Dolly Parton Part III

In the 1970’s like many other country artistes, Dolly turned to a more “pop” sound in her songs. She made a concerted effort to have “crossover hits” and was usually high in the charts. In 1980 she began a movie career, as one of the leads in the very popular film “Nine to Five”. Her next big film was “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” with Burt Reynolds and she began to duet with Kenny Rogers, with whom she had a good deal of chemistry. Their song “Islands in the Stream”, made it to the top of the charts. Dolly’s records still performed well, but as she grew older, like most of the singers of her generation, some record companies saw her as a back number. However, her acting, song writing and business activities kept her before the public eye and she was immensely rich. Much of her work was critically acclaimed… such as her 1987 Album, Trio, with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. In 1998/99, she returned to her roots with bluegrass music, and an album “Hungry Again”.
 Some years ago when she was performing in London -my partner went to see her and was very disappointed that there were such crowds, he didn’t get a chance to speak to her. But she came and apologised to the people who hadn’t had the chance...which I think was very typical of her. She was warm and approachable and worked hard for her fans. She is involved in charity work, in her native Tennessee, encouraging young girls to stay in education. Although she is now getting older, she is still lively, beautiful and sexy and full of energy…