A self-described 'big phony,' or America's most authentic folk poet? Parton loved embodying both.
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Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic
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Michael Ochs Archives There’s been a lot of talk about approval ratings lately, so let’s pour one out, or a few billion, for Dolly Parton, the only superstar in the history of entertainment to rise to a 100% public approval rating for even a moment, let alone 60 years. It doesn’t matter that no empirical surveys were regularly taken; intuitively, we know that virtually every American on any side of any musical or cultural equation would unabashedly own up to Dolly love. Charlie Chaplin, Elvis, the Beatles, Tom Cruise, Taylor Swift and all the rest can eat their relatively polarizing hearts out when it comes to the universality of adoration for the woman who began her career singing as inconsequential a novelty song as “Dumb Blonde.”
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