Feb. 29: Whitney Looks At No. 2, No. 6 It looks like two albums containing the late Whitney Houston's cover of Dolly's classic "I Will Always Love You" will be in the top 10 when the full charts come out later this week, preliminary sales data show. The building charts which include most retailers had Houston's Greatest Hits at No. 2 with 169,000 copies sold through Sunday, a slight dip from the previous week's 175,000, and The Bodyguard soundtrack at No. 6 with just under 50,000 copies, an increase from No. 38 and 17,000 copies the previous week. In related news, Billboard poses the theory that the song – in both Dolly's original and Whitney's version – could be pop music's most "enduring" song of all time, given its 38-year chart history including three charted versions by Dolly and two top-10 appearances by Houston some two decades apart. Read that column here. Finally, The Hollywood Reporter reports here that the Glee Cast version of the song has sold 45,300 copies in the two weeks since it was performed on the program.
Dollywood's Eagle Starting To Take Flight Thanks to Dollymania.net correspondent Harrell Gabehart for attending a preview of the new Dollywood Wild Eagle roller coaster and installation of its emblem, the nation's largest flying eagle steel sculpture. Check out a selection of images from the sculpture's arrival here and here.
Dolly's Scent Described As 'Pixie Dust' Dolly's spicy perfume -- you can sometimes smell her coming before you see or hear her – is "fantastic," 9 To 5: The Musical actress Megan Hilty told Bravo's Watch What Happens Live this week. Asked to describe how she smells, Hilty replied a mixture of "baby powder and love and pixie dust!" Watch the clip on Huffington Posthere.
Library Gains One, Loses One Dolly's Imagination Library literacy program had some mixed news in a couple of areas of the country this week. An affiliate of the program was announced in Ellinwood, Kan., according to the Great Bend Tribunehere. At the other end of the spectrum, the chapter in Opelousas, La., has suspended its operation due to lack of funding, the local United Way announced in The Opelousas Daily Worldhere. Organizers hope to re-start the program once more funding is available.
Feb. 28: 'Noise' Passes $30.5 Million Joyful Noise ended its seventh weekend in 33rd place at the box office, taking in $183,920 to pass the $30.5 million mark. On 277 screens, which means it lost another 20 percent of its cinemas, the film has since release seen ticket sales totaling $30,586,639.
Whitney Sells Another Ton Of Music It looks like another strong week for the late Whitney Houston and her recordings of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You." Billboard noted here Monday that her Greatest Hits likely sold another 150,000-170,000 last week to keep its place at No. 2, which could come close to the 175,000 it sold the previous week. This versus 300,000 copies predicted for Adele's 21 to keep the No. 1 spot. The Hits Daily Double building chart as of Monday reflecting 37 percent of reporting retailers had the two much closer, with about 155,000 for Adele and 105,000 for Houston's CD, followed by The Bodyguard soundtrack at No. 4 with about 19,000 copies sold from those reporting retailers. The totals could diverge more as larger retailers that focus on physical CDs report in as opposed to digital downloads, since most of Houston's sales have been downloads. Last week's sales of these albums, combined with additional downloads of "I Will Always Love You," should push Houston's version of the song well past 1 million copies sold in the U.S. alone since her death. Billboard should release additional details about the top 10 on Wednesday, with the full charts out on Thursday.
Arkansas Library Profiled On TV The impact of Dolly's Imagination Library in Arkansas was highlighted by television station KTHV with a story Monday here.
Feb. 27: Whitney Slips But Still On Overseas Charts The bump in sales of Whitney Houston's music following her death continued last week, with several items sticking around overseas. Her version of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You" drops off the U.K. digital tracks chart and falls 36 places to No. 44 pop singles in its second week on that list following her passing, while in Australia the song loses 14 spots to No. 24 pop singles and a dozen digits to No. 25 digital sales. Three of her CDs containing the song stick around on the British charts: Essential at No. 17 pop, Greatest Hits at No. 36 pop and No. 19 digital sales and Ultimate at No. 6 digital sales. In Australia, the tally is four: Ultimateat No. 3 pop, No. 3 digital and No. 1 catalog albums; Essential at No. 7 pop, No. 7 digital and No. 3 catalog; Greatest Hits at No. 10 pop and The Bodyguard soundtrack at No. 28 pop and No. 25 digital. Also Down Under, The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1 rises one to No. 10 Australian country albums in its 103rd week and two to No. 30 pop catalog albums in its 30th week there. In the U.K., The Little Willies' For The Good Times, featuring Norah Jones' cover of Dolly's "Jolene," dips one to No. 10 country in its seventh British week.
Warhol Polaroid Goes For $10K In advance of the Oscars this weekend, several charity events took place in Hollywood, and one had a Dolly connection. The Art of Elysium, an organization to support medically disabled and hospitalized children, held a charity auction, with the highest-priced item being an original Polaroid photo of Dolly taken by artist Andy Warhol. It went for $10,000, The Hollywood Reporter reported here.
Feb. 25: 'Noise' Passes $30.4 Million Gross Dolly's film Joyful Noise completed its sixth week at the box office Thursday in 32nd place for the week, grossing $314,760. Since opening, the film has taken in $30,402,719 in ticket sales.
