Dolly Parton built an unparalleled career in country music, charting more than 100 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs ranking and earning 25 No. 1s — the most among women all-time. But Parton, who died Tuesday in Nashville at age 80, also ventured into other genres, even finding success on Billboard’s dance charts.
Parton’s first foray into dance music came in 1978, when she released the disco-influenced country album Heartbreaker. The set reached No. 5 on the Top Country Albums chart (though it long predated the 2001 launch of Billboard’s Top Dance Albums chart).
Heartbreaker generated Parton’s first dance hit in the double-sided single “Baby I’m Burnin’”/“I Wanna Fall in Love,” which peaked at No. 15 in early 1979 on the (now-inactive) Dance Club Songs chart.
Parton returned to Dance Club Songs in 1981 with another paired entry, “9 to 5”/“House of the Rising Sun.” The former served as the famed theme to the film of the same name, in which Parton co-starred, while the latter was her take on the traditional folk ballad.
She made three more appearances on Dance Club Songs: with “Potential New Boyfriend” in 1983, bolstered by a nearly six-minute extended dance mix; her 1997 cover of Cat Stevens’ “Peace Train,” which received several dance remixes, including one featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo; and, following a two-decade-plus absence, “Faith,” with Galantis and featuring Mr. Probz, in 2020.
“Faith,” a dance reworking of John Hiatt’s 1987 song “Have a Little Faith in Me,” gave Parton a No. 1 on a dance chart at last, as it topped Dance Airplay in 2019. It also reached No. 10 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs.
When Parton announced “Faith” at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in 2019, she noted that she was prioritizing the release of positive, uplifting music. “This world is just so dark and ugly and awful … so I’m going to make it my business to try to do songs that are more uplifting, not all Christian-based songs, but songs about better things,” she said. “Do better, and have a little more love, a little more light and don’t be so dark and dirty.”
During her lifetime, Parton topped five of Billboard’s currently published radio charts: Adult Contemporary, Country Airplay, Christian Airplay, Christian AC Airplay and Dance Airplay.
Parton’s genre-spanning exploration continued through her most recent studio album, Rockstar, in 2023. The set, her 49th studio release, earned the icon her first No. 1 on a Billboard rock chart when it spent a week atop the Top Rock Albums list. It also became her highest-charted entry on the Billboard 200 when it debuted and peaked at No. 3. The collection includes covers of rock classics and collaborations with many of the genre’s biggest names, including Lynyrd Skynyrd on “Free Bird,” Joan Jett on “I Hate Myself for Loving You” and Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on “Let It Be.”
