MOST COMMON QUESTIONS

How may I contact Dolly? Can I get an autographed photo of her?
As with any celebrity, Dolly receives tons of fan mail daily, so she certainly cannot respond to all of it, but it never hurts to try :) Fan mail should be directed to Dolly Parton, 111 E Main St, 2nd Floor, Sevierville, TN 37862. She does not have an e-mail address.

What is Dolly currently up to in her music career?
She continues to write and record new music, write books, work on her life story for Broadway, and endorse new products.

When will Dolly tour again?
Unfortunately, Dolly announced during the pandemic that she had retired from touring. She may perform ocassional one-off concerts and fundrasiers, but she does not intend to tour again.

I'm looking for an old Dolly album, can you help?
If not on CD (see store here), your best bet is a local collectors' record shop that sells vinyl or an auction site like eBay or the marketplace at amazon.com.

What is Dolly currently up to in her acting career?
She does not currently have any movie plans. The pandemic halted plans to produce and star in a film adaptation of her and James Patterson's novel Run, Rose, Run. No other film projects have been announced.

I've written a song I think would be perfect for Dolly. How can I send it to her?
Well, nothing can stop you from sending it to her at one of her addresses which are public information. However, I would recommend against it. Most singers refuse to listen to unsolicited material, especially if it has not been published by a music publishing company and registered with one of the publishing clearinghouses, such as BMI or ASCAP. The reason is legal liability. A songwriter could claim that a tune the singer records later sounds a little like the one he or she sent in and allege that the original song was stolen. Such allegations, sometimes true but often completely unfounded, happen all the time in the music business. Even Dolly herself has been a victim. A songwriter alleged that she stole "9 To 5" from his song that he claimed to have sent to Jane Fonda a few years prior to the movie of the same name being filmed. He sued, but Dolly was found innocent by a jury in court, and the case was ruled in her favor. I don't personally know if Dolly follows this policy, but because of the possibility of such lawsuits, most singers do.

Does Dolly operate an "official" web site?
She has several, actually. Although her overall official website, Dolly Parton.com, isn’t slated to open until sometime later in 2009, a little exclusive content is available now at her official music website, Dolly Parton Music.net, which went live in September 2007. It serves essentially as the official site for her personal record label, Dolly Records, rather than for her personally. Her other official sites include her official theme park website, Dollywood; her official charitable foundation website, Imagination Library; her official dinner theatre website, Dixie Stampede; her official water park website, Dollywood’s Splash Country; her official cookbook website, Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s; and her official Broadway musical page for 9 To 5: The Musical. She also has authorized MySpace pages here and here. There are also several dozen unofficial fan-operated sites similar to Dollymania which promote her work and inform fans about news involving her life and career (the ones I know about are on the links page here). Of these, Dollymania is the only regularly updated one available and one of the most popular, averaging between 30,000 and 40,000 visitors per month. Some mistakenly list Dolly On-Line.com as her official site, but it is a fan site.

Does Dolly have a fan club?
No. No official fan club exists.

When and where was Dolly born?
The local country doctor, Dr. Robert F. Thomas, delivered Dolly on Jan. 19, 1946, near Locust Ridge, Tenn. (Sevier County). He was paid a sack of cornmeal for his work.

Are Dolly's parents living? What about her brothers and sisters?
Dolly's father, Robert Lee Parton, passed away in November 2000 at the age of 79 following a stroke. At that time, her parents had been married for 61 years. Her mother, Avie Lee Owens Parton, passed away in December 2003 at the age of 80. Ten of her brothers and sisters survived past childhood, most with children of their own. One brother, Larry, died shortly after birth. The children, in order of birth, are Willadeene, David, Denver, Dolly, Bobby, Stella, Cassie, Randy, Larry, the twins Freida and Floyd and the baby of the family, Rachel. Brothers Randy and Floyd each died of cancer years after their parents passed.

What is Dolly's ethnic background? I've heard she is part Native American.
Well, several published sources have said she is of Cherokee descent, but a family member who's done much genealogical research on their background disputes that statement. In her authorized biography, Dolly by Alanna Nash in 1978, it was stated that Dolly's mother is one-quarter Cherokee, which would make Dolly one-eighth, and her father Scotch-Irish. In The Official Dolly Parton Scrapbook, by Connie Berman and published the same year, it is stated that she is of Dutch, Irish and Cherokee ancestry. And Porter Wagoner's authorized biography, A Satisfied Mind by Steve Eng, said she is Scotch-Irish on her father's side and Cherokee on her mother's. However, Doris Parton, who was married to Dolly's brother Bobby for 15 years, tells Dollymania that to her knowledge that's not true. In the 1970s, she began researching the family tree, tracing it back several generations, and said she has not found documentation of any Cherokee blood. She says that like most East Tennesseans, there is a family legend of Native American ancestry, but she hasn't found any proof of it, suggesting that if it is true, it would be very far back on the family tree. She says Dolly's ethnic background is English, Welch and German. In her own autobiography, Dolly doesn't mention her ethnic heritage, and neither does her sister Willadeene in her books on the family's history. Dolly's family tree, based largely on Doris' research, is online here.

Is Dolly married?
Yes, Dolly and Carl Dean met on her first morning in Nashville after moving there the day after high school graduation in 1964. They were wed on May 30, 1966, in Ringgold, Ga., and have been together ever since.

Does Dolly have any children?
No, she and her husband haven't had any children. However, many of her younger siblings came to live with Dolly when she was starting to have success as a singer/songwriter in Nashville, so their children are more like her grandchildren than nieces and nephews. In fact, they call her "Aunt Granny." From her brothers and sisters, Dolly has 14 nieces and nephews (plus about three step-nieces and step-nephews from her siblings' second marriages) and four great-nephews.

Where does Dolly live?
She has several homes, including two homes Nashville (the large one in the suburb of Brentwood called Willow Lake Plantation and living quarters in her office complex in the city), three in the Los Angeles area (including a beach home in Malibu), a cabin in the Smoky Mountains renovated from her old family homestead, an apartment on the grounds at Dollywood and an apartment in New York City. She spends most of her time in Nashville or LA.

