Her story is so well documented, there really isn’t much to add. But letting the day go without acknowledging Dolly Parton’s 78th Birthday today in unallowable. I am an unabashed fan. She is the composer of more than 3,000 songs. She has 44 Top 10 Country albums. 110 charted singles. She can lay claim to being the greatest Country music singer of all-time, certainly the greatest female Country singer. She owes her business savvy to her father who, despite being illiterate, was the smartest person she claims to have ever known when it came to business and turning a profit. She grew up in dire poverty. Her philanthropy is second-to-none, especially in relation to education and literacy. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which mails one book per month from birth through kindergarten to all enrolled children, has donated more than 100,000,000 books since the mid-80’s. And the $1,000,000 she donated to Vanderbilt University essentially funded the initial stages of development of the Moderna vaccine against COVID-19. She’s a National Treasure.

Her earliest years in music were spent mainly as a songwriter until she got her big break in ’67, being invited by Porter Wagoner to appear weekly on his syndicated television show The Porter Wagoner Show, and joining him on the road as a duet partner. Their albums were huge hits on the country charts, but her own albums didn’t do much of anything commercially. It took until 1974’s Jolene to kick off the true juggernaut of her career. There are a few musical highlights below, if you have some time. Try and carve out a few extra minutes to watch the full Newport 2019 surprise appearance with Brandi Carlile and The Highwomen. She killed it.

Today’s Playlist is a SomethingIsHappening compendium of others covering Dolly and Dolly covering others:

She is as quotable as they come:

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”

“When someone shows you their true colors, believe them.”

“People always ask me how long it takes to do my hair. I don’t know, I’m never there.”

“I’m not offended by dumb blonde jokes because I know that I’m not dumb. I also know that I’m not blonde.”

“The magic is inside you, there ain’t no crystal ball.”

A few musical highlights…

#DollyParton
#BrandiCarlile
#Jolene
#EmmylouHarris
#LindaRonstadt
#PorterWagoner

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