Pressing 002Pressed 2026-08-2522 recordssigned Rob

The Queen of Country

Dolly Rebecca Parton, songwriter, of Locust Ridge, Tennessee, died on Tuesday in Nashville.

Fig 1 · Dolly in the mid-seventies, the decade the oldest chapters here were cut. Two inks on paper; she supplies the light.

She was 80. She had recorded the announcement herself years ago and handed it to her nephew to keep, which is as much as anyone needs to know about how she ran her affairs. The family asks for books instead of flowers, for the library she built because her father could not read. She is survived by some three thousand songs, by her own count, several of which grew larger than she was: one spent fourteen weeks at No. 1 in another woman's voice, on publishing she declined to hand Elvis's manager half of. This pressing reads twenty-two of them, hers first: the records she cut alone, then the screens that borrowed them, the partners she sang beside, and the artists who picked her songs up after her. It closes on the thing she plainly believed: that a song sent off in somebody else's voice is not gone.

The ledger watched one come back 43% in a single weekend.

Every dated place these 22 records have lived. Red marks the moment its own chapter is about. Hover a mark to name it, click to go there.

Each record from the year it was made (hollow) to the newest day a chart held it (filled, sized and numbered by markets in the past 14 days). The connector is the distance between those two dated facts, not a claim the record never left. 21 of 22 reach this year. Read fresh at every visit — the records are fixed, the field is not.

Dolly first

1971

"Jolene" is Rolling Stone's No. 1 country song of all time and got a podcast episode all its own in 2019. "Coat of Many Colors" never entered the Hot 100 and sits in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. "Here You Come Again" held country No. 1 for five weeks and reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 — her first pop crossover. Wikipedia — Jolene ↗WNYC — Dolly Parton's America, "The Only One For Me, Jolene" ↗Wikipedia — Coat of Many Colors ↗Wikipedia — Here You Come Again ↗

JoleneDolly Parton
Two chords of dread and a plea to a woman who never answers, cut in one afternoon in May 1973.
peaked #2 in DZ · 2 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-25
- Attached to Dolly Parton, 1946–20262026source
- Covered Beyoncé — JOLENE, Cowboy Carter2024source
- Covered Pentatonix feat. Dolly Parton2016source
- In the film The Intervention source
I Will Always Love YouDolly Parton
A resignation letter to Porter Wagoner, sung instead of sent; she took it to country No. 1 twice, in 1974 and again in 1982.
peaked #100 in TN · 1 market · latest chart date 2026-07-24
- Attached to Dolly Parton, 1946–20262026source
- Covered Whitney Houston — The Bodyguard1992source
Coat of Many ColorsDolly Parton
The commercial record says No. 4 country and no Hot 100 at all; the Library of Congress says permanent, and NBC built a television film out of it in 2015 that thirteen million people watched.
peaked #79 in NG · 1 market · latest chart date 2026-08-24
- Attached to Dolly Parton, 1946–20262026source
- In the film Coat of Many Colors, NBC2015source
Here You Come AgainDolly Parton
Her first pop top ten — a Mann & Weil song she took to No. 3 while it held country No. 1 for five weeks.
- On the show Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life — Winter2016source
- On the show Supergirl2016source
- On the show The Office2008source

The movies and the shows

1992

Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" spent fourteen consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and stands at 11× Platinum — on publishing Parton kept after telling Elvis's manager no. "9 to 5" hit No. 1 pop and No. 1 country on the same single, then never clocked out: a Broadway musical in 2009 with four Tony nominations, one of them hers for the score, and a Super Bowl ad in 2021 she re-recorded as "5 to 9." Wikipedia ↗American Songwriter ↗Wikipedia — 9 to 5 ↗Playbill — 9 to 5 at the Marquis ↗Squarespace — the Super Bowl re-record ↗

9 to 5Dolly Parton
No. 1 pop and No. 1 country on the same 45, out of a movie about getting even with the boss — then a Broadway score, then a Super Bowl spot, forty-one years on.
Title song of the 1980 film; re-cut as 5 to 9 for Super Bowl LV.
peaked #26 in US · 4 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-25
- Attached to Dolly Parton, 1946–20262026source
- On the show The Penguin — After Hours2024source
- In an ad Squarespace Super Bowl LV — re-cut as 5 to 92021source
- On the show 9 to 5: The Musical, Broadway2009source
- On the show The Simpsons — I Married Marge1991source
- In the film 9 to 51980source
- On the show 9 to 5 source
- In the film Deadpool 2 source
- In the film The Love Guru source
- On the show The Orville source
I Will Always Love YouWhitney Houston
The biggest single of Whitney Houston's life is a country writer's farewell note — fourteen weeks at No. 1, on a song Dolly refused to let Colonel Tom Parker take half of.
The Bodyguard, 1992.
peaked #7 in MA · 6 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-21
- In the film The Bodyguard1992source
I Have NothingWhitney Houston
The other towering ballad on the album her farewell note anchored.
The Bodyguard soundtrack, 1992.
peaked #14 in SA · 2 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-18
Run To YouWhitney Houston
The quiet corner of the same soundtrack, carried up the charts on the album Parton's song led.
The Bodyguard soundtrack, 1992.
peaked #6 in IT · 2 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-21