Are Dolly's breasts real?
When she crossed over into pop in the 1970s, her ample bosom garnered a lot of attention, and she adamantly defended that they were real. Although in recent years she's joked that she used her royalties from "Jolene" (circa 1974) to buy her famous chest, she didn't have any such surgery done until much later. In a famous 1965 poster promoting a concert when she was on Monument Records and they were marketing her as a pop singer, her amazing figure was about the same as it is today (and I'm not even sure if they had breast implants available back then!). Her chest still appeared big -- but not as big -- in subsequent years after she moved into the more conservative country field, but that had more to do with her wearing clothes and styles of bras which helped conceal what nature gave her so as not to offend the country audience of the time. By the time of her pop outing in the late '70s, the boobs came back into the spotlight and haven't left since. In 2002, she admitted for the first time during interviews in Europe that she has, in fact, had implants. In one interview in the Irish Independent, she said she had gotten breast enhancements at a cost of about $3,000 (which would date them to around the mid-to-late-1980s). Then in the London Mirror, she explained that she decided to get implants after her dramatic weight loss around 1986. As any woman who has lost a great deal of weight knows, usually the first area to decrease in size is the chest. She said she got implants for the first time then because she had surgery to remove excess tissue left behind after the weight loss, and that made her breasts much smaller than they had been in the past when she was heavier. And if you look at photos from the late 1980s, they did appear larger at that time than they did when she first became skinny.

Are they really insured for half a million dollars?
According to an investigative piece on Entertainment Tonight several years ago about celebrity rumors, the often-repeated story that they are insured for $600,000 is false. Dolly also denied the rumor herself in The Insider in November 2005. Other false reports, unfortunately many of which have been picked up by mainstream media, have inflated the non-existent insurance into several million dollars, which is also untrue.

What plastic surgery has she had done?
She has freely admitted to a great deal of plastic surgery, including having anything sucked, tucked or lifted when it starts to sag. She has said she had her breasts "lifted," has had work done on her face, neck and rear end, regularly endures chemical facial peels and takes collagen injections to hide wrinkles. She has said that she is not ashamed of having plastic surgery because she wants to look her best for her fans and believes anyone who wants to have it done, has the money to pay for it, thinks it will improve their self-esteem and visits a licensed and qualified doctor for the procedure should go ahead and do it. She uses many plastic surgeons, but her main ones are Dr. Frank Kramer (face) and Dr. John Grossman (body), both in Los Angeles, and Dr. Arnold William Kliein (dermatology), although I'm not sure where he's located. In New York, she's used Dr. Fred Martens, Dr. Richard Stark, and Dr. John Kral. However, she urges anyone considering plastic surgery to contact the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons Referral Service at 1-800-635-0635 to get a qualified doctor.

What are Dolly's measurements?
In 1972, a gossip columnist reported them as 38-26-36. For many years thereafter, she refused to comment, and (after losing a considerable amount of weight since 1972) her chest had been reported anywhere from 36 to 45 and her waist from as small as 14 to 18 inches. However, in 1994, she broke her silence and told Vogue magazine (January issue, page 144): "'I'm 40-20-36. I used to never tell anybody my measurements, but the older I get the more proud I am."

Why does Dolly dress the way she does?
One, because she likes it -- it's kind of a play time for her to wear lots of make-up and flashy clothes, but she came about her look from a sincere place. In a 1992 interview for a VH1 special, she explained: "There was a woman in our hometown, and everybody said that she was the trash, you know, the town tramp. But I thought she was beautiful 'cause she had this yellow hair, and she had bright red lipstick, and she wore make up and tight clothes and bright colors and red fingernails and high heel shoes. And I thought, 'That's how I want to look!' I thought she was beautiful. Nothing was ever bright enough for me, I mean I love loud colors. So my look came from a very serious place. It was a country girl's idea of what glamour really was. The more people tried to get me to change my look, the more I realized people were looking at me. And I thought that if I can hold their attention long enough for them to see that I am a talented person and that I am sincere about my work and that there is a brain underneath all of this hair and there is a heart underneath these boobs, you know, and if people can really see beyond that, then I can get past that. So overcoming my own image has been a challenge to myself." She often has joked that had she been born a man, she would have been a drag queen.

Is Dolly bisexual? Has she ever cheated on her husband?
Well, those rumors have circulated around Nashville and Hollywood for quite some time, and Dolly while has denied being bisexual, she has never come right out (excuse the pun) and denied cheating on her husband. Instead, she says he would never want to know if she cheated and she'd never tell him, and she'd never want to know if he cheated and he'd never tell her. She has denied that she and her best friend since childhood, Judy Ogle, have ever been lovers, and she has denied being a lesbian when asked. She has also denied being attracted to other women sexually, although she has never denied (and probably because she has never been asked directly) whether she has ever had a sexual experience with another woman. When interviewed in GLBT magazine EXP in 2005, she was asked if she were to have a lesbian affair whom would she choose, and she replied: "Oh, I don’t think in those terms. I told you—I’m trash! When I’m thinking of having an affair I think in terms of all the good-looking guys. But I’ve never really had a desire to be with a woman and that’s the honest truth." She has, however, expressed a deep enjoyment of sex, saying that she's never had a bad sexual experience. Also, she freely admits that she "fooled around" as a teen-ager and that her husband, whom she had dated since she was 18, was not her first sexual partner (in fact, his reaction to finding this out led her to write the fairly feminist song "Just Because I'm A Woman").

Why does she wear wigs?
She has worn wigs since she was about 19. She has said the main reason is that she has very fine hair which does not style well, so wigs allowed her to have better hairstyles. Also, it's easier to plop a wig on than to sit in a chair and have a hairdresser set it from scratch for her appearances. Also, her natural hair color is light brown, not blond.

How tall is she?
Flat-footed and flat-haired, she stands just five feet tall. She often jokes that when she puts on her big wigs and five-inch high-heeled shoes, she's 6-foot-5 (although it would be more like 5-foot-7 or so).

