Nov. 28: In The Studio Dolly's producer has confirmed the authenticity of a report from an industry magazine relayed to you here that Dolly was recently in the studio recording tracks for films (see Nov. 16 update) and my assumption of which films may have been involved. Her producer, Steve Buckingham, told Dollymania: "We recorded several demos for possible inclusion in the McClusky film. We also did a couple of demos pertaining to the Mae West project." As has been reported extensively here, Dolly co-stars as the lead character's mother in the upcoming Disney comedy Frank McKlusky, C.I., scheduled for an April 30 release, and she will portray Mae West in a television bio-pic expected to air in the late spring. Thanks, Steve!
Nov. 26: 'Lucky' Off U.K. Chart Hal Ketchum's Lucky Man, with the amazing Dolly duet "Two of The Lucky Ones," drops off the British top 20 country albums chart released Sunday, down from No. 20. The CD spent five weeks in the top 20.
Christmas In Canada Kenny and Dolly's double-platinum 1984 duet Christmas album, Once Upon A Christmas, shoots up three places to No. 11 on the Nov. 22 Canadian country album charts released Friday. It is in its third chart week up north.
'Songcatcher' Inches Up The Songcatcher soundtrack moves up two places to No. 68 on the Dec. 1 Billboard country albums chart, it was announced Friday. The CD, which includes a wonderful new Dolly song "When Love Is New" performed with movie cast member Emmy Rossum, had peaked at No. 42 and is in its 18th chart week.
Dolly On TV If you look on the left-hand column of this page, you'll see that the television listings have been updated. Most notably, I wanted to draw your attention to the holiday programming featuring Dolly this year. First, Smoky Mountain Christmas is scheduled to return for one appearance, 10:15 p.m. Eastern on Christmas Eve on The Disney Channel. Also, Dolly's New Year's appearance on Desiging Women airs at midnight Eastern Dec. 28 (11 p.m. Central Dec. 27), Steel Magnolias shows up throughout the month on The Movie Channel, and Unlikely Angel airs Dec. 4, Dec. 14 and Christmas Day on Lifetime. (In addition, those who missed Bravo's Profiles show on Dolly can catch a repeat on Dec. 14!)
Nov. 23: Disney Dolly The winter issue of Disney Magazine features several celebrities relating how Walt Disney inspired them, including Dolly. Dolly says: "When I was a child growing up in the East Tennessee Smoky Mountains, we didn't have a TV in the early days, so I didn't know about Walt Disney. Later, like every other child, I was glued to the TV set on Sunday evenings to watch Walt introduce his show each week. It seemed he was everywhere in the world! Sometimes in Africa, sometimes in space. He went back in time and even talked to cartoon characters. There were no limits to his dreaming, imagination and his willingness to try anything. Little did I know that someday I, too, would be in the theme park business at Dollywood. Walt Disney set the standard for me and for all entertainment and theme parks throughout the world. He may have taught us all the importance of staying young at heart." Thanks, Lemar!
Vote For Dolly Great American Country is taking votes through Dec. 16 for the Top 50 Videos of 2001. You may vote as often as you like, and each ballot gives the voter a chance at winning a video copy of the show plus a collection of CDs from all of the winners (10 runners-up will receive a videotape of the program). So go now and vote as often as possible for Dolly's "Shine," Sherrie Austin's cover of Dolly's "Jolene" and up to three other videos from the past year. You may cast your votes here!
Dolly Dreams You may remember a story related to you here about Dolly's recent telephone call to a Canadian woman battling cancer who was too sick to travel to Nashville to see her host the Grand Ole Opry anniversary special (see Oct. 22 news update). Well, CBC Radio's morning show also did a story on Dolly's kind-hearted act, available from their web site as a Real Audio clip. The first minute or so is an excerpt from "Coat of Many Colors." Take a listen here. Thanks, Brian!
Nov. 20: 'Trio II' Goes Gold! Dollymania is proud to be the first Dolly site to bring you the news that Trio II has been certified gold for sales in excess of 500,000 copies! The album's label, Elektra, submitted several records last week to the RIAA, which issues gold and platinum awards for reaching the 500,000 and 1 million copy milestones, respectively, and Trio II was certified on Thursday. (Although albums may have actually passed the mark months -- or even years -- ago, the awards are not issued until the record labels submit them.) This marks Dolly's 14th gold album honor (she also has five platinum and one multi-platinum awards plus three gold and one platinum singles), with her most recent before this being 1990's Home For Christmas, certified in 1994. This marks Trio partner Emmylou Harris' 10th gold album (her only platinum disc was the original 1987 Trio). A few additional albums of Trio partner Linda Ronstadt were also certified on Thursday, bringing her total to 19 gold albums (plus 13 platinum and 11 multi-platinum awards as well as three gold and one platinum singles). Also, last I heard, the original Trio CD was only 10,000-20,000 away from double platinum certification (2 million copies) a few months back, so we may see it earn an award a few months down the road. Thanks, Chad! (Get Triohere and Trio IIhere!)
