaptations go, is changed by visits from the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. As has also been previously reported, Dolly is not expected to attend the premiere. However, she did release a statement for the article: "Writing the songs for this musical was such a fascinating process for me. Of course, I'm familiar with A Christmas Carol, but creatively, I had such a good time relating to these characters and their stories in a way that let me reminisce about growing up in the Smoky Mountains where often times, love was the greatest and most precious gift we had." The theater on Wednesday also released a new teaser video of Dolly promoting the production, including an a capella excerpt from one of the show's songs. Watch it on YouTube here or in the media player above. Staged readings are often how new musicals and plays are first presented to an audience to see what works and what may need to be changed. Often this leads to a "workshop" of a more-staged version to test the changes before a "test run" of a full-fledged production in a city such as Los Angeles or Chicago, culminating in a Broadway or off-Broadway premiere.
Stampede Readies Holiday Show Dolly's Stampede dinner theatre in Pigeon Forge switches to its annual holiday show next Wednesday through the end of the season Jan. 5. With its live nativity, friendly competition between the North Pole and South Pole, aerial displays from The Nutcracker, and Santa himself arriving, the evening is sure to please (and fill the stomach with its tasty feast).
Sony Nashville on Monday released the cover art (at left) and track listing for the upcoiming Dumplin' Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, including the announcement that it will be available for pre-order Nov. 2, at which time advance ordering fans will have access to download the track "Girl In The Movies," which Dolly was out on Monday promoting to awards show voters and the press. The song has received a Hollywood Music in Media Awards nomination already and is politicking for Golden Globe and Oscar nods as well. (Dolly has previously been nominated for the Best Song Oscar twice, for "9 To 5" and "Travelin' Thru," but lost both times. "From Here To The Moon And Back" from Joyful Noise had awards buzz and came close to getting a nomination but was passed over.)
Dolly sang the song with producer and co-writer Linda Perry accompanying her on guitar for assembled media and industry folks in a one-song concert in Los Angeles which was posted to Facebook by an attendee here or viewable in the media player above and covered by Vanity Fairhere and Varietyhere. Entertainment writer Marc Malkin shared a shorter video from the performance on Twitter here or viewable in the media player below. Also, she appeared at a special screening of the film where she sang part of the song a capella as well for the audience, which a fan posted to Facebook here.
The press release officially announcing the track listing also revealed the release date for the film: Dec. 7. It will become available on Netflix that day and be released that day in select theatres for Oscar eligibility. It also noted that the film's stars, Jennifer Anniston and Danielle McDonald, make cameos on the album, and while it did not specify on which song, reports from some media outlets indicated it is the track "Push And Pull."
The release noted that while additional back catalog songs of Dolly and new remixes of some of her previously-recorded tracks used in the film will be included in the streaming version of the album, those tracks will not be included in the CD or download versions.
Although Dolly had previously said Miley Cyrus would participate in the project, she is not listed as an artist on the album. Also, the release appears to have mistakenly labeled "Why" as one of Dolly's solo compositions she had previously recorded being re-recorded for this project instead of one of her new collaborations with Perry, since she has never recorded a song called "Why" before (unless it is a re-titling of one of her previous songs, such as "Why, Why, Why" or "Most Of All, Why") and all previous interviews included the total of six classics being re-recorded and six new songs co-written with Perry, but the songwriting credits on the press release show only five new songs co-written with Perry.
The full track listing is as follows:
Here I Am (Dolly Parton & Sia)*
Holdin' On To You (Dolly Parton & Elle King)*
Girl in the Movies (Dolly Parton)**
Red Shoes (Dolly Parton)**
Why (Dolly Parton & Mavis Staples)*
Dumb Blonde (Dolly Parton & Miranda Lambert)+
Here You Come Again (Dolly Parton & Willa Amai)^
Who (Dolly Parton)**
Push & Pull (Dolly Parton)**
If We Don't (Dolly Parton & Rhonda Vincent with Alison Krauss)**
Two Doors Down (Dolly Parton & Macy Gray with DOROTHY)*
Jolene (Dolly Parton with string orchestra)*
Songwriters: *Dolly Parton, **Dolly Parton/Linda Perry, +Curly Putman, ^Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil
Oct. 22: 'Very Best' Still On Australian Chart Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) dips three spots this week on the Australian country albums chart to No. 20 in its 370th chart week since its original 2007 release.
