Dolly Parton’s rise in the 1970s is presented as a rare cultural crossover: a country singer who became widely loved across American audiences and later Hollywood. Her combination of warmth, humour, openness and songwriting talent helped her overcome class and genre prejudices, making her an unusually unifying popular figure.

Parton wrote “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” in 1972, with both becoming country number ones in the following two years. She expanded into pop with “Here You Come Again”, which reached number three in the US, and topped the chart with Kenny Rogers on “Islands in the Stream”; television appearances and collaborations with artists from rock, disco and country broadened her appeal further. The article argues that she consciously managed her public image, but did so with enough candour that audiences and journalists remained charmed.