Like Elvis, she hardly needed a last name: "Dolly" was enough to identify her.
If Elvis was the King, Dolly was beloved. Few singers have had such as many devoted fans or inspired such affection, across seemingly all demographics.
Like Elvis Presley and Graceland, Dolly Parton is crucial to Tennessee tourism: Her Dollywood theme park, resorts and "Splash Country" water park in Pigeon Forge, near the Great Smoky Mountains, attracts more than 3 million visitors a year, according to the Themed Entertainment Association.
Elvis apparently wanted to record Parton's composition "I Will Always Love You," which was first put on wax by the country music queen in 1974.
“Elvis
loved 'I Will Always Love You,' and he wanted to record it,” Parton recalled in a 2006 interview with CMT. “I got the word that he was going to record it, and I was so excited. I told everybody I knew, ‘Elvis is going to record my song. You’re not going to believe who’s recording my song!’”
But according to Parton, that plan was derailed by Presley's notoriously controlling manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who insisted that Elvis would record the song only if he retained half of its lucrative publishing rights.
"That was a heartbreaker," Parton recalled. "It was my most important copyright at that time ... I was glad I held on to it, and after Whitney did it, I was really glad I held on to it." (Whitney being Whitney Houston, whose cover of "I Will Always Love You" spent 14 weeks at the top of the pop charts in late 1992 and early 1993.)
Two Tennessee greats never met
Despite their mutual admiration, those famous Tennessee neighbors, Elvis and Dolly, apparently never met. And Parton, despite being a Tennessee native and lifelong resident of the Volunteer State, rarely was in Memphis. Her concerts here occurred before she had achieved the level of superstardom that characterized her final decades, when she was more closely associated with the Grand Ole Opry than with Hollywood.
On Sept. 30, 1978, Parton performed at the Mid-South Coliseum during the Mid-South Fair, as part of a country music revue that included Don Williams and the Oak Ridge Boys. Tickets ranged from $6 to $8. (The next day's performer at the Coliseum was Bob Hope.)
For Parton, the sold-out concert represented a return to the Mid-South Fair, but in a more flattering context. Her previous Fair appearance had been in 1975, when she gave performances on Sept. 19 and 20 during the World Championship Rodeo. (Promoted more prominently in Fair advertisements that year were non-rodeo concert appearances by Johnny Rodriguez and Black Oak Arkansas.)
If Parton didn't perform here often, she apparently remained on promoters' minds. Invariably referred to in newspaper reports as "curvaceous," Parton — in an era when her physique earned more media commentary than her songwriting prowess — inspired spasms of exploitative ballyhoo.
Already drawing a following in 1970s
Piggybacking on the singer's Coliseum show, two Dolly Parton lookalike contests were held here in September, 1978. The first was hosted by WMPS, the hit AM radio station, and held at Bad Bob's Lounge, "next door to Quality Inn-Airport."
According to the Memphis Press-Scimitar, the evening daily newspaper, "any woman over 18 is eligible, and a wide array of towering blonde wigs and ornamented costumes are expected to be worn by contestants." The prizes at Bad Bob's included "$200 cash and a complete collection of Dolly Parton records." Meanwhile a second contest was set for Tim McCarver Stadium, the old minor-league baseball field at the Fairgrounds.
However, "country music superstar Dolly Parton doesn't like such contests," the Press-Scimitar reported. Her team threatened "legal action," but relented because "the contests have been advertised," the newspaper wrote.
In 1982, Parton — or a buttery facsimile thereof — returned to the Mid-South Fair, via a lifesize sculpture created by traveling "butter artist" Linda Christenson of Minneapolis. Sponsored by Turner Dairies, the likeness was created on-site over three days, with the sculptor working in a refrigerated trailer with a glass wall, for spectators.
Christenson told the Press-Scimitar that she had 150 pounds of material available, but she predicted that Parton probably would require less than the "130 pounds of margarine" she had used to sculpt Elvis Presley at the Fair the previous year. "That oleo figure was later fed to farm animals," the newspaper reported.
Fans statewide will be able to stock-up on memorabilia and pay tribute to the Tennessee icon at the new Dolly's Tennessean Travel Stop a few hours from Memphis, 3686 Pulaski Hwy in Cornersville.She attended the June ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the spot she created through her experience traveling many years on the road.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Though they never met, Elvis almost recorded Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You'