Oct. 20: Dolly Chats On 'Bobby Bones Show' Friday
Dolly had another radio show interview Friday morning, this time for the nationally-syndicated Bobby Bones Show, which she announced Thursday night on social media. She spoke of her career, desire to eventually have a bio-pic, fear of flying, songwriting habits and more. She promoted the Netflix film Dumplin' and its soundtrack (revealing the song she recorded with Elle King was "Holdin' On To You") and next year's Heartstrings Netflix movie series (announcing that Kathleen Turner is playing the old woman in These Old Bones). She also said she and Dumplin' producer/star Jennifer Anniston will be making some publicity rounds together in coming weeks, likely including The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Ellen and other programs. Watch the 20-minute interview here or in the media player above, or check out a written recap from the show here.
U.K. Chart Updates The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt this week gains one to No. 6 on the British country compilation albums chart in its 110th chart week. Also on the U.K. country compilation albums chart, Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) inches down one to No. 16, while Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) and Harris's Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) both fall back out of the top 20, down from No. 15 and No. 18, respectively.
Dolly Tops Country Universe List Again For the 10th anniversary of its 100 Greatest Women of country music countdown, Country Universe re-evaluated the entries and this week updated its list, for the second time placing Dolly at No. 1. Check it out here. Thanks, Kevin!
Oct. 16: 'Dumplin'' Track Nominated For Music In Film Award Dolly's upcoming Dumplin' soundtrack is up for its first award. The 9th Annual Hollywood Music in Media Awards nominees were announced Monday, and a track from the album has received a nod for Original Song – Feature Film: "Girl In The Movies" written by Dolly and Linda Perry and performed by Dolly. It competes against "Animal Sauvage" from The Equalizer 2 written by Gertjan Mulder and performed by Brainpower, Pharoahe Monch, Pitcho Womba Konga and STIX; "For You (Fifty Shades Freed)" from Fifty Shades Freed written by Andrew Watt, Ali Payami and Ali Tamposi and performed by Liam Payne and Rita Ora; "Living In The Moment" from Book Club written by Carole Bayer Sager (who co-wrote the Dolly singles "Heartbreaker," "You're The Only One" and "The Day I Fall In Love"), Jay Landers and Walter Afanasieff and performed by Katharine McPhee; "Revelation" from Boy Erased written by Leland, Troye Sivan and Jonsi and performed by Troye Sivan and Jonsi; "Shallow" from A Star Is Born written by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt and performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper; and "We Won't Give" from The Hate U Give written and performed by Arlissa. Winners will be announced at The Avalon Hollywood Nov. 14. The awards recognize music excellence in film, television, video games, commercials and trailers. Dolly's soundtrack will come out Nov. 30 while the film will see a limited theatrical release sometime late this year to qualify it for awards and a streaming broadcast at a yet-to-be-announced date later this year on Netflix.
Dolly Featured In Upcoming Glastonbury Book Britain's Glastonbury Music Festival will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2020 with a 60,000-word commemorative book with exclusive never-before-seen photos, archive material and artwork plus essays written by past performers including Dolly, Jay-Z, Chris Martin, Noel Gallagher and more. The book is expected to come out in late 2019, NME reported here on Monday.
Oct. 15: 'Very Best' Rises Down Under On Chart Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) rises eight places this week on the Australian country albums chart to No. 17 in its 369th chart week since its original 2007 release.
Oct. 13: Dolly Dinner Story Goes Viral One woman's story about how Dolly had dinner with her in a pizza joint one night a few years ago went viral this week on Twitter, and Dolly has confirmed the tale is true. Read Yahoo's recap of the story here and HuffPost's confirmation of its authenticity here.
U.K. Chart Update The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt this week gains two to No. 7 on the British country compilation albums chart in its 109th chart week. Also on the U.K. country compilation albums chart, Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) falls two to No. 15, while Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) dips five to No. 15 and Harris's Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) re-enters the top 20 at No. 18.