Dolly, Houston On Irish Charts Dolly's back on the charts in Ireland. The new Irish tallies released Friday showed that her compilation A Life In Music Ultimate Collection re-enters at No. 93 for a 12th week on the top 100 pop albums chart. The late Whitney Houston's cover of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You" slips eight spots to No. 21 on the pop singles chart, while Houston's Ultimate Collection advances four places to No. 1 pop albums, Essential rises five to No. 8 pop, Greatest Hits falls 14 to No. 42 pop albums and The Collection debuts at No. 48 pop albums. Also, The Bodyguard soundtrack debuts at No. 7 compilations. In the U.S., Billboard noted here that this week's charts featured several records, including some that involve Houston and Dolly's song. Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" advancing to No. 3 pop singles marks just the second time a song has reached the top three tracks in separate chart runs, with the other being "The Twist" by Chubby Checker, which reached No. 1 in 1960 and again in 1962. In addition, they noted that the Glee Cast version of the song debuting at No. 87 marked the 59th cover song of a pop No. 1 that the show has charted.
Houston Confused Over 'Dolly' Appearance A Dolly impersonator and Willie Nelson impersonator caused quite a stir at Houston's Bar-b-que Cook-off at Reliant Park this week. Check out a report from KHOU here.
Another 'Dancing' Dolly Mention Found Reuters wire service notes Dolly is among those asked to be on Dancing With The Stars this season and turned producers down. See the mention in a story about E! News host Giuliana Rancic saying no here.
Mountain Soul Competition Returns In May The Mountain Soul Vocal Competition, the world's only singing contest based solely on Dolly-written music, is returning for its eighth year. Organizers on Friday announced audition tapes are due by mail April 6. A total of 20 finalists in the 13-and-older category and 10 in the 12-and-under category will be invited to perform at the May 19 competition during the Bloomin' BBQ & Bluegrass festival in Sevierville, Tenn. As in recent years, Dolly's two most famous compositions, "I Will Always Love You" and "Jolene," are off limits, but all other Dolly-penned songs are acceptable. A complete list of Dolly's released songs that she's written over the years is available on Dollymania.nethere and contestants are asked by organizers to consult that page to confirm that Dolly wrote the song they wish to sing. Winners of the final competition will take home cash and prizes including a Nashville recording session and guitar autographed by Dolly. Applications may be accessed online at www.BloominBBQ.com or by calling the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce at 888-889-7415. Entries must be postmarked by April 6.
Feb. 24: Whitney Rises On The Charts The first full week of music sales following the death of Whitney Houston impacted the March 3 Billboard charts released Thursday. Her cover of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You" gains four to No. 3 pop singles in its second week since Houston's passing thanks to sales of 367,000. Combined with downloads of the song in the first 36 hours after news of her death that allowed it to chart last week, the song has sold more than 560,000 new copies. On the other charts, the song drops out of the top 75 pop airplay tally (down from No. 61), gains one to No. 2 digital songs and digital tracks, enters the adult contemporary recurrent singles chart at No. 11, rises nine to No. 3 Canadian digital sales and holds onto the No. 1 R&B/hip-hop digital sales position. It drops 26 places to No. 27 R&B/hip-hop recurrents. Jennifer Hudson's version from the Grammy Awards drops off the Bubbling Under R&B/hip-hop singles chart, down from No. 25, but the Glee Cast cover version debuts at No. 87 pop, No. 30 pop digital sales and No. 75 hot digital songs (download it here). Houston's Greatest Hits ended up selling 175,000 for the week (bringing its total since her death to 239,000 copies) to advance to No. 2 on the pop albums chart. The collection retains its spots at No. 1 pop catalog albums, No. 2 digital albums, No. 1 Canadian R&B albums and No. 1 R&B/hip-hop catalog albums. It advances 13 to No. 11 Canadian pop albums and enters the Tastemakers chart at No. 6 and Internet sales chart at No. 14. The Bodyguard soundtrack moved 17,000 copies (bringing its total since her death to 25,000), thrusting it up 42 spots to No. 38 pop, three places to No. 4 pop catalog albums and two to No. 2 soundtracks. It holds steady at No. 3 R&B/hip-hop catalog albums and enters the digital albums chart at No. 10, Canadian pop chart at No. 60 and Canadian R&B albums chart at No. 10. Total sales of the song download and albums containing Houston's original in the U.S. in just the first nine days following her death now stand at close to 820,000 copies, so it has likely passed 1 million copies by now. The Joyful Noise Soundtrack falls out of the top 100 albums, losing 43 digits to No. 139 pop in its sixth week, also falling 24 to No. 112 current albums, one to No. 6 gospel digital albums, six to No. 10 Christian digital albums, seven to No. 15 Christian and gospel digital albums, one to No. 6 soundtracks and two to No. 16 independent label albums. Its songs "Higher Medley" by Queen Latifah, Dolly, Keke Palmer, Jeremy Jordan, Angela Grovey, DeQuina Moore and Andy Karl and "Man in the Mirror" by Palmer both fall off the gospel digital sales chart, down from No. 23 and No. 20, respectively. Elsewhere on the charts, The Little Willies' For The Good Times, with Norah Jones' cover of Dolly's "Jolene," dips nine to No. 51 country in its sixth week and loses 15 to No. 34 Canadian country. Overall, Lady Antebellum's Lady Antebellum's Own The Night rebounds two to No. 1 country and eight to No. 9 pop in its 23rd week, while Jason Aldean's My Kind Of Party holds steady at No. 2 country and gains one to No. 15 pop in its 68th week.
'Joyful Noise' Still In Top 35 Dolly's film Joyful Noise did a little better during the week than it did last weekend. Although it grossed just $18,378 on Tuesday and $13,602 on Wednesday, it was No. 32 and No. 33, respectively, each day, compared to No. 35 for the four-day weekend.
'9 To 5' At Local Theatres As has previously been reported, Dolly's 9 To 5: The Musical has moved to the local theatre circuit. It opened Thursday at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Va., The Kingsport Times News reported here. And it was announced Thursday as being in the 2012-2013 season for the Springer Opera House in Columbus, Ga., The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported here.