The partnerships

1983

The Trio record with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt went to No. 1 on the country album chart, Platinum, and took the Grammy for Country Performance by a Duo or Group in March 1988. Thirty-six years later Rockstar — standards re-cut with their owners, Sting to Debbie Harry — entered the Billboard 200 at No. 3, the highest chart position of her career, at 77. Wikipedia — Dolly Parton albums discography ↗dollyparton.com ↗Official Charts ↗

Islands In the StreamDolly Parton & Kenny Rogers
A Bee Gees song two country singers made permanent: No. 1 pop, No. 1 country, and CMT's pick for the best country duet ever cut.
peaked #7 in FM · 6 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-25
- Attached to Dolly Parton, 1946–20262026source
The GamblerKenny Rogers
Not her song — her partner. The voice on the other side of Islands, kept close for thirty years.
peaked #22 in FM · 5 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-25
- In the film Kenny Rogers as The Gambler source
- On the show The Gambler source
- On the show The Muppet Show source
- On the show The Office source
- On the show WWE Raw source
To Know Him Is to Love HimEmmylou Harris, Dolly Parton & Linda Ronstadt
Three voices on a 1958 song, and it went to country No. 1.
peaked #27 in JO · 1 market · latest chart date 2026-08-11
Boulder to BirminghamEmmylou Harris
The partner whose harmonies Trio was built around, on her own defining record.
peaked #17 in JO · 1 market · latest chart date 2026-08-11
Hasten Down the WindLinda Ronstadt
The third voice of Trio, singing on her own.
peaked #85 in MY · 1 market · latest chart date 2026-08-18
Every Breath You TakeThe Police
One of the standards she claimed at 77, cut with Sting himself on Rockstar.
peaked #18 in AT · 60 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-25
- Covered Rockstar — Dolly Parton with Sting2023source
- On the show Stranger Things source
- On the show The Blacklist source
- On the show The Sopranos source
Heart of GlassBlondie
Re-cut with Debbie Harry on Rockstar — the owner of the song showing up to hand it over.
peaked #47 in US · 3 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-21
- Covered Rockstar — Dolly Parton with Debbie Harry2023source
Stairway to HeavenLed Zeppelin
She cut it with Lizzo on Rockstar, a bluegrass singer walking into the cathedral like she owned a pew.
peaked #68 in GE · 7 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-25
- Covered Rockstar — Dolly Parton with Lizzo2023source
Wrecking BallMiley Cyrus
Re-cut as a duet with its owner on Rockstar — the reach ran both directions.
peaked #72 in YE · 2 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-01
- Covered Rockstar — duet with Dolly Parton2023source

The ones she reached

2024

The weekend Beyoncé's album dropped, the 1973 original "Jolene" moved from 871,000 to 1.24 million US on-demand plays, up 43% (Luminate) — without re-entering a single chart. And the Parton remix of Sabrina Carpenter's "Please Please Please" entered Hot Country Songs at No. 17 in February 2025 — the chart entry that sealed her Guinness record for top-20 country hits in seven consecutive decades. Billboard ↗Guinness World Records ↗

JOLENEBeyoncé
Rewrites the plea as a warning, and every songwriting credit on it still reads Parton.
peaked #25 in SR · 1 market · latest chart date 2026-08-01
TYRANTBeyoncé & Dolly Parton
Not a cover — a new record with her voice on it, cut in her seventy-ninth year.
peaked #30 in TN · 2 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-25
Jolene (Live)Miley Cyrus
Jolene again, in a third voice — the song has not stopped changing hands in fifty years.
peaked #4 in DZ · 1 market · latest chart date 2026-08-22
Please Please PleaseSabrina Carpenter
The remix with Parton on it put her in the country top 20 for a seventh straight decade, at 79.
peaked #11 in BT · 30 markets · latest chart date 2026-08-25
- Attached to Dolly Parton — the remix2025source
God Only Knowsfor KING & COUNTRY & Dolly Parton
A Christian pop record she joined at 73; it took the Grammy for its category in January 2020.
peaked #58 in SB · 1 market · latest chart date 2026-08-18

About this pressing

No. 002

Chosen by	Rob. By hand and on the hook for it — every song carries one line saying why it earned the slot.
What is on it	22 songs in 4 chapters, newest first — the story runs backwards on purpose.
Where the facts came from	14 sources, linked where the claims stand. I don't print a number I can't point at.
The numbers under each song	The ledger's, not mine. Real chart positions, re-read every hour — still moving long after I signed the list.
If I get something wrong	1 correction, printed below with the date

Corrections

2026-08-26 Recut the morning after the drop, on the curator's call: the chapters now run Dolly first, then the screens, the partners, and the artists she reached — and "Here You Come Again" joins, taking the count from twenty-one songs to twenty-two. Nothing was removed.

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