Dolly Parton Takes No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Songwriters Chart

Dolly Parton reaches the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 Songwriters chart for the first time, powered by three songwriting credits on the Sept. 5-dated Billboard Hot 100 after the legendary artist’s Aug. 25 death.

Parton’s “Jolene” returns to the Hot 100 at No. 16, with “9 to 5” following at No. 18 and “I Will Always Love You” making its debut at No. 27. Parton wrote each of the three classics entirely on her own, lifting her to No. 1 on Hot 100 Songwriters, where writers divide points for co-written songs; Billboard introduced its songwriter and producer charts in 2019.

“Jolene” had previously reached a peak of No. 60 on the Hot 100 in 1974, while “9 to 5” spent two weeks at No. 1 in 1981. Meanwhile, Parton’s original 1974 recording of “I Will Always Love You” had never appeared on the chart until this week.

With the three songs simultaneously ranking at Nos. 7, 8 and 12, respectively, on Hot Country Songs, Parton also earns her first No. 1 on the Country Songwriters chart. Ella Langley had held the top position on that chart without interruption since mid-April, driven by “Choosin’ Texas,” which she cowrote alongside Luke Dick, Miranda Lambert and Joybeth Taylor. The track has remained at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs for 38 weeks and on the Hot 100 for 20 consecutive weeks.

Parton’s position atop Country Songwriters is further supported by “Coat of Many Colors,” which returns to Hot Country Songs at No. 21. She wrote the song entirely by herself, and it previously reached the top five in 1971.

“I’ve been writing since I was 7 years old,” Parton mused to GBH’s The Culture Show in 2019. “I write all the time. I must have three, four, five million songs by now … not all of them good … I’ve got probably three good ones. But I just love to do it because I’m from a musical family. All my mother’s people were very musical. I grew up with everybody playing instruments and singing and writing songs, singing in the church. So, music is just a huge part of my whole being. It’s easy for me to write. It’s not a hard process for somebody that just is born to do it.”