Jada Releases Album Dolly's niece Jada Star, who performs in her "My People" show at Dollywood, this week released an album with her best friend, Barry J. Long Way Home is available here. Read the story on the album's release party from The Knoxville News-Sentinelhere.
Boxed Set Features Dolly Cover NPR this week offered a piece profiling the new Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard album Sing Me Back Home: The DC Tapes, which contains a cover of Dolly's "In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)." Check out the interview here.
In Memoriam: Carol Hall Tony-nominated composer and lyricist Carol Hall, who scored the Broadway musical The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, died this week. She was 82. When Dolly starred in the film adaptation of the show, her version of "Hard Candy Christmas" became at top 10 country hit and a perennial holiday classic. Read the obituary from Playbillhere.
Oct. 12: Dolly Reveals Netflix Movie Line-Up
Dolly on Thursday revealed all of the songs being used by Netflix for its series of made-for-streaming movies based on her songs. The Heartstrings movie series will feature "Jolene," "Two Doors Down," "Cracker Jack," "Sugar Hill" (which she noted is a love story), "J.J. Sneed" (which she said is a western set in the 1800s), "If I Had Wings" and "Down From Dover" in addition to "These Old Bones," which Dollymania.net had first reported would be the first film to be shot. The listing came from Dolly's appearance on Ty, Kelly, and Chuck on NashFM, where she also revealed each installment will run about 90 minutes and all will be available at the same time sometime next year, rather than being released one at a time. In addition, she called it the "first series" of films based on her songs, suggesting if ratings are good a second season will be coming after these. Check out the interview, edited for broadcast, in the media player above, and watch longer unedited clips from the interview on the show's page here.
Oct. 11: NashFM Morning Show Interviews Dolly On Thursday Ty, Kelly, and Chuck, the national morning program on Cumulus Media's NashFM network of country music radio stations, announced Wednesday that Dolly will be joining them for an interview on Thursday morning's show, which airs at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Check out the Facebook announcement here.
Loretta Did Not Tie Dolly's Record Billboard on Wednesday erroneously reported here that the debut of Loretta Lynn's new album, Wouldn't It Be Great, at No. 8 on the Top Country Albums tied her with Dolly for the record of the most top 10 country albums for a female artist with 41 each. The mistake is that Dolly actually has 43 credited top 10 country albums. This reporter has notified the publication multiple times in the recent past of data entry errors in its online chart archives that resulted in Dolly's total being undercounted. Since the most recent report, the publication only corrected one of the mistakes: 1968's Just Between You And Me had been mistakenly credited as a Porter Wagoner solo album in their archives instead of a duet album with Dolly, thus eliminating it from Dolly's total and giving her at their last published report 40 top 10 albums. By correcting that error, they increased her total to 41. However, they did not correct the other errors of which this site had notified them: 1970's Once More is also mistakenly credited as a Porter solo album instead of a Dolly duet album and therefore missing from her total, and two completely separate albums – 1974's Porter 'N' Dolly, which went to No. 8 and spent 25 weeks on the chart, and 1980's Porter & Dolly, which went to No. 9 and spent 31 weeks on the chart – are mistakenly combined into one entry, the non-existent Porter And Dolly, which it dates as 1974 with a peak of No. 8 and a total of 56 weeks on the chart. Correcting those two errors raises Dolly's real total to 43, the record top 10s for a female artist and second-most for all artists. Loretta's 41 does end her tie with George Strait for the third overall position, though. Willie Nelson remains the all-time king, a title he took from Dolly several years ago, with a total of 51 country top 10 albums, although the Billboard article somehow manages to miscount that number to 49 instead (even though the magazine's online archives correctly list all 51 of his top 10 albums). Dolly could arguably claim 45 top 10s (and Willie 52), but the magazine credited 1984's Winning Hand with Willie, Kris Kristofferson, and Brenda Lee as "various artists" instead of their individual names and The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas soundtrack as a soundtrack instead of her name, so neither of those top 10s count toward her official credited total under the magazine's rules.
