Dolly Parton Is No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Songwriters Chart for the First Time

Dolly Parton crowns Billboard’s Hot 100 Songwriters chart for the first time, led by three writing credits on the Sept. 5-dated Billboard Hot 100 following the legend’s Aug. 25 death.

Parton’s “Jolene” reenters the Hot 100 at No. 16, followed by “9 to 5,” back at No. 18, and “I Will Always Love You,” a debut at No. 27. Parton solely wrote all three classics, helping propel her to No. 1 on Hot 100 Songwriters (where writers share points on cowrites; the charts began in 2019).

“Jolene” previously peaked at No. 60 on the Hot 100 in 1974; “9 to 5” reigned for two weeks in 1981; and Parton’s original 1974 recording of “I Will Always Love You” never reached the ranking until this week.

As the songs concurrently place at Nos. 7, 8 and 12, respectively, on Hot Country Songs, Parton also has her first week at No. 1 on the Country Songwriters chart. Ella Langley had led the latter list continuously since mid-April, thanks to “Choosin’ Texas,” which she cowrote with Luke Dick, Miranda Lambert and Joybeth Taylor. The song has ruled Hot Country Songs for 38 weeks and the Hot 100 for 20 weeks running.

Also contributing to Parton’s perch atop Country Songwriters, “Coat of Many Colors” reenters Hot Country Songs at No. 21. She solely wrote the song, which 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.”