Christmas Music Selling Already on the Canadian country album charts' top 20, Kenny & Dolly's Once Upon A Christmas also this week showed up in CDNow's country top 20 albums and the top 400 albums of all genres at Amazon.com. Get this Christmas classic here, or Dolly's Home for Christmashere, or Emmylou Harris' Light of The Stable (which features the first Trio recording -- plus Neil Young -- on the title track) here!
Nov. 19: 'McKlusky' Release Date Announced The first announcement of a release date for the Disney comedy Frank McKlusky, C.I. has come. Movies.hsx.com, which offers a game where there is a film "stock market," on Friday listed an April 30 tentative release date for the film. In the movie, Dolly plays the title character's mother. Frank, whose father was a stunt man who has been in a coma at home for two decades, is an insurance claims adjustor who uses wacky gimmicks and disguises to root out those who would cheat his insurance company. The film also features comedian Dave Sherridan in the title role and Randy Quaid as the comatose father. Wrestler Chyna, Scott Baio, comedian Tracy Morgan and the band Hanson also have roles. Thanks, Sheena!
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas Kenny and Dolly's double-platinum 1984 duet Christmas album with Kenny Rogers, Once Upon A Christmas, shoots up 13 places to No. 14 on the Nov. 15 Canadian country album charts released Saturday. It is in its second chart week up north.
Steady On Indie Charts Dolly's "Shine" from Little Sparrow remains at No. 10 on IndieWorldCountry's weekly independent country singles chart released Friday. The song had spent two weeks at No. 1. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, last week's chart stands for both the weeks ending Nov. 16 and Nov. 23.
U.K. Chart Update Hal Ketchum's Lucky Man, with the amazing Dolly duet "Two of The Lucky Ones," drops two slots to No. 20 in its fifth week on the British top 20 country albums chart released Sunday.
'Mania' Chosen As 'Cool' Site Of the nearly 5,000 country music-related sites listed on country-music-club.com, Dollymania recently was named one of its 13 "Cool Sites," the only Dolly site chosen for this honor. Other sites listed as "Cool Sites" include Vince Gill's official web page and the site for the Nashvile industry publication Indie Tracker Magazine. (Dollymania is also listed as a "Cool Site" by VH1.com and SonicNet.com.)
Another Honor British music site Dot Music recently announced its list of the Top 1000 in its publicly-voted Peoples' Choice Award for the top music sites on the Internet, and two Dolly sites made the top 500! Your very own Dollymania ranked No. 477, while Dolly On-Line came in at No. 331. The official site for the animated hip-hop group Gorillaz took first place. More than 3,000 sites in all music genres were considered by voters, and the combined vote total of all entries reached in excess of 150,000 ballots. A big thank you to all who voted!
Nov. 16: 'Songcatcher' Update The Songcatcher soundtrack drops two places to No. 70 on the Nov. 24 country albums chart, it announced Thursday. The CD, which includes a wonderful new Dolly song "When Love Is New" performed with movie cast member Emmy Rossum, had peaked at No. 42 and is in its 17th chart week.
Dolly In Studio A new article in a music business magazine highlighting recording studios in Nashville noted that Dolly and producer Steve Buckingham had been at The Neve Room at Seventeen Grand recording songs for an upcoming film. No word on exactly what was recorded, but it could have been for the Disney comedy Frank McClusky, C.I., the soundtrack for which should have some Dolly material, or her upcoming tele-bio-pic on Mae West. Thanks, Sheena!
New Singles Section Premieres Shortly after the launch of the new chart album section (here), Dollymania is pleased to offer the definitive single discography for Miss Dolly. This is the most comprehensive listing of her singles (both charted and uncharted) ever published, featuring both country and pop chart figures, years of release, albums of origination and notes on most of the important cuts -- including when she appeared on other artists' singles or B-sides. Check out the new singles section here!
More Dollywood Jokes Dollywood got a couple of mentions in jokes on Wednesday night's live episode of The Drew Carey Show on ABC. Drew and friends were going to Nashville, and Lewis and Oswald planned to visit the park, which they thought contained breast-themed rides. (Hey, as Dollywood officials have pointed out many times, they love to be mentioned on TV, even in jokes, because it keeps the park's name in the public mind!)
A Numbers Update And Good-Bye Jennifer at Sugar Hill Records was kind enough to provide the latest sales figures for Dolly's two releases on their label. Although both have fallen off the Billboard charts, they continue to sell. The Grammy-winning The Grass Is Blue from 1999 has sold slightly more than 158,500 copies, and this year's Little Sparrow has passed the 164,000 mark. Thanks to Jennifer for this info and for all of the help she has provided on getting news to you concerning Dolly's albums. She is leaving the label, and we wish her all the best!
