Dolly bites into a string of candy at a "taffy cutting" instead of the usual ribbon cutting to open a new business. The appearance during the April season opening of Dollywood celebrates the park's new Victorian-themed candy shop and ice cream parlor. Image copyright © 2006 T. Duane Gordon/Dollymania.net. May not be reproduced without prior written consent.

This is your Dollymania Year In Review for 2006, the eighth annual installment of the only published overview of the past year in Dolly's life!

January

For the first time in 14-and-a-half years, Dolly is back in the country top 10 singles, as "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Brad Paisley enters at No. 8 on the Billboard charts. The tune's U.S. performance gives Dolly back her record for the female artist with the most top 10 country singles, with a total of 55. Earlier in the year, Reba McEntire had tied her feat with a 54th top 10, but Dolly once again edges past her for the sole top spot.

“Hustle & Flow (It Ain't Over)" written by Al Kapone and performed by Terrence Howard from Hustle & Flow bests Dolly's "Travelin' Thru" from the film TransAmerica for Best Song at the 11th annual Critics' Choice Awards.

It is announced on Dollymania that for the first time in two decades, Dolly will skip her annual Dollywood Foundation benefit concerts at Dollywood due to the fact that she will not have a band on staff since she has decided to take the year off from touring to focus on other projects, most notably composing the score for a Broadway adaptation of 9 To 5.

Good friend Emmylou Harris screens for the media three public service announcements featuring herself, Dolly and Loretta Lynn for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as part of a campaign to encourage pet owners to bring chained dogs indoors during cold weather. Dolly's features her song "Will He Be Waiting," which actress Kathy Najimy lip-synchs as she rushes home in her car to meet her dog -- as a reminder that pets need company, too.

Thanks to her collaboration with Brad Paisley on "When I Get Where I'm Going," Dolly snags the eighth top 40 pop hit of her career, while "I Still Miss Someone," a duet with Martina McBride, spends five weeks on the country singles chart, peaking at No. 50.

Producers for Naomi Judd's weekly Sunday morning talk show on the Hallmark Channel, Naomi's New Morning, confirm that Dolly has taped an interview with her longtime friend to air on the cable channel in March. Image at left from the program courtesy The Hallmark Channel. Used with permission.

A satellite delay in that last show makes it appear that when King tells her he hopes she wins she replies “I will,” although in reality she was responding to his previous comment that he hopes she has a good time at the awards. When this is pointed out on the site, Dolly releases a statement to the public via Dollymania explaining the problem and assuring fans: “I didn't want somebody to think I was that arrogant.”

Dolly’s 2005 collection of ‘60s and ‘70s folk rock cover tunes, Those Were The Days, is released in Europe, after having been delayed several months due to a British record label backing out of its distribution at the last minute the previous year. Thanks to promotion from previously-taped and remote satellite appearances on television and radio, the disc debuts in the U.K. at No. 35 pop and No. 2 country (compared to No. 48 pop and No. 9 country in the U.S.). EMI, which distributes the project overseas, releases "Both Sides Now" from the CD to British radio as a single, although it fails to chart.

March

Dolly scores her record-breaking 25th country No. 1 single when “When I Get Where I’m Going” with Brad Paisley hits the top spot on the Billboard country singles tally in its March 4 edition. (The song also reaches No. 1 on competing Radio & Records magazine, No. 39 U.S. pop, No. 2 Canadian country, No. 23 Canadian pop and No. 1 on both CMT and GAC.) Dolly had previously held the record for the most No. 1 hits for any female country artist with 24, followed by Reba McEntire with 22. Of all female artists on all charts, Dolly is second, surpassed only by Madonna, who at the time had 34 chart-toppers on the Dance/Club Play list. (Reba is second and Aretha Franklin third with 20 R&B No. 1s). Dolly also becomes the only artist, male or female, to score a country No. 1 in each of the past four decades. (While both Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers made it to the top in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘00s, neither had reached the pole position in the 1990s.) It is Dolly’s first No. 1 since “Rockin’ Years” with Ricky Van Shelton in May 1991, and she also regains her record of the longest span of No. 1 hits for a female country performer, running 35 years and one month. (Reba had previously taken that record from her a couple of years earlier with a No. 1 span of 21 years and seven months.)

