Whether or not you like country, it’s hard to deny that Dolly Parton is a musical genius. She has composed more than 3,000 songs and holds two Guinness World Records. Her voice is like auditory serotonin, whether she’s falsetto-yodeling on “Joshua,” fluttering in a perfectly synchronized three-part harmony with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt on “Wildflowers,” or thundering powerfully on “Touch Your Woman.” There are also reported instances of her playing a tiny, rhinestone-bedazzled saxophone onstage.
Parton’s greatness isn’t limited to her music: She’s an incredible actress (please pause here to look up her “All Shook Up” Elvis impersonation on YouTube) and starred in the groundbreaking cinematic masterpiece 9 to 5, which brought attention to the challenges women face in the workplace, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, a musical that touched on still-relevant hot-button issues like censorship and the legalization of sex work. Parton is also known for her philanthropy; she has her own charitable foundation that includes a literacy program and has poured money into social services in her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee. The public eye hasn’t always been kind to the self-proclaimed “Backwoods Barbie,” specifically with the misogynist, decades-long critiques of her appearance, but there’s a genuine “kill ’em with kindness” ethos to everything she puts out into the world, and her songs act like miniature fables, from her cautionary tale of the “Kentucky Gambler” to the nostalgic “Coat of Many Colors” to “Shattered Image” (“Stay out of my closet if your own’s full of trash”).