Alaskan Library Looks To Expand Dolly's Imagination Library literacy program is expanding in Alaska, The Fairbanks Daily News Miner reported here Thursday.
Feb. 22: 'Joyful Noise' Falls To No. 35 Dolly's film Joyful Noise fell 10 places over the weekend, its sixth weekend in cinemas, as it lost another half of its screens nationwide. On Friday, it started playing on just 340 screens and fell to No. 30 with $63,521 in ticket sales, dropping to No. 32 Saturday with $90,655 and No. 35 Sunday and Monday with $65,759 and $47,611, respectively. For the four-day Presidents' Day weekend, it grossed $267,546 for a No. 35 position for the weekend, raising its cumulative gross to $30,355,505. In related news, Country Weekly on Tuesday released its review of the Joyful Noise Soundtrack, giving it three stars and noting "the music is the crowning achievement of Joyful Noise." Read it here.
'IWALY' CDs Pass 250K Since Houston Death Preliminary sales data suggests Whitney Houston will rise to the No. 2 position on the pop albums chart this week, reflecting sales over the week starting a day-and-a-half after her death. Houston's two U.S. albums that contain her cover of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You" saw significant sales increases over last week's charts, which included sales in just the first 36 hours after news of her passing was first released. According to the building charts that reflect most major retailers, her Greatest Hits should be at No. 2 with somewhere more than 170,000 copies sold, up from No. 6 with the previous week's 64,000 copies, while The Bodyguard soundtrack should be around No. 45 with about 13,000 copies sold, versus the previous week's No. 80 placing with 8,000 copies. The two albums have sold 255,000 copies in the U.S. following her passing, mostly as digital downloads. As of press time Tuesday night, there was no word on how many downloads of "I Will Always Love You" were sold and where it would be on the charts. In the hours following her death, it sold nearly 200,000 copies and reached No. 7 on the Hot 100 pop singles chart last week as a result.
Dollywood Pass Special Ends Sunday Sunday is the last day to get a bulk pre-season discount of $10 when you buy or renew three or more Dollywood season passes. Fans will want to be sure they have passes, as Dolly is expected to make the season's Grand Opening appearances both on passholders' preview day Friday, March 23, and the first day the park is open for the 2012 season on Saturday, March 24.
'CSC' Talks With Kenny About Dolly Country Stars Central this week released a cover interview with Kenny Rogers in which he discusses his longstanding duet partnership with Dolly. Read it here.
NY Warhol Exhibit Includes Dolly Pic Andy Warhol: Photographer, an exhibit focusing on the photographs the pop art icon took and based many of his paintings and prints on during his career, will include his 1985 Polaroid of Dolly which was used as the basis of his series of portraits of her that her then-manager Sandy Gallin had commissioned. The exhibit will run March 1 through April 21 at New York's Danziger Gallery. Read more from ABC News here.
'Hollywood' Makes Another NY Film Fest The Dolly fan documentary Hollywood To Dollywood has been added to another New York City film festival. The film will screen during the March 6-18 LES Film Festival, it was announced Tuesday. Learn more from Indiewirehere.
Feb. 21: Dolly Sings New 'IWALY' Version
The passing of Whitney Houston brought to light a new recording of Dolly's classic "I Will Always Love You" that was recently released with little attention. The song is a performance with saxophone artist Eirinn Abu and appeared in two versions on his new albums, Forever In Love and A New Creation. The physical CDs apparently became available on Abu's website late last year, while downloads of the albums first appeared on Amazon.com, iTunes and other retailers about a month ago. Both versions contain Abu playing the first two verses and choruses of the song, with Dolly joining to sing the third verse and final chorus, although they contain different accompaniments and the latter album's version is much slower than the first (requiring a pause after each word or two Dolly sings in the second version, allowing the same vocal to be used in both songs even though the slower tempo of the second one means there is additional silence after each segment of the phrasing). Download the faster version here and slower version here. The albums didn't receive much publicity when originally released, but following the unexpected death of Houston, Abu over the weekend debuted a tribute video in the pop icon's memory featuring the new version of the song. Watch it in the media player above or by visiting YouTube here. The tune is arguably Dolly's signature song. She wrote it about her mid-career shift from Porter Wagoner's duet partner to solo superstar. Her first two recordings of it were her third and 16th of her 25 country No. 1 singles, a record total for a female artist and the only time two recordings of the same song by the same artist have taken the chart's pole position. She used it as the closing number on both her 1976-77 and 1987-88 television variety series and as the finale or encore for almost all of her concerts for the past three-and-a-half decades. Before the 1990s, it had only seen one high-profile cover version, by Linda Ronstadt on 1975's Prisoner In Disguise. After Houston's 1992 cover in The Bodyguard made the song a pop standard, it has been recorded by dozens of other artists, including Dolly herself several more times. In fact, this new version marks the 11th recording of it by Dolly to be released commercially, making it the song she has recorded and released more than any other in her career (followed by 10 versions of "Coat of Many Colors" and nine versions of "Jolene") with:
Original version from 1974's Jolene (No. 1 country single)
Other Houston News, 'Glee' Song Available In other news related to Whitney Houston and her version of Dolly's most-popular composition, CMT columnist Hazel Smith offered her memories of the original and her impression of the Houston tributes in her weekly "Hot Dish" here, while Crushable presented what it felt were the five best cover versions released after Houston's passing in tribute to her here. They included the version from last week's Glee, noting it was recorded before Houston's death but since it aired just days later it turned into a tribute – that cover version becomes available for downloading from Amazon.com this Tuesday. Get your copy here! Finally, on a bright note, when Houston was laid to rest over the weekend, the promised protest by hate group Westboro Baptist Church did not materialize. That did not, however, stop the church from tweeting photoshopped photos showing their supposed protesters outside the service with false claims that the protest actually occurred, according to The Huffington Posthere. You may recall the hate group, which has become famous for protesting the funerals of military heroes, held a small protest against Dolly outside a Kansas City concert on her 2002 tour.