Although she was the majority of critics' favorite to walk on stage and accept the Oscar for Best Song, Dolly's expected victory in the category is upset by Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard (Three 6 Mafia) for rap number "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" from Hustle & Flow. Dolly had been nominated for "Travelin' Thru" from the film Transamerica and performs the song on the live telecast wearing a white Robert Behar pantsuit and introduced by actress Naomi Watts. She walks the red carpet prior to the broadcast, donning a pastel pink Behar gown, with the film's director, Duncan Tucker, on her arm. For both appearances she wears several million dollars worth of diamonds. Seated on the isle a few rows behind Philip Seymour Hoffman, she is shown from the audience several times throughout the evening and looks genuinely happy, squealing with delight, when the Memphis rappers win over her for Best Song (she had
said in interviews she’d be happy for them to win because they’re fellow Tennesseans, and several members of the rap group said in interviews that being nominated alongside a legend like Dolly, and getting to meet her in person, was more than enough recognition regardless of whether they win or lose) . She also makes a film appearance during the ceremony from 9 To 5 in a montage honoring movies with a message. It marks Dolly's second Academy Award nomination, having previously received a nod for "9 To 5" in the same category, and third time as an Oscar performer. The category's other nominee this year was "In The Deep" from Crash by Kathleen "Bird" York and Michael Becker. Images of Dolly arriving at the festivities and performing on stage are Copyright ©A.M.P.A.S.®. Used with permission.

The documentary about Dolly fans, For The Love Of Dolly, premieres at the Miami International Film Festival. It plays numerous other festivals around the nation, including Nashville’s, throughout the year.

Dolly, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda reunite for the first time since a charity appearance three years earlier. The reason: a Hollywood launch party for the 25th anniversary “Sexist, Egotistical, Lying, Hypocritical Bigot Edition” DVD of their blockbuster film 9 To 5. The three walk the red carpet and attend a party where the room is decorated to look like a circa-1980 office. The trio takes questions from the media and even sings Dolly’s theme song from the film. Co-star Dabney Coleman is scheduled to attend as well but cancels at the last minute due to a family emergency. The DVD, which hits stores in April, features audio commentary by Dolly, Fonda, Tomlin and producer Bruce Gilbert, a featurette on the film’s history and impact, a featurette on director Colin Higgins, a gag reel of 17 outtakes, 10 deleted scenes, a karaoke track of the title song and more. (Get your copy here!) Image from the party Copyright © Fox Home Entertainment. Used with permission. See more here.

April

An artistic rendering of Dolly graces the cover of April’s Business Tennessee magazine in recognition of its annual Power 100 list of the state’s 100 most powerful individuals. Dolly ranks for the year at No. 23, up from No. 36 the previous year.

I Dream Of . . . Dolly! The singer kicks off the 21st season of her Dollywood theme park in style. She dons a fishing outfit to open up a new fish restaurant adjacent to the park’s new $6.5 million Timber Tower ride, takes a mouthful of candy at a “taffy cutting” for the new sweet shop, parades through Pigeon Forge as a damsel in distress, parades through the park’s grounds as a genie and helps emcee a fashion show for the new Dolly’s Closet dress shop at the park. It is also announced that in lieu of her usual fund-raising concerts at the park for the Dollywood Foundation, she will publish a fund-raising cookbook this year instead, complete with a contest to win a barbeque for 100 friends and family featuring Dolly as the special guest. See complete coverage and many more pictures here. Image copyright © 2006 T. Duane Gordon/Dollymania.net. May not be reproduced without prior written consent.

