Dolly Rebecca Parton, an American singer-songwriter, actor, philanthropist, and businesswoman, was born on January 19, 1946. She is well known for her decades-long career in country music. After finding success as a songwriter for others, Dolly Parton released her first album, Hello, I’m Dolly, in 1967. This led to success for the rest of the 1960s, both as a solo artist and with a string of duet albums with Porter Wagoner, before her sales and chart peak occurred in the 1970s and lasted into the 1980s. Parton had less commercial success with her albums in the 1990s, but she found mainstream success once more in the new millennium. Since then, she has released albums on a variety of independent companies, including her own company, Dolly Records.
With a career spanning over fifty years, Parton has been described as a “country music legend” and has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Parton’s music includes the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)-certified gold, platinum, and multi-platinum awards. She has had 25 singles reach no. 1 on the Billboard country music charts, a record for a female artist (tied with Reba McEntire).