Dolly's Celebration Theatre Readies Christmas Show Dolly's circus-themed Celebration Dinner Show in Pigeon Forge will debut its holiday show Oct. 19, which runs through Jan. 5. Christmas music, a live nativity and millions of dollars in special effects are promised as well as an exciting variety of acrobatic feats and an ice skating spectacular. The theme is a small town where Christmas cancellation is threatened due to a blizzard. Both "The Nutcracker" and "12 Days Of Christmas" are incorporated into the story, which concludes with "Go Tell It On The Mountain" set to a winter wonderland and Christmas lights spectacular.
DreamMore Gets Rave Review Overseas Britain's The Telegraph this week posted a very positive review of Dollywood's DreamMore Resort hotel. Check it out here.
Oct. 10: Sony Makes Four Porter & Dolly Albums Available For Download With no public announcement, Sony Music in recent weeks released four classic Porter Wagoner and Dolly duet albums digitally for the first time ever for download purchase. Their second album, Just The Two Of Us from 1968, came out in mid-August for its 50th anniversary. Then a week and a half ago, they issued three more titles: 1970's Porter Wayne And Dolly Rebecca, 1970's Once More and 1974's Porter 'N' Dolly. That leaves just The Right Combination/Burning The Midnight Oil, Together Always, We Found It, Love And Music, Say Forever You'll Be Mine and Porter & Dolly as the only collaborations of the duo not available for download, as Just Between You And Me was made available digitally last year while Always, Always and Two Of A Kind came out digitally in 2010 to coincide with their release on physical CD. (FYI – Dolly's only solo RCA albums not available digitally are In The Good Old Days, Bubbling Over and Dolly.) Of course, all 13 of their studio albums plus all of their previously unreleased recordings were assembled on the Bear Family Records boxed set Just Between You And Me: Complete Recordings 1967-1976 in 2014.
'Caterpillar' Book Release Reminder Don't forget that the 50th anniversary edition of The Very Hungry Caterpillar with an afterward by Dolly came out on Tuesday. Get your copy here!
Oct. 8: Read New British Dolly Interview "These aren't boobs; these are balls," Dolly says about her philosophy of looking like a woman but thinking like a man in a new interview with London's The Daily Mail published over the weekend which gives an overview of her career and business sense here. They also broke out her comments about the "Me, too" movement into a separate article available here.
Overseas Chart Updates The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt this week dips two to No. 9 on the British country compilation albums chart in its 108th chart week. Also on the U.K. country compilation albums chart, Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) gains two to No. 13, while Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) falls three to No. 14. Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) loses six places this week on the Australian country albums chart to No. 25 in its 368th chart week since its original 2007 release.
Oct. 5: Dolly Expands Pirates Voyage To Pigeon Forge Dolly on Thursday announced her Pirates Voyage dinner theatre will next year open a Pigeon Forge location in addition to the existing Myrtle Beach, S.C., venue. Construction of the 21,000 square-foot arena adjacent to The Island will begin in January, and it should open in spring. "The show has been so successful in Myrtle Beach that we kept looking at Pigeon Forge and wondering why we didn't already have a Pirates show there," Dolly said in a press release. "We have the perfect location, in one of the hottest areas of Pigeon Forge, and the time is now for my pirates to stake claim to the Great Smoky Mountains!" (It was not immediately clear whether the show will replace her circus-themed Celebration show at her Smoky Mountains Adventure dinner theatre, as that appears from property records to be the only land that her company currently owns adjacent to The Island. The Celebration's website is taking ticket orders only through Jan. 5. It is expected that Dolly's long-running Stampede dinner theatre a few blocks down the Parkway will continue operating unchanged, however.) The new attraction features a 15-foot-deep lagoon on which full-sized pirate ships set the stage for a battle between the Crimson and Sapphire pirates with acrobatics, animals and an original score by Dolly and Mark Brymer. The show will, however, have direct competition, as Fee/Hedrick Family Entertainment Group also announced on Thursday that they will launch a very similar Pirate's Revenge dinner theatre in summer 2019 at the current Smoky Mountain Opry show in Pigeon Forge. Coverage of Dolly's announcement included The Knoxville News Sentinelhere and WVLT here.