Dolly opens up an official online store here to sell off the left-over merchandize from her Vintage Tour the previous year.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, Dolly and the late Elvis Presley appear together in a new television commercial touting Tennessee tourism. The spot marks the first time Presley’s estate has allowed his image to be used in an advertisement with another celebrity, which the head of Elvis Presley Enterprises says is because “we know that Elvis admired Dolly.” Dolly was filmed for the commercial in front of a “green screen” so that her image could be inserted in the passenger’s seat next to Presley in a scene of him driving a car in his 1967 film Clambake. News of the innovative spot garners media coverage worldwide and later in the year is credited with a large increase in tourism in the state for 2006. (See the ad here.) Image at left courtesy the State of Tennessee's Department of Tourist Development.

Although they have recorded snippets of songs for each other a couple of times in the past decade, it is learned that Porter Wagoner and Dolly have recently recorded their first full duet together in more than a quarter-century. "It's always wonderful to sing with Dolly," Wagoner tells Dollymania. "Our voices blend together like family." It is expected that the duet could appear on a Wagoner CD later in 2007, a year which is slated to feature several new releases from him in recognition of his 50th anniversary on The Grand Ole Opry.

Dolly accepts the Lindy Boggs Award from the Stennis Center for Public Service. She is the first non-political figure to be selected for the honor, named after Louisiana’s first female member of Congress and which each year is presented to a Southern woman who has shown “patriotism, courage, integrity and leadership through public service.” Dolly, honored for her literacy efforts through her nationwide Imagination Library program, joins past winners First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson and Rosalyn Carter, Secretary of State Condi Rice, Attorney General Janet Reno, Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and Elizabeth Dole, Governors Martha Collins (of Kentucky) and Ann Richardson (of Texas), Mississippi Lt. Gov. Evelyn Gandy and former NAACP Chair and political activist Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Images courtesy The Stennis Center for Public Service. Used with permission.

It is announced on Dollymania that Sugar Hill Records will re-package Dolly’s three roots music CDs (The Grass Is Blue, Little Sparrow and Halos & Horns) with a bonus DVD of videos and re-mixes as a boxed set. Dolly Parton: The Acoustic Collection, 1999-2002 hits stores in October.

Dolly and Brad Paisley take home two Academy of Country Music Awards for their collaboration “When I Get Where I’m Going”: Vocal Event of the Year and Video of the Year. They lose Song of the Year to Brooks & Dunn with “Believe,” while Paisley’s CD which contains the track, Time Well Wasted, wins Album of the Year.

In what is perhaps her most spectacular entrance in the park’s history, Dolly welcomes the crowd to Dollywood’s fourth annual KidsFest. Just a couple of tricks into the headlining “Big Cats and Magic Show” by Las Vegas entertainers the Fercos Brothers, they drop a curtain from their cage to reveal not one of their tigers, but rather Dolly in her version of a rhinestone-studded black and white cat suit. She also recognizes contestant Nina Gilliam from the Miss South Carolina pageant for her volunteer work with the Imagination Library; Dolly Parton Scholarship recipients Bethany Kloster of Gatlinburg Pittman High School, Tiffany Alexander of Sevier County High School, Dexter Johnson of Pigeon Forge High School and Erin Keller of Seymour High School; and the National State Teachers of the Year organization’s Dolly Parton Chasing Rainbows Award recipient Bobbie Clifton of Shelby, Miss. Image at left is copyright © 2006 T. Duane Gordon/Dollymania.net. May not be reproduced without prior written consent. See more photos here!

CMT Greatest Moments: Dolly Parton airs on the cable network counting down the best achievements of Dolly’s career. The No. 1 spot is the day in 1987 when a bronze statue of her was unveiled on the Sevier County Courthouse lawn in Sevierville, Tenn. Image at left from the interview for the show courtesy CMT. Used with permission. See more shots here.