How much does she weigh?
That's not a polite question, is it! I don't think she's ever confirmed her actual weight, but she was reportedly at about 90 pounds when she got incredibly skinny in the late '80s. Heavier now than she was then , but at what I would consider her perfect weight, I'd guess she's maybe 100-115 pounds. She has publicly discussed the fact that she has had a weight control problem for her entire life, and there have been several occasions in her life when she has said she was between 30 and 40 pounds overweight.

How did she lose so much weight?
She says she tried dozens of diets without long-term success. Finally, what she says worked for her was eating several tiny meals a day instead of three normal-sized ones. That way, she's able to eat what she wants and what she likes but without gaining a lot of weight. For instance, she might have a couple of bites of someting at 5 a.m., then a couple of bites of something else at 7 a.m., then 9 a.m., etc. She says she eats many of these mini-meals a day, with the idea being she'll burn off most of the calories and fat between each meal. I had never heard of anyone else using this method until recently. I saw part of an episode of Extreme Makeover where the contestants were all overweight and had to lose a set number of pounds to be healthy enough to go through their cosmetic surgery procedures. One of the nutritionists and personal trainers working with one of the contestants put her on this same method of dieting for her to lose the weight before surgery. Another trick Dolly says she employs is that whenever she eats somewhere like a restaurant where it's not easy to control the portions, she pretends she has two guardian angels watching over her and she has to save their portion of the food. That way, she keeps herself from eating more than one third of the food on her plate to try and maintain the tiny meals she's eating throughout the day.

Does Dolly have any tattoos?
Yes, she has a small angel on her left upper arm and a butterfly on her chest. She doesn't often wear clothes which allow the tattoos to be seen, which is perhaps why she usually wears long or half-sleeves instead of very short sleeved or sleeveless tops. (On Jay Leno in April 1996 when she was promoting the opening of Dollywood, he noticed the angel tattoo and asked her about it. She called it her "guardian angel" and also mentioned that she has a butterfly tattoo as well. The butterfly could be seen, although she didn't talk about it, on a late 1999 appearance on Jay Leno when she was promoting The Grass Is Blue.) Also, when she appeared on Conan O'Brien's show in early 2001, at one point her shirt lifted up a little to expose her navel, and it appeared to be pierced.

Does Dolly have any big fears?
Yes. She was once locked in a coat closet at school as a child by schoolmates who were jealous that she sang on a local television show. She says that to this day she remains afraid of the dark and sleeps with a night-light on.

What are some of Dolly's business interests?
A shrewd businesswoman, she earned the nickname "The Iron Butterfly" for her keen financial sense and femininity, often joking that she looks like a woman but thinks like a man. Of course, there's her theme park Dollywood and its adjacent water park, Dolly's Splash Country, in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. She also operates a chain of equestrian dinner theaters called the Dixie Stampedes in Pigeon Forge; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Branson, Mo.; and Orlando, Fla. She and longtime manager Sandy Gallin still operate Sandollar Productions (producer of films such as "Father of The Bride I and II," "IQ," "Shinning Through," "Straight Talk" and "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" as well as several television programs including the "Buffy" series and its spin-off, "Angel" -- although it's no longer actively producing projects, it is still the executive producer for "Angel"), and she also has a separate production company called Southern Light Films. She owns the copyrights for all of her original compositions (except for those written during her Monument years of 1965-1967) through her song publishing company, Velvet Apple Music, and also owns a publishing company for songs written by friends and relatives, Song Yard Music. There are her business offices (Dolly Parton Productions in Pigeon Forge and Inca-Hoots in Nashville). She has her own record label, Blue Eye Records. She used to have a Revlon cosmetics line which is now out of production and a line of wigs, which has also been out of production for several years. Her husband runs a construction firm and also deals in real estate (he purchased the land south of Nashville where Saturn several years later would locate its manufacturing plant and sold it to the automaker).

How many people visit Dollywood annually?
Dollywood is the 24th most popular amusement or theme park in the United States (and in the top 50 for the entire world) with nearly 3 million annual visitors, ranking it first among all man-made attractions in Tennessee (only nature's Great Smoky Mountains National Park next door beats it with 10 million annual visitors).

How much is Dolly worth?
While she has never confirmed it publicly, estimates by financial experts around 1991 placed her personal wealth at more than $100 million. At that time, she was ranked as the fifth wealthiest female entertainer in the world (behind Oprah, Mary Tyler Moore, Barbara Striesand and Madonna). Since then, she has seen several millions of dollars in songwriting royalties for the many re-recordings of "I Will Always Love You" (most notably Whitney Houston's version), she's continued to release profitable albums, her business interests have soared in popularity, she's earned performer's and songwriter's royalties not only from her new albums but countless re-issues of older material, and her production companies have made some fairly successful films and television programs, so her worth would have grown significantly since then. In 2003, press reports referred to her estimated net worth to be in excess of $300 million. However business magazine Nashville Business in 1998 ranked her as the wealthiest entertainer in country music with a personal fortune estimated at that time of $500 million. I'd suspect the truth is somewhere between those two figures of $300 million and $500 million.

How many albums has Dolly sold?
In her 1995 autobiography, it was noted that she had sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. This, of course, did not include the eight albums released after that date (which collectively have sold more than 2 million copies) and apparently did not include any sales of singles. It also likely did not include most of the hundreds of "budget" compilation albums and many of the re-issues of some of her classic RCA albums. Addition of those items should push the total past 100 million. And in materials promoting a 2003 compilation CD The Ultimate Dolly Parton, BMG Records (parent company to RCA) stated that she has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