Dolly Reveals More 'Dumplin'' Details On Sirius XM Dolly made a surprise interview appearance on The Highway with Storme Warren Thursday morning on Sirius XM satellite radio, chatting mostly about the upcoming Netflix movie Dumplin' and its soundtrack. A few of the new items she revealed included that the soundtrack includes her singing "Jolene" with a full orchestra and that duets include "Dumb Blonde" with Miranda Lambert and "Two Doors Down" with Macy Gray. They also talked about her reaction to her image being used in the recent Gucci fashion show in Paris, plastic surgery and her upcoming Netflix film series. Warren also noted that she had scored 94 top 40 singles over the course of her career (I'm not sure whether he misspoke or was counting both country and non-country charts, as she only has 88 top 40 country singles but has 94 top 50 country singles; however, she has had six singles reach the top 40 on the pop and/or adult contemporary charts, which would give her a total of 94 songs that broke the top 40 on at least one of the three major charts.)
'Billboard' Lauds Dolly's First Role With the opening of Lady Gaga's movie debut in A Star Is Born, Billboard magazine counted down its critics' opinions of the 100 best movie performances by singers, placing Dolly's role in 9 To 5 in the top 10. The list, available here offered the following top 10:
10. Justin Timberlake in The Social Network
9. Dolly in 9 To 5
8. Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls
7. Prince in Purple Rain
6. Madonna in A League Of Their Own
5. Judy Garland in The Wizard Of Oz
4. Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born
3. Ice Cube in Boys N The Hood
2. Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were
1. Cher in Moonstruck
Oct. 3: 'Here I Am' Falls Off Charts Dolly's first Dumplin' track, "Here I Am" with Sia, falls off the Oct. 6 Billboard tallies after one chart week which had been fueled by its 10,000 downloads in its first week of release, it was revealed Tuesday. The single, Dolly's 108th on the country songs list, had No. 37 Hot Country Songs, No. 2 Country Digital Song Sales and No. 27 Top Digital Songs. Download the song here.
New Dolly Tribute Song Released Country blues duo The Sweet Jelly Rolls have a new album coming out Friday, Smokin' Darts & Breakin' Hearts, which features an interestingly-titled number: "If You Don't Like Dolly Parton Fuck You." The track praises Dolly and her career highlights and tells the people who don't care for her exactly what the duo thinks of them. Order the album here.
Dolly Tribute Show Planned In Tucson Those in the Tucson area will want to check out "Backwoods Barbie: A Tribute To Dolly Parton" at The Gaslight Music Hall on Oct. 13. Learn more from Tucson.comhere.
Oct. 1: Download Dolly Holiday Track With Dailey & Vincent After premiering the song online Thursday, Dailey & Vincent on Saturday made their Dolly holiday collaboration, "Road To Bethlehem," available for download. Buy it from Amazon here! The duo's full album, The Sounds Of Christmas, comes out Oct. 12.
Australian Chart Update Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) regains six spots this week on the Australian country albums chart to reach No. 19 in its 367th chart week since its original 2007 release.
Ginger Minj Talks 'Dumplin'' Appearance Rupaul's Drag Race alum Ginger Minj chatted with Billboard over the weekend about her work in Dumplin', including taking about Dolly's visit to the set to explain to everyone the meaning of her new songs in the film. Watch the interview here.
Sony Nashville on Monday released the cover art (at left) and track listing for the upcoiming Dumplin' Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, including the announcement that it will be available for pre-order Nov. 2, at which time advance ordering fans will have access to download the track "Girl In The Movies," which Dolly was out on Monday promoting to awards show voters and the press. The song has received a Hollywood Music in Media Awards nomination already and is politicking for Golden Globe and Oscar nods as well. (Dolly has previously been nominated for the Best Song Oscar twice, for "9 To 5" and "Travelin' Thru," but lost both times. "From Here To The Moon And Back" from Joyful Noise had awards buzz and came close to getting a nomination but was passed over.)
Dolly on Thursday announced her