THE REAL REASON ELVIS PRESLEY DIDN'T RECORD DOLLY PARTON HIT I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU
Dolly Parton is 80 this month but she's still working 9 to 5. And the blonde bombshell of country music, film and philanthropy is arguably more influential and famous than she's ever been.
An hour-long Radio 2 documentary airing tomorrow celebrates the Jolene singer's landmark anniversary and tells the story of her extraordinary rise to fame and fortune.
Born fourth in a dirt-poor family of 12 in the Tennessee backwoods, she set her sights on a music career and, via a mix of talent and tenacity, became an international icon famed for her singing and her prolific songwriting: currently more than 3,000 songs and counting.
Then there's her philanthropy. Her Imagination Library has supplied six million free books to UK primary school children alone and she donated $1million to help research into the development of the Moderna Covid vaccine.
But it was through country music that American audiences first became aware of Dolly courtesy of Porter Wagoner who introduced his 21-year-old protege to the world via his TV show in 1967.
She scored her first number-one single, Joshua, in February 1971. But her biggest hit of this period was Jolene. Released in late 1973, the song topped the US country chart in February 1974, eventually reaching number seven in the UK in 1976.
Always envisioning a solo career, she made the decision to leave the TV show in mid-1974. That same year, her song, "I Will Always Love You", written about her professional break from Wagoner, went to number one on the country chart.
Around the same time, Elvis Presley indicated he wanted to record the song. Dolly was interested until Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her it was standard procedure for the songwriter to sign over half of the publishing rights to any song recorded by Presley.
She refused, a decision credited with helping make her many millions of dollars in royalties from the song over the years including the chart-topping version by Whitney Houston.
Later, she described finding old cassette tapes and discovered she'd composed both"Jolene and I Will Always Love You in the same songwriting session. As she said, "Buddy, that was a good night!"
'Whispering' Bob Harris is a lifelong fan. "For me," he says, "Dolly embodies everything country music stands for. From a blue-collar background to becoming a superstar, she has always somehow kept her feet on the ground, maybe precisely because of her impoverished start in life.
"I think in the end she'll be remembered above and beyond everything else as a force for good in the world. She embodies a goodness, a generosity of spirit that I find so inspiring. She's not only one of the great country stars of the last 60 years; she's one of the great people."
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Debbie Harry agrees. "She came from the lowest level of the economic ladder in the States to become this wonderful, glamorous, generous person. And don't let's forget her comedic talents; she was terrific in 9 to 5. She's smart, funny, wise and beautiful."
Her undoubted talent apart, Dolly has also long been an inspiration to Gloria Estefan. "She's always been a solid person," she says, "who stands behind her ideals - and is humble to a fault. And, like me, married to my one and only for 47 years, she had a rock strong union with her husband."
Dolly was just 18 when she met Carl Dean, 20, who ran an asphalt and paving business in Nashville, when they married in 1966. They were together for 60 years before his death in March last year aged 82.
She made no secret of her grief but, typically, she vowed to carry on. "I've had so much love and support," she said, following her loss, "and I've been staying busy which is better for me.
"But, when you lose someone you love, someone you've been with for 60 years, that's a big loss. You just have to learn new patterns, new ways. I'll always miss him but I've tried to make friends with the emptiness."
On top of Carl's death, last year wasn't a good one for Dolly. She was rumoured to be seriously ill and close to death - an exaggeration as it turned out because she was subsequently diagnosed with kidney stones. Yet, throughout it all, Dolly painted on her best scarlet smile and soldiered on.
Someone who knows her as well as anyone is her younger sister, Stella, four years her junior, number six in the family pecking order, and last seen on British television in Celebrity Masterchef 2018.
If you believe half of what you read about Stella's relationship with Dolly, the sisters have had many fallings-out over the years. "And it's just not true," she insists. "Those stories are pure gossip and they've offended me greatly. Dolly and I have always been close."
Not that Stella hasn't been tested. At one point when she was starting out as a singer, an uncle who was handling Dolly's career called Stella into his office and suggested she should change her surname because it might in some way harm Dolly's "brand".
Whichever way you slice it, Dolly casts a considerable, not to say curvaceous, shadow. Does it never get on Stella's nerves that people often want to know all about her more famous sister when they discover who she is? "It most certainly does. It irritates me immensely."
Can it also possibly be true that more than one person asked Stella whether she'd entertain the idea of having a breast enlargement? "Yes, two agents and one manager all made that suggestion."
All these years later, it still makes her angry. "I'm a mother and I saw my breasts as something to nourish a child. I was not about to turn my mammary glands into sex objects."
She sighs. "That's what happens if you're the kid sister of an icon. But I'll always be as proud of her as she is of me. We have tremendous respect for one another."
Michael Ball first had his head turned by Dolly when he saw her on Top of the Pops singing "Jolene" in 1976. "I was mesmerised by the voice, the look, the personality," he says.
He later saw her live at Radio City in New York in 2005 when he was playing the villainous Count Fosco in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White on Broadway.
It was the first night of her Vintage Tour. "Hanging down at the front of the stage was a huge cloth," recalls Michael. "The band was playing behind it and, at a given moment, the cloth was meant to fall to reveal the star of the show.
"Except the cloth didn't drop and all we could hear was Dolly shouting: 'I can't get to you! I can't see you! But I'm coming!' Suddenly, stagehands ran on and ripped the cloth so Dolly could finally be revealed. And, of course, she was wonderful."
Later, he got the chance to go to Dolly Central in Nashville to interview her face-to-face. "I was so nervous. They always say be careful when you meet your idol." He needn't have worried. "This tiny, immaculate woman walked in and she knew exactly what we wanted and exactly how to make me feel relaxed."
Michael was lucky enough to interview her a second time. "She immediately said: 'I remember you!' And I thought, I wonder if you do? But you know what? Maybe she did. Whatever, she's the gift that keeps on giving."
Jake Shears from the Scissor Sisters spent the day with Dolly about fifteen years ago when they were on the same TV show. "She was just so much fun," he says, "and I love what she's done for the queer community.
"Afterwards, my cousin put together a family tree and discovered that, way back, we shared a grandfather with Dolly from my mom's side of the family, the Smoky Mountains area where everyone had about 10 brothers and sisters. Since then, I've always wanted to tell Dolly that we're cousins!"
For Zoe Ball, who's met her on a number of occasions, what marks Dolly out is her natural modesty. "However much you might praise her for the Grammys she's won or how she's made it on behalf of so many women in music, she waves it all away. 'Oh, I'm just lil ol' me', she'll tell you."
And then there's her carefully cultivated, almost cartoonish, image. Suzi Quatro says she identifies with Dolly strongly as a woman in what was once a male-dominated music industry.
"But she's never lost her femininity in the process," she adds. "She cleverly took the male fantasy of a woman and built it into her persona. You could call that sexism but Dolly's in charge. Make no mistake."
Or to put it another way, drag artist and Strictly favourite La Voix describes Dolly simply as "a genius in rhinestones". He once saw her in concert when she thanked the audience "for putting the food on my table and the rhinestones on my back. Such wit, such wisdom."
It's a self-awareness that has triggered a torrent of memorable one-liners from the great lady herself.
My favourite? Someone once asked her how long it took to get her hair done. "No idea, honey," she shot back. "I'm never there."
Happy Birthday, Dolly!
Dolly Parton: The Fans' Story airs midnight to 1am on Radio 2 tonight