Dollywood formally announces its addition for the following year: the $17.5 million Mystery Mine monster of a coaster to open in April 2007. The largest capital investment in its history, the park's second steel roller coaster will cost just slightly less than its past three expansions combined (2006's $6.5 million Timber Tower, 2005's $5 million Country Fair renovation and the $8 million Thunderhead wooden roller coaster in 2004) and add an acre to the Timber Canyon area. The Gerstlauer-built contraption will be the first American version of the company's Euro-fighter design. Themed to represent an abandoned, and apparently haunted, early 20th century coal mine with seven mine carts carrying eight passengers each, the two-and-a-half-minute trek will take riders to speeds of up to 46 miles per hour. Highlights on the 1,811-foot track will include an impressive 95-degree, 85-foot vertical drop, several inversions, numerous high-speed twists and state-of-the-art special effects. Artist's rendering of the ride at left is courtesy Dollywood.

The leading national newspaper covering the non-profit sector in America, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, chooses Dolly as its cover girl for an issue focusing on musicians and charity, calling her “one of the most generous musicians in the United States.” The piece touches on her massive Imagination Library literacy program as well as her many efforts to improve the lives of people in her region of Tennessee and notes that much of her personal giving is done anonymously. Although most stories in the publication (including this piece) are usually available online for its subscribers only, the newspaper chooses to make the full text of Dolly’s profile available exclusively for readers of Dollymania in a special page set up here. Cover image used with permission.

Dolly fans in the D.C. and Richmond, Va., areas receive a shock when a local radio host broadcasts a false report that Dolly has died. The comment came on the program Elliot in the Morning, which airs on one rock station in the Washington market and one in the Richmond market. The "news" quickly circulates in the area, with calls coming in to several other local radio stations asking whether it is true. The rumor receives so much attention that one country station in Richmond which doesn't even air the program posts at the top of its website: "Dolly is fine! There are crazy rumors that Dolly Parton has passed, but rest assured, the 60-year-old country music legend is alive and well." The hoax is also posted that day on encyclopedia site Wikipedia but is quickly removed. A related website, dollypartonisdead.com, is also launched the same day “brought to you by” the radio station which is the above-mentioned program’s home. After a few weeks, the page begins to be updated daily changing the “date of death” so that it appears that she passed away the previous day and listing supposed candlelight vigils to take place later in the week in cities across the nation. After several months, the site closes.

Hours before longtime television host Mike Douglas passes away, it is announced that a DVD to be released in October, Best Of Country Live!, will feature several country music performances from his syndicated program, including Dolly and Richard Dennison performing “Suspicious Minds” on the show in 1977.

“When I Get Where I’m Going” with Brad Paisley snags three Country Music Association Awards nominations, it is announced, going up for Single of the Year, Music Video of the Year and Musical Event of the Year, while the tune's composers, Rivers Rutherford and George Teren, are up for Song of the Year. Paisley’s CD which contains the song is also up for Album of the Year. The nominations return Dolly to the spot as the female artist with the most career CMA nominations, 43, taking the title away from Reba McEntire, who had passed her total in 1994. Image of ABC's Diane Sawyer with Jennifer Nettles and Paisley announcing this year's CMA nominees shows a photo of Dolly performing on the 1984 awards show in the background. Photo by Ida Mae Astute/ABC-TV and provided by the CMA.

September

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which is responsible for issuing all official gold and platinum records in the U.S., confirms that a query from Dollymania uncovered a clerical error which had resulted in Dolly’s name being inadvertently left off the gold and platinum digital single certification awards for her duet “When I Get Where I’m Going” with Brad Paisley, which had been mistakenly credited as a solo recording. After discovering the problem, the award is correctly re-issued in both artists’ names. In addition, it is learned that a new rule change raised the gold level for digital single downloads from 100,000 to 500,000 and platinum from 200,000 to 1 million, but all previously-certified digital singles from the gold through double-platinum levels are to remain certified at the gold level, even if they haven’t reached the new 500,000-download threshold, allowing “Going” to stay gold even though it has only sold about a quarter-million paid downloads.