Dolly On BBC America Dolly's appearance on Parkinson earlier this year will premiere stateside on BBC America at 7 p.m. Dec. 29, Dollymania has learned. Her appearance on So Graham Norton is also reportedly to be broadcast here on that cable channel sometime soon, although I have yet to find an actual air date.
Cookin' Something Up For A Cause Dolly's recipe for :Islands In The Stream" is among several celebrity dishes in a new cookbook, Cooking Up An End To Childhood Hunger In America, a fundraiser and awareness-raiser for the organization Hunger Free America, according to a press release issued Wednesday.
Tale Of A Typo It was pointed out to me recently that there is a misspelling in the liner notes to the Raven Records release Mission Chapel Memories (1971-1975), which came out last month featuring songs from all but one of Dolly's solo albums from that time frame. Toward the end of the liner notes, it mislabels Dolly's Heartsongs: Live From Home as Heartstrings: Live From Home. Thanks, Mike!
200K Strong The front page at Dollymania this week welcomed its 200,000th visitor! The site has gone from a few dozen hits per month weeks after it first launched about three years ago to more than 15,000 per month today. A big thank you to all who stop by and all who return!
Nov. 12: Down In The U.K. Little Sparrow falls off the British top 20 country albums chart released Sunday, down from No. 20. With 41 chart weeks overseas, the CD peaked for two months at No. 1 and reached No. 30 pop. Also on this week's chart, Hal Ketchum's Lucky Man, with the amazing Dolly duet "Two of The Lucky Ones," drops one place to No. 18 in its fourth week.
One More Notch Dolly's "Shine" from the CD falls one spot to No. 10 on IndieWorldCountry's weeklty independent country singles chart released Friday. The song had spent two weeks at No. 1.
Have A Holly, Dolly Christmas Dolly's double-platinum 1984 duet Christmas album with Kenny Rogers, Once Upon A Christmas, is on the charts again. It debuted this week at No. 27 on the Canadian country albums chart issue dated Nov. 8!
Catch This Film The Sundance Film Festival award-winning motion picture Songcatcher, which features an amazing selection of Appalachian folk songs, has just been released on home video and DVD. You can order a copy here (or get the soundtrack, with film actress Emmy Rossum's duet with Dolly on her new song "When Love Is New," here)! It had previously been reported here and in other media outlets that Dolly's song plays over the closing credits. Apparently the video version does not include Dolly's performance. Thanks, Greg!
Nov. 9: It's Christmas At Dollywood! Dollywood's 11th annual Smoky Mountain Christmas opens Saturday, featuring holiday crafts and music along with 3 million lights throughout the park. Tinker the Talking Tree returns to Dreamland Forest, which itself is decorated with 250,000 lights. New this year are warming stations, where patrons can enjoy a cup of apple cider by a fireplace or roast marshmallows over a campfire. The Christmas festival runs through Dec. 30 and also features Dolly's sold out holiday benefit concerts Dec. 14-15 for the Dollywood Foundation. P.S. Speaking of Dollywood, I've confirmed that the new Adventures in Imagination section, to open April 6 and feature the new Dolly museum, will also include an operating donut factory and a store called Inspirations, which will stock unique inspirational items.
Back On The Chart After a four-week absence, the Songcatcher soundtrack re-enters the Nov. 17 country albums chart at No. 68, Billboard announced Thursday. The CD, which includes a wonderful new Dolly song "When Love Is New" performed with movie cast member Emmy Rossum, had peaked at No. 42 and is in its 16th chart week.
'Women' Back On According to Tower Records UK, the soundtrack for the Elton John-produced film Women Talking Dirty will be released overseas on Dec. 3. The soundtrack reportedly contains several new Dolly cuts, including a dance version of "Jolene" and songs she and Elton co-wrote for the film.
An Eagle When She Flies There was a Dolly connection to last week's World Series Game 3, I've learned. The bald eagle which flew to home plate during the National Anthem was named Challenger. He lives at the bald eagle sanctuary operated by the American Eagle Foundation housed at Dollywood.
New Album Section Premiering tonight on Dollymania is a new presentation of Dolly's complete charted albums, showing the dates of debut, peak positions, gold and platinum certification dates, full track listings and cover art. You can see it by clicking here. Also, look in coming weeks for the most complete listing of Dolly singles ever compiled!
Nov. 5: Down In The U.K. Little Sparrow falls three spots to No. 20 on the British country albums chart released Sunday. Currently in its 41st chart week overseas, the CD peaked for two months at No. 1 and reached No. 30 pop. Also on this week's chart, Hal Ketchum's Lucky Man, with the amazing Dolly duet "Two of The Lucky Ones," drops six places to No. 17 in its third week.
No Longer No. 1 Dolly's "Shine" from the CD remains at No. 9 for a second week on IndieWorldCountry's weeklty independent country singles chart released Friday. The song had spent two weeks at No. 1. As you may recall, last week's chart was not correctly posted on their site, so last week's fall from No. 1 to No. 9 was not reported here.
