Dolly Parton in 1978 Richard E. Aaron/Redferns/Getty Images The world has lost a legend.
Dolly Parton, country music star, actress, philanthropist and theme-park entrepreneur, died Tuesday at age 80. She died peacefully in Nashville, and her nephew Bryan Seaver recorded a video at her request that was shared on social media.
“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” he said. “As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven’t truly felt it until now.”
It’s impossible to overstate how monumental a loss Parton’s death is both in the music world and in broader American pop culture. One of the most influential songwriters of all time in any genre, Parton became one of country’s earliest household names as she helped bring country to the mainstream. With razor-sharp wit and a knack for weaving drama into catchy melodies, her songs have proven timeless as she’s pulled off hits for herself and and endless list of other acts.
Parton started out as a country music singer before crossing over into pop in the 1970s, landing her biggest hits during that decade and into the 1980s.
As the world mourns Parton, The Hollywood Reporter takes a look at her 10 most essential hit songs.
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“Coat of Many Colors” (1971)
The lead song from Parton’s 1971 album of the same name is as country a song can be. Parton sings the autobiographical story of the coat her mother made for her from a box of rags as she grew up poor, met with ridicule from her classmates. Parton brushes it off saying that “I know we had no money, but I was rich as I could be, in my coat of many colors my mama made for me.”