What are Dolly's political leanings?
That is difficult to say, so I won’t :) Dolly herself refuses to discuss politics on most issues, saying she doesn’t want to alienate or offend her fans of one political persuasion or another and knowing full well that her fan base is so large and diverse that it encompasses many members who are very liberal, many who are very conservative and many who are in the middle. Asked pointblank in 2003 by conservative talk show host Bill O'Reilly on his program if she was a conservative, she replied, "Not really." When his response was a look of surprise, she quickly added that she's "more patriotic than political." She often purposefully aims to disarm political-themed questions by either avoiding a direct answer or turning the answer into a joke which wouldn’t offend either side. For example, when prodded for an answer to a question about internal politics in Australia by an Australian journalist at Dollywood in 2006, she joshed: “I don’t get involved in our politics, much less yours!” In today’s polarized American society, almost every position one can take on any issue now connotes a liberal or conservative viewpoint into which people prefer to pigeonhole a person’s entire belief system, so many have seen her consistent neutrality on most matters as quite wise. There are very, very few instances when she has spoken publicly about issues regarded as political, most of which are along the lines of human rights issues which in most other countries are seen as common sense, moderate stances, but which have been construed in the U.S. instead as leaning strongly to the left or to the right. She has been quite vocal in her art about women’s issues, writing and recording what many perceive as among country music’s first “women’s lib” songs, something she has said she sees as simply a matter of equality but which most people see as liberal ideas. She has exhibited an unwavering love and support of America’s armed forces, with several close friends and family members in the military over the years and even recording an album of patriotic and spiritual songs, many of which contained unabashedly pro-military sentiments, something which is viewed in America as a conservative stand. With a very sizeable percentage of her fan base being gay and lesbian, she has made several public statements in support of LGBT concerns, including favoring gay marriage, matters most Americans see as liberal issues. She also does not shy away from her strong spirituality and personal connection to God, which gives many the picture of a conservative viewpoint. She has also spoken many times about a love for all people and a desire for human unity and equality regardless of race or religion, again a simple matter of right and wrong for her but which many identify as liberal. "I think it's great when people accept themselves for exactly who they are and accept other people,” she said about people in general when asked by New York magazine Next about her acceptance of gay fans. “I think that's the key to happiness and success. It doesn't matter who you are, as long as you do that really good. We're all God's children. He loves us all the same. We have to learn to love each other and ourselves a little better." So while one may categorize some of the few political stands she has taken as liberal and some as conservative, there haven’t been enough to adequately determine her overall political attitude, and she has said that is how she wants it.

What are Dolly's religious beliefs?
She has never publicly identified herself with any one particular denomination, but she does profess to be a Christian and has recorded dozens of gospel and contemporary Christian songs throughout her career. She was raised Pentecostal (her grandfather was a Pentecostal "Holy Roller" preacher), and while she says she's not a real "religious" person (ie. active in organized religion), she says she is a very "spiritual" person who enjoys a strong, personal relationship with God, on whom she relies for strength and from whom she says all of her gifts, talents and successes come. She also builds small, private chapels in each of her homes and offices where she goes to pray.

Does Dolly do a lot for charity?
Yes, although she is more of a quiet philanthropist, as she keeps publicity low on most of her charitable work. I'm told that she donates several million dollars anonymously each year to non-profit organizations close to her heart. She operates the Dollywood Foundation, which offers many educational programs and scholarships in her native Sevier County, Tenn., and runs the national Imagination Library literacy program. Her annual Dollywood concerts raise $250,000 each year for the Foundation, and her companies have donated millions more to support its work. Over the years, she has built things in her home county ranging from hospitals to schools. She often participates in benefit shows, usually for education efforts (such as the Stars Over Mississippi scholarship program concert and Families of Freedom Rally concert for scholarships to assist the children of Sept. 11 victims). She frequently donates autographed items for charity auctions and has appeared in fundraising calendars for juvenile diseases and on public service posters promoting literacy. And twice a year she has breakfast with children from the Make-A-Wish Foundation and terminally ill adults who want to meet her.

What are her favorite movies and albums?
Dolly has said her favorite films are Harold and Maude and Doctor Zhivago, and her favorite albums are the two Cat Stevens releases which contain his songs she has covered: Teaser & The Firecat (with its original version of "Peace Train") and Tea for the Tillerman (featuring the original "Where Do The Children Play").

THE ARTIST

What does Dolly consider her greatest talent?
Songwriting. It's what she says she would do rather than sing or act if she had to do only thing. She says it provides great therapy. "You can clean your own self from the hurt, and you also can help other people that may not be able to express that kind of hurt," she told Readers Digest. She often refers to her songs as her "children."

What instruments does Dolly play?
She is regarded as one of the best female guitar players in Nashville (even with her long nails, she held her own picking with greats such as Chet Atkins). She is also an accomplished banjo picker and plays the autoharp (which she calls a harpsichord) beautifully. She also plays the piano, dulcimer and drums. In concert, she's been known to offer a few notes on fiddle, harmonica and pennywhistle, but I believe she pantomimes those and I don’t know if she can really play them or not.

Does Dolly read music?
No, she never learned how. In high school, she played snare drum in the marching band, because that was the only instrument which didn't require one to read music.

How many songs has Dolly written?
As of the mid-80s, she had written and published more than 3,000 songs. As she averages one every few days, I'd guess that by now she has written more than 5,000. Of these, she has recorded and released nearly 350 of those (some three or four times), and about 200 have been recorded by other artists. The only-ever-published list of all of her songs which she has recorded and released is available here.

What was Dolly's first song?
She wrote a song about her corn-cob doll, "Little Tiny Tassletop," around age 3. Since she couldn't yet read or write, her mother wrote down the words for her.

What is Dolly's favorite of her songs?
She jokes that it's "I Will Always Love You" because of the money Whitney Houston earned her by singing it, but she says with all sincerity that it is her 1971 classic "Coat of Many Colors." The song tells the true story of a coat her mother sewed for her out of several mismatched scraps of cloth. To help her from being ashamed of the coat, her mother told her the story of Joseph's coat of many colors from the Bible. When she got to school, the children teased her about the coat. In the song, she notes that she tried to make the other kids see that while her family didn't have money, they were rich in love, personifying her mother's love for her as the coat. In reality, the teasing was much worse than in the song. Dolly didn't have a shirt on under the coat and was starting to "blossom," so boys in her class tried to rip the buttons off the coat to expose her, she told Readers Digest. She ran home and told her mother about the incident, after which her mother explained that they didn't know what they were talking about when they teased her for being poor because they were rich with love. She never spoke of the incident to anyone else until years later, while on the bus touring with Porter, she began writing the song on the back of a laundry slip.