UK Bikers Want Dolly To Ride British bikers want Dolly to be their biker chick, according to a new survey. U.K. motorcycle insurer Swinton Bikes recently commissioned the study to find the five celebrities that bikers would like to have hugging on behind them as they speed down the road. Angelina Jolie took first place, followed by Rihanna, Cheryl Cole, Katy Perry and Dolly. The firm's head said they "never expected to see Dolly Parton in the top five." The bottom five that they did not want on their bikes were Susan Boyle, Jodie Marsh, Amy Childs, Denise Welch and Mel B, also known as "Scary Spice" from the Spice Girls. Check out the press release here.
Feb. 20: Houston Hits British, Aussie Charts Just as in the U.S., Whitney Houston's passing had significant impacts on overseas charts this weekend. Down Under, her cover of Dolly's classic "I Will Always Love You" re-enters the pop singles chart at No. 8 and digital singles sales chart at No. 1. In the U.K., the song re-enters the pop singles chart at No. 14, taking the No. 13 digital sales spot. In Australia, her Greatest Hits is the No. 3 pop album, No. 1 catalog album and No. 1 digital sales album, while The Ultimate Collection is No. 12 pop, No. 3 catalog and No. 4 digital and The Bodyguard soundtrack No. 33 pop and No. 11 digital. In Great Britain, Greatest Hits hits No. 7 pop albums and Essential No. 40 pop.
Dolly Falls In U.K., Rises Down Under The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1 gains four to No. 11 Australian country albums in its 102nd week on that tally while rising seven to No. 32 pop catalog albums in its 29th week there. In the U.K., things weren't so rosy, as Better Day falls off the 20-position British country albums chart, down from No. 12 in its 24th week, five of which were spent at No. 1. Elsewhere on the chart, The Little Willies' For The Good Times, featuring Norah Jones' cover of Dolly's "Jolene," falls four to No. 9 country in its sixth U.K. week.
Feb. 18: Houston Causes A Little Controversy (Note: There's some editorializing in this analysis!) With Whitney Houston's private funeral coming on Saturday, a bit of controversy has sprung up. TMZ reported here that some Houston fans had complained about Dolly's previous statement expressing sympathy for the star's passing and thanking her for "wonderful performance she did on my song" because they supposedly felt Dolly was wrong to call the song hers instead of Houston's. The celebrity program did not quote any of the supposed complaints or cite sources to where they may be found, so they may be very few in actual number. Regardless, this prompted Dolly to issue a third statement, noting: "My heart is with Whitney and her family as they lay her to rest. I did not know Whitney, nor any of her family personally; but she will always be a part of my heart and I will always be grateful for her awesome performance and success with our song 'I Will Always Love You.' Rest in peace, Whitney." (Although Houston's version of the song was exponentially more popular than Dolly's in terms of radio airplay and sales, she had three legitimate claims to call it "her" song rather than "our" song or "Whitney's" song, so anyone who complained really had no basis to do so. First, Dolly wrote it, making it "her" song because she created it. Secondly, Dolly is sole owner of the publishing company that published it and holds the copyright to the composition, making her the only legal owner of it, which makes it "her" song. Third, Dolly recorded the original version of it and had a No. 1 single with it, making it "her" song first, not to mention recording the third version of the song – after her original and Linda Ronstadt's cover – and having a No. 1 on it a second time.) In yet another controversy involving the song, hate group Westboro Baptist Church announced plans to picket the funeral and released to YouTube a parody of "I Will Always Love You" called "God Will Always Hate You" which focuses on their belief that the frequent gospel singer is now burning in Hell. You may watch it here if you can stomach the garbage. As of Friday night, it had only been accessed a few hundred times and nearly all viewers had given it the "thumbs down" disapproval rating. (Per court rulings, parodies of popular songs are protected speech under the First Amendment, so Dolly has no recourse to prevent the hate group from using her melody in this fashion.) In other news, the Irish charts were released Friday, and Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You" re-entered the tally at No. 13 for the week while three Houston CDs containing the song popped up on the top 100 albums list there: Ultimate Collection at No. 5, Essential at No. 13 and Greatest Hits at No. 28. Finally, on a lighter note, in memory of Whitney and in tribute to Dolly, here's your webmaster conducting the Middletown Symphony Orchestra last November performing "I WIll Always Love You." Watch in the media player below or by clicking here (the actual song starts around the seven-minute mark).
'Joyful Noise' Ends Week Five At Box Office Dolly's film Joyful Noise completed its fifth week of release Thursday night, bringing in $44,001 for 23rd place. For the full week, its box office gross of $687,446 also put it in 23rd place for the week. Since release, the motion picture has seen $30,087,939 in ticket sales.
Dollywood Makes 'Weird' Parks List The announcement that a theme park dedicated to historical re-enactments of the battles of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is planned led Time magazine to list it as No. 1 on its countdown this week of the world's "weirdest" theme parks. Coming in at No. 9 was the idea that there could be a theme park in Tennessee dedicated to all things Dolly: Dollywood. Read the entire list here.
Dolly Inspires Designer For Fashion Week Dolly helped give some inspiration to New York's Fashion Week this week, Bella Sugar reported with a video here. Designer Chris Benz decided his model's look should be inspired by mid-1980s Dolly. Check out the video of the model's transformation. Thanks!
