Did We Expect Dolly Parton’s Posthumous Chart Takeover?

The death of country music and entertainment icon Dolly Parton obviously led to a wide outpouring of grief and affection following its announcement last Tuesday (Aug. 25). Now, it’s also led to a major impact on the Billboard charts.

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For this week’s Billboard Hot 100 (dated Sept. 5), Parton posthumously re-charts five classic titles — “Jolene” (No. 16), “9 to 5” (No. 18), “Islands in the Stream” with Kenny Rogers (No. 26), “I Will Always Love You” (No. 27) and “Here You Come Again” (No. 43) — despite her death coming with just two and a half days to go in that Billboard tracking week (Aug. 21-27). Most impressively, “Jolene” and “Always” both reach new best placements on the chart, with the former surpassing its original 1974 high of No. 60, and “Always” passing the No. 53 peak it hit upon the 1974 ballad’s 1982 re-recording for the soundtrack to Parton film vehicle The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas .

Did we see this huge Hot 100 return happening for Parton’s catalogue following her death? And might the songs hang around for longer than the next couple weeks? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.

1. Dolly Parton returns five songs to the Hot 100 this week, led by “Jolene” at No. 16. Is that more, less, or about what you would expect for her posthumous Hot 100 impact?

Kyle Denis : Given that she passed mid-tracking week, this is about what I expected for her posthumous Hot 100 impact. I expect those returning songs to stick around for another week or two — and maybe even reach higher peaks.

Lyndsey Havens : I’d expect more songs to re-enter the chart — but am not at all surprised that “Jolene” is leading the pack. Also, with $1 million on the line, the five songs that have re-entered (“Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “9 to 5,” “Islands In the Stream” and “Here You Come Again”) are the exact ones I would guess. And while I would have liked to see some more peppered throughout, since the streams are so concentrated, that focus has helped push “Jolene” and “Always” into the top 40 for the very first time.

Melinda Newman : I, frankly, expected — or maybe just wished — that “Jolene” and/or “I Will Always Love You” would have at least been in the top 10 given the phenomenal outpouring of love we have seen for Parton since her death. Both songs became omnipresent this past week, and radio stations who had ignored her for years were blasting her music. As impressive as her streaming gains were, I wish they had been more to carry her higher up the chart.

Jessica Nicholson : Given the outpouring of love she has received on social media from fans, celebrities and fellow artists, the more than 32,000 letters written in Dolly’s honor on her official  website , and radio stations across the country playing her music, this is less than I would have expected — even amid the strong current hits dominating the Hot 100 at the moment.

Andrew Unterberger : Maybe a little more. Given how little of the chart week her catalog had to work with, I think five songs in the top 50 and two in the top 20 is a pretty incredible showing — and telling how much love these songs had amassed over the decades, despite only a few of them having been particularly huge chart hits in their own time.

2. “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” hit new highs on the Hot 100, with the former beating its previous best of No. 60 and “Always,” also from 1974, new at No. 27 (surpassing the No. 53 peak of its 1982 re-recording). Which of the two are you happier (or more surprised) to see hit the top 40 for the first time?

Kyle Denis : It’s so incredible to see two enduring songs officially become top 40 hits. I’m not particularly surprised that either “Jolene” or “Always” returned to the Hot 100, but I’m a smidge happier that Parton’s original version of “Always” made it to No. 27.

Lyndsey Havens : In terms of shock, both! Because it’s become more common for quick hits to have high and fast peaks on the Hot 100 these days, I sometimes forget that prior to streaming, that was far from true. There are so many songs that I would have thought, without a doubt, were top 10 hits — and these are surely two of them. So yes, I’m glad to see them surpass their prior peaks, but would still argue they should be able to reach even higher.

Melinda Newman : It’s still shocking to me that Parton’s version of “I Will Always Love You” never climbed higher than No. 53 until now, but I think that’s because it’s so hard to witness the 14-week No. 1 success of Whitney Houston’s version in 1992 and see Parton’s original never succeed to that degree (no diss to Houston). Of course, some of it is methodology and they way the charts were calculated in 1974, when Parton’s original version did top Billboard ’s Hot Country Songs chart.

Jessica Nicholson : I was happy to see “I Will Always Love You” reach a new high on the chart. The song itself has become such a standard in America’s musical lexicon — thanks to not only Parton’s solo version, but of course Whitney Houston’s powerful pop version and Parton’s 1995 duet version with Vince Gill — that it is great to see the original version reach a new high that reflects its enduring impact.

Andrew Unterberger : “Jolene” has had such absurd cultural endurance that it fe...