What songs has Dolly written which have been the most popular and most successful with other artists?
Of course, the top one is "I Will Always Love You." Dolly herself has had hits on that song with three different versions (two of which received Grammy nominations). Linda Ronstadt did it in 1975 but didn't release it as a single. Then Whitney Houston's 1992 version topped the pop charts for a record 14 weeks and sold more than four million copies, thus being Dolly's most successful songwriting effort in terms of sales or chart performance. Since then, it has been covered by dozens of other artists, ranging from Leann Rimes to a techno version by Sarah Washington to new ager John Tesh, so it is the most popular one for the number of times recorded. Second most popular, by number of times recorded, would have to be "Jolene." Written the same day as "I Will Always Love You," the song has been recorded three times by Dolly herself (with both the 1974 and 1975 versions garnering Grammy nominations). Olivia Newton-John did it in 1976, and alt-punk rocker Patti Smith also recorded it. Paula Cole uses the tune as the finale for her live shows. From 1989 through 2001, it was recorded by many more artists, including Reba McEntire, Matraca Berg, Janie Frickie, Rhonda Vincent, Sherrie Austin (No. 55 country), Natalie Merchant and several groups in England (where Dolly's original was a top 10 pop hit), including dance versions by Becky Brown and Strawberry Switchblade. I've even come across a version in Czech and an awesome a capella recording by the female vocalists of Simply Red. The song has also been popular with male singers (giving an interesting gay twist to the classic) , with male-lead covers including those by Sisters of Mercy, the Geraldine Fibbers and The White Stripes. Third would have to be "Put It Off Until Tomorrow." It became a standard immediately after Bill Phillips No. 6 version in 1966 featured Dolly on harmony, with several other artists recording it the same year. Dolly herself has done it four times, but other covers have included those by Ricky Skaggs, Loretta Lynn, Jan Howard, Jeanie Seely, The Wilburn Brothers, The Osborne Brothers and The Kendalls, who took it to No. 11 in 1979. Insofar as chart performance, other than those already mentioned above, not many singers have released their covers of her songs as singles. The other most successful ones have been Merle Haggard's country No. 1 on "Kentucky Gambler" and Emmylou Harris' country No. 3 "To Daddy." A good list of covers (although nowhere near complete as there have been almost as many recordings of Dolly songs by other artists as there are by Dolly herself) is here.

THE SINGER

What was Dolly's first single?
Her first single was a song she and her uncle co-wrote called "Puppy Love," which was recorded in 1957 (she was 11) at the small indie label Goldband in Louisiana. It was released in April 1959 but didn't chart. In 1962 (age 16), she recorded another song that the pair wrote, "It's Sure Gonna Hurt," as her first major label single for Mercury in Nashville, but it didn't chart either. In 1965, a year after moving to Nashville, she signed with Monument Records, which promoted her as a pop singer and released her first single that year. After seeing little success (only one of her five first singles charted -- near the bottom of the pop chart), they allowed her to sing country starting in 1967, when she charted her first country single.

What was Dolly's first chart single?
Her first-ever chart single was "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby," which went to No. 108 on the pop charts in 1965. Her first uncredited country single was "Put It Off Until Tomorrow," which Dolly wrote and on which she sang what was essentially a duet harmony vocal on the No. 6 Bill Phillips hit in 1966. Her first credited country single was "Dumb Blonde" in 1967, which made it to No. 24. Her first adult contemporary chart single was "Jolene," which went to No. 44 in 1974, and it was also her first British chart single, going to No. 7 on their pop chart.

What was Dolly's most recent chart single?
Jesus & Gravity," the second single from Backwoods Barbie, stalled at No. 56 on the country charts in early 2008, following the CD's first single, "Better Get To Livin'," from her upcoming CD Backwoods Barbie, which made it only to No. 48 country in the U.S. in fall 2007. Her country No. 1 with Brad Paisley, "When I Get Where I'm Going," went to No. 39 pop in 2006, making it her most recent entry on that U.S. chart. Her cover of Bread's "If" spent one week at No. 73 on the British pop singles chart in October 2002, making it her most recent U.K. single.

How many chart singles has Dolly had?
By the official Billboard count, she's charted 119 between 1965 and 2008 on America's three major genre charts. Of these, 113 have been on the country chart (Billboard counts double-sided songs as two entries, even if the B-side of a single didn't reach a specific chart number on its own, and sales singles if it charted on the singles sales chart but not on the general country singles chart which relies heavily on radio airplay; if these are deleted, the country total is 107 country, 113 total for all three charts), 27 on the pop chart and 26 on the adult contemporary chart. I know those numbers don't add up, but that's because several songs made all three charts. Of those which only made it onto one chart, 78 were country-only, two pop-only and three adult contemporary-only. Of her pop chart singles, only two have been No. 1 ("9 to 5" and "Islands In The Stream"), one additional one made it into the top 10 ("Here You Come Again," No. 3), and five others made it into the top 40. Of her adult contemporary singles, the same two went No. 1 and two more made it into the top 10 (both at No. 2 -- "Here You Come Again" and "Baby It's Cold Outside"), while 20 additional songs made the top 40. Amazingly, during her nearly 20 years at RCA, only two of her 75 singles for the label didn't chart ("When I Sing For Him" and "Christmas Without You"). Statistically, she is the No. 1 female country performer of all time based on singles performance with 25 No. 1 hits and 88 top 40 hits, holding the women's record for both categories, and 55 top 10 hits, a record she held for 21 years for a female artist until Reba McEntire bested her in 2009. Her complete single discography and chart history is available here.

What was Dolly's first No. 1 and what was her most recent No. 1?
"Joshua" was first, going to No. 1 in February 1971. "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Brad Paisley was the most recent, hitting the top spot in March 2006.