Feb. 17: Whitney Houston Makes Big Chart Impact As was previewed Wednesday, the official Feb. 25 Billboard charts released Thursday had the late Whitney Houston all over them. Reflecting sales and airplay for just the first 36 hours following her unexpected death on Saturday, the charts saw her cover of Dolly's classic "I Will Always Love You" hit No. 7 on the Hot 100 pop singles chart, No. 61 in pop airplay, No. 3 digital songs, No. 3 digital tracks, No. 1 R&B/hip-hop recurrents, No. 1 R&B/hip-hop recurrent airplay, No. 1 R&B/hip-hop digital songs and No. 12 Canadian digital sales. Jennifer Hudson's version sung live at the Grammy Awards Sunday night in tribute to Houston debuted at No. 25 on the Bubbling Under R&B/hip-hop singles chart. The most recent album that contained Houston's version of the song, Greatest Hits, comes in at No. 6 pop, No. 1 pop catalog, No. 2 digital albums, No. 1 R&B/hip-hop catalog albums, No. 1 Canadian R&B albums and No. 24 Canadian albums. The album that originally contained Houston's cover, The Bodyguard soundtrack, came in at No. 80 pop, No. 7 pop catalog albums, No. 3 R&B/hip-hop catalog albums and No. 4 soundtracks. In related news, Dolly is listed as appearing on GAC's weekly news program, Headline Country, talking about Houston's passing. The program premiered Thursday and repeats Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
'Noise' Continues Chart Slide The Joyful Noise Soundtrack sales continued to drop in its fifth week of release, according to the Feb. 25 Billboard charts released Thursday. The album lost 37 spots to No. 96 on the top 200 pop albums chart, 32 spots to No. 88 current albums chart, one to No. 4 Christian digital albums, one to No. 5 gospel digital albums, three to No. 8 Christian and gospel digital albums, six to No. 14 independent label albums and two to No. 5 soundtracks while falling off the Internet sales list, down from No. 16. Its track "Higher Medley" by Queen Latifah, Dolly, Keke Palmer, Jeremy Jordan, Angela Grovey, DeQuina Moore and Andy Karl falls 19 places to No. 23 gospel digital sales, falling off the 50-position Christian digital sales chart, down from No. 50 last week, while "Man in the Mirror" by Palmer loses 14 to No. 20 gospel digital sales. "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Jordan and Palmer and "Here to the Moon and Back" by Dolly, Kris Kristofferson and Jordan both fall off the gospel digital sales chart, down from No. 15 and No. 13, respectively. In related news, it appears the film Joyful Noise will likely lose another significant segment of its screens starting Friday, the beginning of the film's sixth week in cinemas. In most communities, the movie will move from the regular "first run" theaters to the discount "dollar" theaters. On Tuesday, the picture's cumulative gross surpassed the $30 million mark. As of Wednesday's ticket sales, it stood at $30,043,958, having taken in an additional $37,503 in 23rd place Wednesday, $81,562 and 22nd place Tuesday and $34,764 and 23rd place Monday.
More Chart News Elsewhere on the charts, The Little Willies' For The Good Times, with Norah Jones' cover of Dolly's "Jolene," loses 10 to No. 42 country in its fifth week, falls off the current albums list, down from No. 167, and off the Internet sales list, down from No. 24. It loses five to No. 19 Canadian country. Ladysmith Black Mambazo & Friends, with Dolly's cover of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" with them, falls off the world albums chart, down from No. 13. The Grascals' Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin, featuring Dolly on three tracks, gains one to No. 12 in its 48th chart week. Overall, Dierks Bentley's Home debuts at No. 1 country, No. 7 pop, while Jason Aldean's My Kind Of Party rises two to No. 2 country and nine to No. 16 pop in its 67th week.
'9 To 5' Heading To High School What I believe to be the first high school production of Dolly's 9 To 5: The Musical has been scheduled. According to North Jersey.comhere, New Milford High School in New Jersey will perform the show as the school's spring musical March 22-24.
Feb. 16: Dolly's Song Back In Top 10 The full Billboard charts won't be released until Thursday, but the magazine on Wednesday provided a preview showing that increased sales and airplay in the 36 hours following Whitney Houston's death propel her biggest hit song and her greatest hits album into the top 10. Fueled by sales of nearly 200,000 digital downloads and radio airplay heard by 18 million audience members, Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You" will re-enter the Hot 100 pop chart at No. 7 Thursday, the publication reported. It had spent a then-record of 14 weeks at No. 1 when originally released 20 years ago. The track will also debut on the digital songs sales chart at No. 3. In addition, her Greatest Hits collection that included the song will re-enter the Top 200 pop albums chart at No. 6 with 64,000 copies sold in those 36 hours immediately following the announcement of her passing. The Bodyguard soundtrack, which also featured the recording, re-enters the same chart at No. 80 with 8,000 units sold. Given the standard songwriter and publisher royalty per item sold, Dolly likely earned about $30,000 from the sales as the song's composer and publisher. Even larger numbers and higher chart positions are expected in next week's charts, which will include a full week of sales instead of just a day and a half over the weekend.
'Dancing With The Stars' Hoax Reported The web was a buzz Wednesday with a report by gossip blog Hollywood Lifehere citing "insiders" at Dancing With The Stars claiming Dolly had been in negotiations to appear on the program's new season and was expected to officially sign on any minute now. The report was suspicious given that Dolly had specifically stated in several interviews that the show's producers had asked her to be a contestant in the past and she had turned them down because she doesn't consider herself a good enough dancer to compete. By day's end, Wet Paint published a report here that they had contacted Dolly's management and confirmed the story was false and she would not be on the program.
