10 Years of Loving Dolly (or, The Birth of The Dolly Parton Discography)

by Ben Childers

Dolly in a parade at Dollywood on June 16, 2006.

Today marks 10 years since I fell in love with Dolly and her music. Although I grew up taking vacations with my family to the Smokies and Dollywood, I didn't discover Dolly's catalog of music until years later. My first trip to the Smokies was in 1992 when I was almost two years old, and again in 1993. My little sister, Sarah, was born in 1994, so we didn't make it back to the Smokies again until June 1997. That was the first year we went to Dollywood. We returned again in 2001 (with my grandparents, an aunt, and cousin in tow!), 2005, 2006, and 2008. What I remember about those trips was how much I loved the Tennessee Tornado rollercoaster. Once my sister was big enough to ride it with me we rode it over and over again! During our 2006 trip we got to see Dolly in a parade through the park. This was the first time I saw Dolly in person (not that I was excited or impressed by the sighting).

I wasn't too big on country music through middle school and high school. I had a burned CD of Dolly's greatest hits at some point in high school (not sure where it came from), and I had "9 to 5" and "Jolene" in rotation on mixed CDs in college. I'm not sure why, but on the night of April 12, 2013, I was sitting in my bedroom on iTunes and I stumbled upon Dolly's 2011 single, "Together You and I", from the Better Day album. I bought the single and immediately purchased the Ultimate Dolly Parton compilation from 2003 on iTunes also. I was HOOKED! CDs for older albums were already becoming harder to find in 2013, but I found copies of An Evening with...Dolly LIVE and Backwoods Barbie at Cracker Barrel and Better Day at Best Buy. My Dolly collection had begun.

I was working as a manager for a movie theatre at the time and moved to Oxford in the fall of 2013. It was around this time that I "inherited" (i.e. pilfered and claimed as mine) several of Dolly's albums on vinyl from my grandparents collection which was in my parents attic. In December of that year Dolly was gearing up for the release of Blue Smoke. I ordered in import copy from Australia, since the album was released four months earlier there than the USA, and I couldn't wait to hear it! I attended the Blue Smoke tour stop in Knoxville with two of my friends and made my first trip back to the Smokies as an adult. Dollywood was a whole new experience. The park had grown so much since 2008, but it was also my first trip back as a Dolly fanatic. Since then I've made it to the Smokies almost every year.

During the years that followed I began researching, making spreadsheets, and cataloging all of Dolly's released recordings, and with six decades to cover that was no small task! 2016 saw the release of Pure & Simple (on my birthday!) and I attended the tour stop in North Little Rock, Arkansas, with my sister.

I moved back to Tupelo in the summer of 2017, and by this point I had nearly all of Dolly's albums that were available on vinyl and CD. I knew I wanted to share my knowledge of Dolly's extensive catalog with other fans, but it took me several years to decide on how to do that. I finally decided during the summer of 2021 that the best way to do this would be to build a website dedicated to Dolly's musical output and The Dolly Parton Discography was born.

I hope this website will help other Dolly fans explore and learn more about Dolly's discography. It has been a labor of love.

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​Ben Childers is the administrator of The Dolly Parton Discography. A native of Tupelo, Mississippi, he grew up taking family vacations to the Smokies and Dollywood. His love for Dolly and her music reached a fanatical level in April 2013. After spending countless hours researching and cataloging Dolly's musical output, he decided to open a website dedicated to her discography.

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