How many records has Dolly released?
There have been literally hundreds of various compilation albums, but I consider (and, generally, so do her labels) 73 to be original albums. This includes 63 studio albums, four live albums (one of which was with several other artists on which she performed five songs) and six "official" greatest hits collections. These albums, their cover art, and their chart histories are available here. In addition, she has appeared on dozens of other artists' records as a harmony or duet singer and contributed songs to several special projects such as tribute albums. She is also the No. 1 female country performer of all time based on albums chart performance and holds the record for the most top 10 albums of any country artist (male or female) with 41 of them (Loretta Lynn is second with 40).

How many records did Porter and Dolly release? What was their biggest hit?
Between 1967 and 1976, the duo released a dozen duet albums and one greatest hits collection. Also during this time, Porter appeared on Dolly's first live album for a handful of duets. After a highly-publicized break-up of their duo, one final single from their original recordings, "Is Forever Longer Than Always," was released in 1976. After a court battle, they agreed to release one final album together in 1980, their 14th (including the official best of collection). All total, they released 21 singles, 14 of which made it into the top 10 on the country charts, and one even on the lower reaches of the pop chart. However, only one single went to No. 1 country, "Please Don't Stop Loving Me" in 1974. An amazingly popular duo, they were nominated for four Grammy Awards (but never won) and took home the CMA's Vocal Group of The Year award once and Vocal Duo of the Year award for the first two years it was given out, being nominated for one of the two awards eight years in a row.

For what labels has Dolly recorded?
Goldband - 1957 (one single); Mercury - 1962 (one single); Monument - 1965-1967; RCA - 1967-1986; Warner Brothers - 1987 (one album); Columbia - 1987-1995; Rising Tide (a Universal company) - 1996-1997; Decca (an MCA company, which is owned by Universal) - 1998. Asylum/Electra - 1999 (one album, actually recorded in 1994). In 1994, she began her own label imprint, Blue Eye Records, which co-released her final two Columbia albums and her Rising Tide and Decca albums. In 1999, she released a gospel album on Blue Eye only which was available exclusively at Dollywood. Also that year, she began recording her own albums on Blue Eye and leasing the masters to indie label Sugar Hill for distribution, which she continued to do through 2006. In 2007, she began her own Dolly Records label.

Dolly had a dance club hit with "Peace Train" in 1997 and released another techno remix with "Walking On Sunshine"/"Two Doors Down" in 1999. Had she done dance music before?
Yes, her first and only attempt at disco was a discotheque hit, also making it to No. 25 on the pop charts and No. 11 adult contemporary (even breaking into the top 50 on the country charts, to give you an idea of disco's impact even in country music). The song, "Baby I'm Burning" from Heartbreaker, was released as a re-mixed single called Dance With Dolly backed with another disco tune, "I Wanna Fall In Love" (both written by Dolly), in 1978. She also has been working for a year or so on a complete album of dance music, which is expected to be out in the next year or so.

I'm trying to find out if Dolly recorded a specific song or on which album a song appeared. Can you help?
A list of all of her recordings that have been released, and the albums from which they originated, is available here.

THE ACTRESS

What did Dolly's films gross at the box office?
Her first acting job, 1980's 9 to 5, was one of the year's top films earning $103 million ($252 million in today's dollars). Her next-biggest success was 1989's Steel Magnolias, at $84 million ($140 million in today's dollars). Next was The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1982, bringing in $70 million (which would be $156 million in today's dollars) to become sixth-biggest musical hit of all time. She had a cameo in the 1993 film The Beverly Hillbillies, which took in $42 million (about $67 million today). Her other theatrical releases, 1984's Rhinestone and 1992's Straight Talk, each grossed $21 million (about $41 million and $33 million, respectively, today). (Her starring roles in made-for-television films are 1999's Blue Valley Songbird on Lifetime, 1996's Unlikely Angel on CBS, 1991's Wild Texas Wind on NBC and 1986's ratings smash A Smoky Mountain Christmas on ABC.)

What acting honors has Dolly received?
Her first acting honor was a 1978 nomination for the Best Supporting Actress Emmy for her appearance on Cher's ABC special Cher . . . Special, the only acting nomination anyone in the show received (she lost to Saturday Night Live cast member Gilda Radner). When 9 to 5 came out in 1980, she was loved by critics. While she only earned a Best Song nomination at the Oscars, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Best Song and Best New Film Star at the Golden Globe Awards and won Favorite Movie Song at the Peoples' Choice Awards. The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas gave her a Best Actress nomination at the Golden Globes as well, and the film itself was nominated for Best Comedy/Musical, although that honor doesn't go to the actors. She also won Peoples' Choice Awards for Favorite Female Performer In A New Television Series and Favorite All-Around Female Performer for her ABC variety series in 1988, after it had been cancelled, and Steel Magnolias won Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture, which likewise doesn't go to the actors. "The Day I Fall In Love" from Beethoven's 2nd was nominated for Best Song both at the Oscars and Golden Globes, but those awards are for the songwriters, not performers. Likewise, her production company, Sandollar, won an Oscar for Best Documentary for its first project, Common Threads: The Stories Of The AIDS Quilt. Her song 'Travelin' Thru" from the 2005 film Transamerica was nominated in 2006 for both the Golden Globes and Oscars. A full list of awards and honors is here.

MUSIC AWARDS AND HONORS

What are some of the records that Dolly holds?
Well, perhaps her most impressive record is that she holds the most No. 1 singles for any female artist on the country charts, having reached the top spot 25 times (with a total 55 top 10 hits). The only other female artist anywhere near that number on any chart is Madonna, who holds the top record with 36 No. 1 hits on the dance/club play chart, one of the minor Billboard charts, so Dolly's total is also the record for any female on a major Billboard singles chart. (There is some confusion due to Reba McEntire releasing a CD claiming to have 33 No. 1s, but they took her 22 No. 1 singles from the Billboard country chart, which is the industry standard, and added songs that went to No. 1 in other, minor competing publications, such as Cash Box or Radio & Records, but only made the top 10 in Billboard, so she has not broken Dolly's record. Since that CD came out, Reba has scored two more chart-toppers to have 24 compared to Dolly's 25.) Also, Dolly holds the record for the most charted full-length albums for a female country artist at 71 and the record for the most full-length country top 10 albums at 41.