Dolly's Former Assistant Battling Parkinsons Former Dolly assistant Susie Glickman is fighting Parkinson's disease, AL.com reports in a profile here about her efforts to raise awareness about the illness.
Feb. 15: Houston Death Looking To Hit The Charts The passing of Whitney Houston will likely dramatically impact charts worldwide, indications in the days following her death show.Billboard had predicted here that her Greatest Hits collection, which contains her cover of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You," could sell as many as 50,000 copies to re-enter the top 20 and possibly top 10, but the building charts released Tuesday showed the album had sold more than 60,000 and presently is at a strong No. 6, a position that could be even higher when retailers that aren't included in the preliminary lists are added in. That reflects just sales in the first 36 hours following her death, so next week's charts, reflecting the following seven days of sales, could push the releases even higher. "I Will Always Love You" is expected to come in high on the U.S. digital songs chart as well, although it gave up its No. 1 position at iTunes Tuesday after two days atop the chart there. Overseas, it looks like the song could re-enter the top 10 singles in the U.K., where the album appears to also be headed toward a No. 6 re-entry as well, according to Sky News here. Next week's charts should also see the song appear with its Glee cast version, following performance of it by the character of Mercedes on the program Tuesday night.
'Year' Movie Headed Across The Pond The Canadian film The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom, released in the U.S. on DVD last month, is headed across the Atlantic. Screen Daily reported here Tuesday that the picture had been purchased for release in the U.K. and Ireland by Peccadillo Pictures.
Feb. 14: Whitney, 'IWALY' Stay In The News
The news continued to be dominated Monday by the unexpected passing of superstar Whitney Houston, with copious mentions of her biggest hit, the Dolly-written "I Will Always Love You." Jennifer Houston performed the song on the Grammy Awards Sunday night in tribute to Houston. (Watch video on YouTube in the media player above or by clicking here.) After the performance, Dolly released a second statement on Houston, saying: "I was brought to tears again last night, as I'm sure many were, when Jennifer Hudson sang 'I Will Always Love You' on the Grammys in memory of Whitney. Like everybody else, I am still in shock. But I know that Whitney will live forever in all the great music that she left behind. I will always have a very special piece of her in the song we shared together and had the good fortune to share with the world. Rest in peace, Whitney. Again, we will always love you." CMT brought out a Dolly interview about the song and Houston's recording of it here, while ABC's Nightline chatted with producer David Foster about the recording here. Other media outlets noted that Houston's passing should earn millions of dollars for Dolly in songwriting royalties, given that she should collect nearly 10 cents on each sale of the song, which had already sold more than 60 million copies worldwide in albums, CDs, singles and downloads prior to Houston's death. The Dolly windfall was noted by Reuters here and The Huffington Posthere. Finally, E-Online reported here that producers of Glee confirmed they decided to dedicate Tuesday's episode of the program on FOX to Houston's memory, since it coincidentally features a cover of the song as performed by the character Mercedes. Listen to it via YouTube in the media player below or by clicking here.
'Joyful' Drops To No. 25 Losing nearly half of its cinema screens Friday, Dolly's film Joyful Noise brought in less than half a million dollars in ticket sales during its fifth weekend at the box office to slip to No. 25. Over the three days, the movie brought in just $489,616 in ticket sales, down more than $1 million from the previous weekend, figures released on Monday showed. Since its debut a month ago, it has grossed $29,890,129. This week, it is playing on just 686 screens nationwide. It was the 22nd most popular film Friday, 25th Saturday and 26th on Sunday.
Feb. 13: In Memoriam: Whitney Houston Saturday's death of pop icon Whitney Houston, 48, dominated the news over the weekend. Houston, believed to have likely drowned in a hotel bathtub, had found the greatest success of her career with a cover of the Dolly-penned classic "I Will Always Love You." The song has sold nearly 20 million copies in the U.S. since its release 20 years ago: over 4.5 million singles to be the biggest-selling single by a female artist in music history, more than 1 million single downloads, more than 11.8 million copies of The Bodyguard soundtrack and 1.7 million copies of her Greatest Hits album. The song is the second-longest-running No. 1 of all time at 14 weeks atop the charts, winning Houston Grammy Awards in 1994 for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance. Following Houston's passing, Dolly issued the following statement: "Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston. I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.'" Coincidentally, FOX TV's Glee had announced days before the death that its character of Mercedes will perform the song in a pivotal scene during Tuesday night's program. It will mark the second Dolly song used in the series, as "Jolene" was performed earlier this season. As of Sunday, Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" was the top-selling song on iTunes, while her Greatest Hits album was the service's top-selling album and The Bodyguard soundtrack also in the top 10.
Overseas Chart Updates The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1 scores a 101st week on the charts Down Under this week, gaining one to No. 15 on the Australian country albums chart but dipping a dozen digits to No. 39 pop catalog albums sales for a 28th week. On the British tallies, Better Day slips four to No. 12 U.K. country albums for a 24th week there, while Dolly: Live From London falls off the British country compilations list, down from No. 15 in its 98th week. Norah Jones' The Little Willies' For The Good Times, featuring her cover of Dolly's "Jolene," holds steady at No. 5 country in its fifth U.K. week.
Pirates Voyage Opens For Year Two Dolly's Myrtle Beach Pirates Voyage opened Friday for its second season. In a press release here, Dolly said: "We had an incredible first season. I think Pirates Voyage is the perfect fit for families visiting the Grand Strand. It's our most breathtaking show ever!"
