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A week after her death, Dolly Parton's songs are hitting new heights on the Billboard charts. Stephen Thompson of NPR Music has more.
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: The three biggest chart hits of Dolly Parton's singing career all reenter this week's Billboard Hot 100. "Here You Come Again" and "Islands In The Stream" both land inside the top 50, and the former chart-topper "9 To 5" reenters the chart at No. 18.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "9 TO 5")
DOLLY PARTON: (Singing) Working 9 to 5. What a way to make a living.
THOMPSON: But two more Parton classics hit new chart peaks decades after their release. "I Will Always Love You" was a blockbuster for Whitney Houston in the '90s, but Parton's original version had never even cracked the Hot 100. Now Parton's "I Will Always Love You" enters the chart for the very first time at No. 27.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU")
PARTON: (Singing) ...Will always love you.
THOMPSON: The highest-charting Dolly Parton song in the aftermath of her death is "Jolene," which peaked at No. 60 back in 1974. Now it reenters the Hot 100 at No. 16.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JOLENE")
PARTON: (Singing) Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.
THOMPSON: The Billboard charts have always been an imperfect system for measuring a song's cultural footprint. And in the last decade or so, the metrics for compiling those charts have changed. The rise of streaming has created greater opportunities for country music to reach a huge mainstream audience. Those opportunities weren't there during the height of Dolly Parton's career. Today, in part due to streaming, country music dominates the Billboard Hot 100. Take, for example, Ella Langley and her song, "Choosin' Texas."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHOOSIN' TEXAS")
ELLA LANGLEY: (Singing) He's choosin' Texas I can tell.
THOMPSON: This week, "Choosin' Texas" is No. 1 for a 20th week. That's the longest run of any nonholiday song in the history of the Hot 100. Fans may have lost Dolly Parton last week, but in death, she's become just the latest country star to rule the Billboard charts this year.
Stephen Thompson, NPR Music. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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