Dolly good show

As the global icon of country music celebrates her milestone 80th birthday, a new documentary filled with famous fans tells her extraordinary story

- BY RICHARD BARBER

DOLLY Parton is 80 this month but she's still working 9 to 5. And the icon of country music, film and philanthropy is arguably more influential and famous than she's ever been.

A new hour-long Radio 2 documentary on BBC Sounds celebrates the Jolene singer's landmark birthday and tells the story of her extraordinary rise to fame and fortune.

Born fourth in a hard-up family of 12 in the Tennessee backwoods, she set her sights on a music career and, via a mix of talent and tenacity, became an international icon famed for her singing and prolific writing: currently more than 3,000 songs and counting.

Then there's her philanthropy. Her Imagination Library has supplied six million free books to UK primary school children alone, and she donated. $1million to help research into the development of the Moderna Covid vaccine.

But it was through country music that American audiences first became aware of Dolly, courtesy of Porter Wagoner, who introduced his 21-year-old protégé to the world via his TV show in 1967.

Dolly scored her first Nol single, Joshua, in February 1971. But her biggest hit of the period was Jolene. Released in late 1973, it topped the US country chart in February 1974, eventually reaching No7 in the UK in 1976.

Always envisioning a solo career, she made the decision to leave Wagoner's TV show in mid-1974. The same year, her song I Will Always Love You, written about her professional break from him, went to Nol on the country chart.

Around the same time, Elvis Presley indicated he wanted to record the song. Dolly was interested until Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her it was standard procedure for the songwriter to sign over half of the publishing rights to any song recorded by Presley.

She refused - a decision credited with helping make her many millions of dollars in royalties from the song over the years, including the charttopping version by Whitney Houston.