Williams Chats About Dolly Wendy Williams is mentioning one of her idols, Dolly, more often than usual lately, it appears. She chatted her up the other day on her program as a possible contestant on the new season of Dancing With The Stars (although Dolly has publicly stated she doesn't want to compete on the show), and at a recent taping a Valentine's Day segment with Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell was shot for airing on Tuesday's episode, which included a lengthy conversation about meeting Dolly and naming one of their twins after her.
Feb. 9: 'Joyful' Slips On Charts The Joyful Noise Soundtrack lost more ground in its fourth week of sales, the Feb. 18 Billboard charts released Thursday showed. The album dropped 26 places to No. 59 on the top 200 pop albums chart, 24 spots to No. 56 current albums chart, one to No. 3 Christian digital albums, two to No. 4 gospel digital albums, two to No. 5 Christian and gospel digital albums, one to No. 8 independent label albums, nine to No. 16 Internet sales and two spots to No. 3 soundtracks after three weeks at No. 1 there. Its track "Higher Medley" by Queen Latifah, Dolly, Keke Palmer, Jeremy Jordan, Angela Grovey, DeQuina Moore and Andy Karl lost the No. 1 gospel digital sales position after three weeks, dipping to No. 4, also falling 26 spots to No. 50 Christian digital sales and falling off of the combined Christian and gospel digital sales chart, down from No. 24;"Man in the Mirror" by Palmer drops four to No. 6 gospel digital sales and off the Christian digital sales and Christian/gospel digital sales charts, down from No. 26; "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Jordan and Palmer falls nine to No. 15 gospel digital sales; "Here to the Moon and Back" by Dolly, Kris Kristofferson and Jeremy Jordan remains loses nine to No. 13 gospel digital sales and falls off the 24 Christian digital sales and Christian/gospel digital sales charts, down from No. 49 and No. 50, respectively; "Fix Me Jesus" by Latifah falls off the gospel digital sales, down from No. 18. The Little Willies' For The Good Times, with Norah Jones' cover of Dolly's "Jolene," dips eight to No. 32 country in its fourth week, off the top 200 pop charts (down from No. 159), 33 spots to No. 167 current albums, five to No. 24 Internet sales, off the tastemakers, five to No. 14 Canadian country and off Canadian pop, down from No. 69. Ladysmith Black Mambazo & Friends, with Dolly's cover of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" with them, loses two to No. 13 world albums. The Grascals' Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin, featuring Dolly on three tracks, holds steady at No. 13 in its 47th chart week.
Dollywood Preview Coming March 23 Season passholders will have the first opportunity to ride the new Wild Eagle at Dollywood before the general public at passholders' Sneak Preview Day Friday, March 23, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. The park opens to the public the following day. It has not been announced whether Dolly will make appearances at the park both days, as she did last year, or just opening day on Saturday. In related news, the new coaster's massive steel eagle sculpture and its sculptor are profiled in The Epoch Timeshere. Finally, The Tennessean noted here that the park's new Nashville partnership with Gaylord Entertainment to build a water and snow attraction will be seeking state tax incentives to help establish it.
'Noise' Falls To No. 19 Joyful Noise continued declining as the week has progressed. The film slipped another spot to No. 19 on Tuesday, taking in $126,335 in ticket sales for a cumulative total of $29,191,930. Meanwhile, the building charts didn't show the Joyful Noise Soundtrack in the top 50, which had a 9,000-units-sold cut-off this week, so the collection may have fallen out of the top 50 in its fourth week of sales. We'll have to wait until the full charts are released to find out, since the building charts don't include all retailers and therefore are always a few positions off from the final numbers.
Going Away For A Few Please excuse if updates are a bit sporadic in the next several days, as your webmaster is hitting the road for a brief trip and will not be able to update as regularly as usual.
Feb. 8: Producer: DVD Production Nearing Completion Hopefully Dolly's new live DVD from the Australian leg of her Better Day World Tour will be available later this year from Dolly Records, postings from the production company indicate. Liquid Crystal Productions, which made Dolly's video for "The Sacrifice," is producing the DVD and has noted on Facebook and LinkedIn that post-production on the project should be finished "early" this year. Hopefully, that will mean a release will come shortly thereafter, although an official release date has yet to be announced by her label. Thanks, Tony!
'Noise' Passes $29 Million Mark Joyful Noise remains in the top 20 but is slipping. On Monday, the film placed 18th with $101,137, putting its cumulative box office take to $29,065,595. Its weekend place at No, 17 was also confirmed this week when the actual gross numbers were released showing a slightly better than expected take. The actual weekend ticket sales came to $1,459,230, versus the $1.445 million originally estimated.
Dolly Doesn't Lie About Age "I earned all these years. I worked hard for them and I won't let anyone take any of them away," Dolly told Life Goes Strong, as quoted in a story here that criticizes those who, unlike Dolly, lie about their age.
Feb. 6: 'Noise' Hits No. 17 This Weekend Dolly's Joyful Noise movie is nearing the $29 million mark in ticket sales, the weekend gross estimates showed. With several new releases, the picture started its fourth week of release falling four places to No. 17, according to the estimates. It was estimated to be No. 16 on Friday and Saturday, with $415,000 and $765,000 respectively, and No. 17 on Sunday, with an estimated $265,000, bringing its cumulative gross to $28.95 million. The film lost another one-third of its screens on Friday, dropping to 1,350 cinemas for this week. In related news, thanks to Michael for alerting me to some of Keke Palmer's costumes from the project being offered for auction on eBay. Check them out here
'Very Best' Lands 100th Aussie Week Dolly has passed the century mark Down Under, the new week's charts revealed. The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1 loses two to No. 16 on the Australian country albums chart but marks its 100th week on the tally, while also slipping two to No. 27 pop catalog alums in its 27th week on that chart. In the U.K., Better Day rises one to No. 8 British country albums for a 23rd week there, while while Dolly: Live From London nears its 100th week itself, re-entering the British country compilations tally at No. 15 to mark a 98th week. Norah Jones' The Little Willies' For The Good Times, with her version of Dolly's "Jolene," dips one to No. 5 country in its fourth U.K. week.