How many awards has Dolly won?
There are way too many to count, but of the three "biggest" awards, she has the most for any female country artist with 26 (Loretta Lynn is second with 21): seven Grammy Awards, 11 CMA Awards (eight "regular" awards and three "special" awards) and eight ACM Awards. Other major awards include eight Music City News Awards (later the TNN/MCN and TNN/Country Weekly Awards) and three American Music Awards. By nominations, she has received two nods from the Oscars and one from the Emmy Awards, five Golden Globe nominations, 44 Grammy nominations, 44 CMA nominations and 39 ACM nominations. She has also been honored for her work on literacy by the American Association of Publishers with their third annual AAP Honor Award in 2000 (the previous honorees had been C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb and National Public Radio) and the American Association of School Administrators' fourth annual Galaxy Award in 2002 (the previous honorees had been Stephen Spielberg, Sen. John Glenn and Bill Gates). She is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Association International Hall of Fame, the American Songwriters Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry. In 2005, she received the nation's highest honor for artists, the National Medal of arts, and in 2006, she received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. (A list of awards and nominations is available here.)

Where does Dolly stand on the most Grammy Awards by female country performers?
With seven gramophone trophies credited in her name, Dolly is fifth. Frequent collaborator Allison Krauss is first with 20 Grammy wins (more than not only any other country artist male or female but also more any other woman in music). The Dixie Chicks are in second place with 13 trophies. Trio partners Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt are in third and fourth places with 12 and 10 each, respectfully (three of Ronstadt’s are in country categories), with Dolly in fifth place with seven awards. Naomi Judd in in sixth place with six awards, followed by Faith Hill, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Shania Twain, Wynonna Judd and June Carter Cash with five each; and eighth-place group Anne Murray, Olivia Newton-John and k.d. lang with four each (two of lang's awards and one of Newton-John's are in country categories). In her career, Dolly has garnered a total of 44 nominations in the country, pop, film and gospel fields.

What was Dolly's most successful single?
Sales-wise, it would be "Islands In The Stream" with Kenny Rogers, which sold more than 2 million copies and was the biggest-selling record of 1983. Chart-wise, it depends on which chart. "Here You Come Again" was her biggest country chart single, staying at No. 1 for five weeks. "Islands In The Stream" and "9 to 5" tied on the pop charts with two weeks each, and "Islands In The Stream" topped the adult contemporary charts for four weeks.

What was Dolly's most successful album?
Sales-wise, it was Kenny & Dolly's Once Upon A Christmas, which sold more than 2 million copies as of 1989 (it's been in constant release since then, so it's probably closer to 4 or 5 million now). Chart-wise, on the country chart it was 9 to 5 And Odd Jobs, which was No. 1 for 10 weeks, and Trio on the pop chart, where it reached No. 6.

How many gold and platinum records has Dolly received?
She has had 18 singles and albums receive 26 total gold and platinum awards. She has had two gold singles (sales in excess of 1 million copies): "9 to 5" and "Here You Come Again;" one gold and platinum single (2 million): "Islands In The Stream;" and one gold digital single (which at that time were for sales in excess of 100,000 units, although that has since been increased to a 500,000 minimum), "When I Get Where I'm Going." On the album side, she has had one album reach gold (500,000), platinum (1 million) and double-platinum (2 million) status: Once Upon A Christmas; five reach gold and platinum levels: Slow Dancing With The Moon, Eagle When She Flies, Trio, Greatest Hits and Here You Come Again; and eight gold only: Trio II, Home For Christmas, Honky Tonk Angels, White Limozeen, 9 to 5 And Odd Jobs, Great Balls Of Fire, Heartbreaker and Best Of Dolly Parton.

Are those certifications accurate?
Unfortunately, no. The main problem with the RIAA system is that labels have no incentive to pay the costs of having an album certified if the artist is no longer actively recording for them. For instance, RCA last certified a Dolly solo recording (Greatest Hits) the year she left the label in 1986. They last certified a duet recording with Kenny Rogers (Once Upon A Christmas) in 1989, about the time he left the label. They haven't done a thing with them since. To have an album certified, a record label must pay all expenses for an RIAA auditor to visit their offices to research and verify all of their sales data. An additional fee must then be paid for the certification. If the artist isn't recording there, the label generally has no desire to pay all of that money to promote, publicize and honor someone who doesn't work for them anymore, even though the company continues to sell thousands of their records every year. A classic example is that of RCA and John Denver. RCA submitted the label's final certification of his original recordings in 1981 yet continued to re-issue his albums for the next 20 years. After his death, RCA re-certified his recordings, admitting that more than 19 million copies of his albums had been sold by the label during that period which were not added to his official RIAA total as gold, platinum and multi-platinum albums until 2001. Likewise, RCA has kept several Dolly titles in almost constant availability through re-issues since she left the label. There are most likely several of her RCA albums which have since reached gold status (or, if already gold, the have reached the platinum or multi-platinum status) that the label hasn't certified. The same is true with some of her recordings from Columbia. As another poignant example, in 1989, the RIAA reduced the sales requirements for gold and platinum singles, making them 500,000 and 1 million, respectively, down from the previous 1 million and 2 million minimums. This rule was also made retroactive for all previous singles, pending the record labels paying for the re-certifications. Under this rule, even if no sales after their original releases are taken into account, "9 to 5" and "Here You Come Again" should be upgraded to platinum status and "Islands In The Stream" to double platinum status, and there are no telling how many Dolly singles from the 70s and 80s should be certified gold because they passed 500,000 copies in sales back when the RIAA gold level was 1 million. Making the lack of recognition even more insulting is when publications (such as Country Weekly) rely on RIAA totals alone for sales figures. Using RIAA numbers only (and for her solo work alone as well), the magazine has published that Dolly has only sold 9 million albums and singles in her entire career (her actual RIAA total is 15 million once duet and trio recordings are added in, but the magazine instead used her solo work only). Also, the RIAA figures do not count any title which sold less than 500,000 copies (1 million for pre-1989 singles), and Dolly has had more than 60 albums over the past 40 years sell in the 200,000-400,000 range and more than 100 singles at less than 1 million copies, so none of those is counted by the RIAA. In contrast, the actual number of albums and singles she's sold is in excess of 100 million. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the RIAA in 2006 changed its certification for gold singles from 100,000 up to 500,000, meaning she gets credit in most counts now for 500,000 units for her gold digital single, "When I Get Where I'm Going," even though it only sold somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 digital copies online.