Dolly premieres her new fund-raising cookbook, Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s, to benefit the Dollywood Foundation at the kick-off for Dollywood’s Bluegrass & BBQ Festival. At the event, one really, really surprised Gatlinburg fan, Mark Walbolt, gets a surprise telephone call from Dolly live on the radio to learn he has won the grand prize barbeque for 100 friends and family featuring her. “Hey, you won me! What are you gonna do with me? Ha-ha!” Dolly shouts. “Oh, God, no!” he replies. “Oh God, yes!” she says. Image at left from the event is © copyright 2006 T. Duane Gordon/Dollymania.net. May not be reproduced without prior written consent. See more shots from the appearance here.

Dolly steals the show with a hilarious guest spot on The Disney Channel tween hit series Hannah Montana. Starring Miley Cyrus and her real-life father Billy Ray Cyrus, the program is the second-highest-rated television show nationwide for children ages 6-14, surpassed only by American Idol, so it exposes Dolly to a huge audience of young people. Image at left is © copyright Disney and is used with permission. See more shots here!

Dolly's annual parade through Pigeon Forge, Tenn., wins the prize as the second-best event of its size in the world at the recent International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) Pinnacle Awards. Image of Dolly "strapped" to a log in the Timber Tower theme of the 2006 parade is © copyright 2006 T. Duane Gordon/Dollymania.net. May not be reproduced without prior written consent.

Dolly gets a gorgeous shot surrounded by roses in the annual music issue of Vanity Fair magazine. For the seventh annual look at music, the magazine this year choses to focus on "country and western" music. Dolly is presented as "The Queen of Country," noting she is "one of the greatest American success stories" from a shack in the Smoky Mountains to selling more than 100 million albums without losing "her charm, her sense of humor or her identity as a country girl." Also photographed separately is former duet partner Porter Wagoner, presented as "The Veteran."

Dollymania announces the cities and dates for Dolly’s first major European tour in three decades. She initially is scheduled to play 17 shows in 10 countries in March and April, but ticket sales go so well that additional dates are added, expanding it to 21 scheduled concerts, nearly all of which are sold out by year’s end. Some cities see sell-outs, though, among the fastest of Dolly’s career. For example, the tour opener in Horsens, Denmark, sells out in seven minutes, while a Belfast, Northern Ireland, engagement sells out in 20 minutes. The demand prompts her to schedule second concerts in each of the two cities, and both of those sell out almost immediately as well.

Dolly and Brad Paisley are named this year's Country Music Association Musical Event of the Year for their collaboration, "When I Get Where I'm Going." Unfortunately, the award is presented prior to the telecast on ABC, so while it is announced on the air that they had won, Paisley's acceptance speech for the honor is not shown. Paisley dedicates the award to Dolly, who is not in attendance, saying: "I want to thank her so much for raising the bar on a song. Any time Dolly Parton sings a song, it's infinitely better in every way. Thank you, Dolly, wherever you are, for being a part of this and giving us another award together." The duo lose their other nominations to Brooks & Dunn and their inspirational hit "Believe," which takes the Single of the Year and Video of the Year honors. The song's composers, Rivers Rutherford and George Teren, also are bested by "Believe," with its writers, Craig Wiseman and Ronnie Dunn, taking home the Song of the Year trophy for songwriters. The full-length album containing the hit Dolly track, Time Well Wasted, is named Album of the Year. Dolly's sole win for the evening brings her total of regular CMA Awards to nine (or a total of 11 if the two special awards she has received from the Association are included). The win also makes Dolly the only artist to win an award in each of the five decades in which the CMA has existed: the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. (Previously, she had been the only one to win awards in four decades, but this marked her first regular CMA victory in the '00s -- although she had won the CMAs' International Achievement Award in 2004, the Association does not count special awards such as that toward an artist's official total.) Image of Paisley accepting the Musical Event of the Year trophy for his Dolly duet is by John Russell/CMA. Provided by Country Music Association. Used with permission.