Dollywood Eagle Tips Received Thanks to a source at Dollywood for passing along a few items relating to the park's new supercoaster, Wild Eagle, which will debut at the 2012 season opening in March. I'm told Dolly is writing a new song about the ride, and a tagline to be used for the new attraction is "Don't be a chicken, but be an Eagle." In addition, the coaster will have a photo opportunity on it, with the capability for riders to upload it directly to Facebook from the ride kiosk if they purchase the image. Also, the area will contain some new restaurants and stores. Speaking of the park, check out a profile of Dolly's park partners Herschend Family Entertainment from The Tennesseanhere, which includes a comment from its CEO that the new Nashville venture between Dollywood and Opry owners Gaylord could eventually have its own coaster and other "dry-ride" components to the planned water and snow parks, since those two sections are expected to be just the first. "The economy is still questionable now, and we thought we needed to hit a home run in phase one first," he said.
Dying Fan To Meet Dolly Check out a story from Thunder Bay Newswatch in Ontario, Canada, about fan Leesa Roleck who, facing a terminal illness, will be meeting Dolly. Read it here.
Dancing Breast To Breast? I'm told Graham Norton's new program Would You Rather the other night asked contestants whether they'd rather be attached butt-to-butt to Kim Kardashian or nipple-to-nipple to Dolly. Three out of the four on the show chose Kardashian, but his "right" answer was Dolly.
Feb. 3: 'Joyful' Soundtrack Starts Decline The Joyful Noise Soundtrack has begun to slip in its third week, the Feb. 11 Billboard charts showed. The title loses 21 places to No. 33 pop, 20 to No. 32 current albums, one to No. 2 Christian digital sales, one to No. 3 Christian and gospel digital sales, and four to No. 7 independent albums while holding steady at No. 2 gospel digital sales and falling out of the 25-position pop digital album sales, down from No. 8. It maintains the No. 1 soundtracks spot for a third week and rises four to No. 7 Internet sales in its second week there. On the singles side, "Higher Medley" by Queen Latifah, Dolly, Keke Palmer, Jeremy Jordan, Angela Grovey, DeQuina Moore and Andy Karl holds steady at No. 1 gospel digital sales for a third week but drops 20 places to No. 24 Christian digital sales and Christian/gospel digital sales; "Man in the Mirror" by Palmer holds steady at No. 2 gospel digital sales and falls 21 to No. 28 Christian digital sales and Christian/gospel digital sales; "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Jordan and Palmer holds falls three to No. 6 gospel digital sales and drops off the 50-position Christian digital sales and Christian/gospel digital sales charts; "Here to the Moon and Back" by Dolly, Kris Kristofferson and Jeremy Jordan remains steady at No. 4 gospel digital sales and falls 24 to No. 49 Christian digital sales and 25 to No. 50 Christian/gospel digital sales; "Fix Me Jesus" by Latifah gains drops nine to No. 18 gospel digital sales; "That's The Way God Planned It" by Ivan Kelley Jr. falls off the 25-position gospel digital sales list, down from No. 12; and "He's Everything" by Dolly, Latifah, Palmer, Jordan, Karl and Moore falls off the gospel digital sales chart, down from No. 15. The Little Willies' For The Good Times, with Norah Jones' cover of Dolly's "Jolene," falls three to No. 24 country in its third week, 61 places to No. 159 pop, 48 spots to No. 134 current albums, 10 to No. 19 Internet sales, 17 to No. 24 tastemakers, five to No. 9 Canadian country and 25 to No. 69 Canadian pop. Ladysmith Black Mambazo & Friends, with Dolly's cover of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" with them, loses eight to No. 11 world albums and falls off the 50-position gospel albums list, down from No. 29. The Grascals' Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin, featuring Dolly on three tracks, falls three to No. 13 in its 46th chart week, while Rhonda Vincent's Taken, featuring Dolly on one song, falls back off the 15-position bluegrass list, down from No. 11 in its 32nd week. Overall, Tim McGraw's Emotional Traffic debuts at No. 1 country and No. 2 pop with 68,000 copies sold in its first week, while Kellie Pickler's 100 Proof debuts at No. 2 country and No. 7 pop with 27,000 units moved in its first week. In related news, the Joyful Noise movie held steady Wednesday at No. 14 with a box office of $186,182, bringing its cumulative total to $27,295,839.
TLC 'Obsession' Show Returns A show that kicked off with two major Dolly fans showing her their massive collection has been picked up for an entire season. My Crazy Obsession premieres March 7 on TLC, The Hollywood Reporter reported here, although I doubt they'll find new Dolly fans to highlight :)
Feb. 2: A 'Joyful' $27 Million Reached Dolly's movie Joyful Noise on Tuesday passed the $27 million mark in box office sales, it was revealed Wednesday. The picture maintained its No. 14 ranking on Monday and Tuesday with $191,303 and $242,451 in ticket sales, respectively. Since release Jan. 13, it has grossed $27,109,657.
'60 Minutes' Interview To Repeat
CBS has announced that its interview with Dolly on 60 Minutes that originally aired to promote the opening of 9 To 5: The Musical on Broadway will repeat this weekend. It will be included in a special 60 Minutes Presents: Three Remarkable Women, which will also profile Vogue editor Anna Wintour and actress Meryl Streep. All three interviews were conducted by reporter Morley Safer. The show airs at 8 p.m. Eastern Sunday.