I know the page has been updated, but yesterday's page is still coming up. What's wrong?
It's likely that your Internet browser isn't set to automatically update each page that you visit. Browsers, like Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or AOL's browser program, were designed when everyone had slow speed Internet access. Whenever you visit a page online, all of the text and images are saved to your computer in what is called a cache or temporary Internet file. That way, if you visit the same page a short time after accessing it earlier, your computer can automatically load the images and text from the last visit you made so that it loads much more quickly. There are three basic ways to combat this problem. First, you may simply hit "reload" or "refresh" when you visit the page to load the most recent version. Secondly, you can empty the cache or delete the temporary Internet files each time you log off of the Internet (on Windows' Internet Exlplorer, this is done by accessing the Internet Options box from either your Control Panel or under the Tools tab of your Internet browser, finding the section titled "Temporary Internet Files" on the General tab, and clicking "Delete Files"). Regularly deleting your temporary files can be a good idea, as it frees up space on your hard drive which these saved temporary files eat up. This is especially beneficial if you use the Internet a lot, which consequently results in a lot of saved text and images. Third, you may set your web browser to automatically load the current version of every page you visit (again, on Internet Exlplorer, this is also done from the Internet Options window and the Temporary Internet Files section -- click on "settings" under Temporary Internet Files; a new window will open with the four options under "check for newer versions of stored pages": every visit to the page, every time you start Internet Explorer, Automatically, and Never -- choose every visit to the page). One of these three options should solve the problem.

When did Dollymania start?
I originally started the site as a small, one-page tribute to Dolly on my personal website on Prodigy.net around the spring of 1998. Over a few short months, I added more and more pages until it started to take on a life of its own. I soon came up with the name "Dollymania" and started calling it that around October 1998. Dollymania moved to its own domain (dollymania.net) in May 2000, and the personal website closed soon after.

What awards or recognitions has the site received?
In 2002, Dollymania was named one of the best online Dolly resources by Gannett newspapers' national e-Technology section (published in most of the papers of Gannett, the largest newspaper chain in America, as well as on all Gannett papers' websites), with the reviewer noting it is a "great site that includes exhaustive FAQs about her life and career, big photo galleries and a page for collectors of Dolly memorabilia." In 2001, the site was profiled in national gay and lesbian news bi-weekly The Advocate, where the reviewer wrote: "Dollymania is the ultimate compilation of facts, figures and charts about Dolly Parton. Short of a visit to Dollywood, you'll never be more immersed in Dollyness." The music search engine Country Music Club.com dubbed it one of the 13 "coolest" sites on the Internet dedicated to country music, and both VH1.com and SonicNet named it one of their "cool" site choices. It has been noted in newspapers in Santa Monica and New York City and has been mentioned on-air on the cable networks County Music Television and Great American Country. It was featured in the newspaper column, radio show and website Cowboys in Cyberspace in Australia. In 2003, the voters of the Interactive Music Awards in England sponsored by British Telecommunications selected the site No. 82 out of all music sites online (both official and fan-based), up from No. 102 in 2002, out of more than 2,000 nominees. It slipped back to No. 108 in 2005 but was the No. 1-rated site dedicated to a country music personality in the contest that year. In 2006, it ranked No. 57 on the countdown, again taking the No. 1 spot worldwide for websites dedicated to country artists. It was also the first Dolly site to receive the six-star Gold Award from the voters of Starpages.net and the only Dolly site to achieve its eight-star Titanium Award. In 2003, it was named by My Gay Web as a Silver Award winner, included the Golden Web Awards' list of best sites online, and was a Peoples' Choice Award selection in the Cyber-Teddy Top 500 Web Sites.

How many readers does Dollymania have?
When the site first started, it averaged a few dozen hits per month, but readership has grown steadily since then. By the time it moved to its own domain in May 2000, it had about 5,000 visitors a month. Seven or eight months later, it was at about 10,000 a month. By the end of 2001, it had reached about 15,000 a month. As of mid-2002, it averaged about 20,000 hits each month. By mid-2003, it averaged between 25,000 and 30,000 monthly. Today, it runs usually somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 visitors per month. The cumulative total since late 1998 is shown on the counter located near the bottom center of the site's front page. In early April 2003, that number passed half a million, it passed 1 million in November 2004.

Do you make any money off the site?
No. I do it for no pay in my spare time. The only compensation I receive is a small commission off CDs sold via the links on the site to Amazon.com. Basically, I earn enough credit on the commissions to cover the regular monthly costs of operating the site with very little, if any, extra "profit" left over. There are also some ads, but they really don't generate any revenue. So it's done to honor Dolly and to provide the best source of news and information on Dolly to her fans.

How do you find the information that you use?
Some of it I dig up on my own from sources knowledgeable of Dolly's career. A lot of it I take from other news sites in the Internet, television and print media. (And before anyone accuses me of stealing, it is within the law to re-publish a limited amount of information from another source in the process of news reporting or commentary so long as the majority of the article is not reprinted in its entirety and proper citation of the original source is made. This is the "fair use" doctrine of copyright law. It does not, however, generally extend to audio or visual media -- such as photographs or song clips -- unless you have permission from the copyright holder to republish the material, which is why you do not find multimedia clips, Associated Press photos or things of that nature on the site.) Over the years, I have developed a method for the news pages, entertainment sites and search engines I use for my daily "Dolly search" for information to post on the site. It only takes about an hour or so on the average day to review all of the information, prepare the update and load the revised pages onto the site. I also have a dedicated base of several dozen readers who e-mail me anytime they stumble across Dolly information in the press. Thanks to you all! It helps so much!

Do you ever pass along rumors?
Generally, no. First, I do not post stories that come from the supermarket tabloids -- because nearly all of their stories are almost entirely false.