Dolly makes a short stop at Dollywood to kick off the park's Smoky Mountain Christmas festival with an appearance at a special media and VIP performance of the new "Dollywood's Babes In Toyland" show. Her previously-planned appearance in a dusk parade through the park grounds is cancelled, apparently due to weather. (She also holds the barbeque on the park grounds that afternoon for the winner of her cookbook contest.) Image at left courtesy Harrell Gabehart and0 Patric Parkey taken exclusively for Dollymania and used with permission. See more pictures here.

Dolly's 1971 masterpiece Coat Of Many Colors is selected as one of the 100 best albums of all time by Time magazine, just one of five country selections on the list (the others being by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks and Ray Charles with his first country LP). The top 100 are organized by decade of release rather than in order from best to worst, and Dolly's is one of 29 taken from the 1970s, the decade with the most entries on the countdown. About her disc, the reviewer notes: "Anyone skeptical of a music career that's been gradually obscured by Parton's exuberance on talk show couches needs to pay attention to this archetypal album . . . Parton's not above sentimentality, but it's in constant battle with her feminist/realist leanings, and the whole package is tied together with a voice so crystaline it can't help but crack a little when the going gets rough."

The Imagination Library, Dolly's nationwide literacy program, evolves into an international program with the official launch of its book-giving services in Canada. While in the Toronto area for three sold-out concerts, Dolly takes time for a media appearance to publicize the effort there. Image at left is copyright © 2006 Guntar Kravis and is used with permission. See more pictures here.

The Kennedy Center Honors recognizing Dolly, Smokey Robinson, Zubin Mehta, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Steven Spielberg take place in Washington, D.C. Dolly and her guests are presented the actual honors at a formal dinner hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and are then praised at a White House reception with President and Mrs. Bush prior to the tribute ceremony at the Kennedy Center. During the ceremony, Reba McEntire introduces and narrates a video homage to Dolly, and Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon praises her idol and explains she grew up in Tennessee wanting to be just like Dolly. Providing tribute in song are Carrie Underwood and Kenny Rogers on “Islands In The Stream,” Alison Krauss with Suzanne Cox and Cheryl White on “My Tennessee Mountain Home” and “Jolene,” Shania Twain with “Coat Of Many Colors” and Vince Gill for “I Will Always Love You.” The three-and-a-half-hour ceremony is edited down to 90 minutes (and a half-hour of commercials) for airing on CBS the day after Christmas, resulting in abbreviated performances of each song, “My Tennessee Mountain Home” being cut from broadcast and the speeches by both McEntire and Witherspoon being shortened. However, the big event which garners headlines is Jessica Simpson’s flubbing her performance of “9 To 5.” According to reports, she did not know the words well enough and producers refuse to allow the use of a teleprompter, so her father writes out the lyrics on cue cards which he holds at the foot of the stage. Even with that, she messes up a few words, apologizes to Dolly on stage, stands still and looks confused after the audience’s applause, then walks off to silence. She asks and is allowed to re-tape the song before an empty theatre after the audience leaves the building, but after seeing the tape weeks later asks that it be cut from the broadcast. The show is subsequently edited for television so that all appearances by Simpson are absent. Photo from the event is courtesy The White House. Used with permission. See additional images here.

It is announced that in conjunction with her European tour, six of Dolly's most-loved out-of-print albums from the 1970s and 1980s will be hitting store shelves on CD next year, five of which will be available on disc for the first time ever. The titles will be collected into three "2-on-1" CDs: 1983's Burlap & Satin with 1985's Real Love, 1979's Great Balls Of Fire with 1980's Dolly, Dolly, Dolly and 1976's All I Can Do with 1977's New Harvest . . . First Gathering. Of these, only Real Love was previously available on CD but has been out of print for nearly two decades now.

Dolly fans are treated the holiday season with both The Hallmark Channel and TBN airing her Christmas film Unlikely Angel several times during the month, and CMT playing A Smoky Mountain Christmas regularly as well in December.