These Dolly Parton hits surged into the Top 40 for the first time in 50 years

KiMi Robinson, USA TODAYTue, September 1, 2026 at 10:04 PM UTC

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As Dolly Parton fans find solace in her music after her death, her songs are surging to unprecedented levels on the charts.

On Aug. 26, the day after she died at 80 following a brief and private cancer battle, Parton became the most-streamed artist in the world with 79.7 million on-demand audio streams, according to data collected by Luminate, which was shared with USA TODAY Sept. 1.

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On Aug. 25, audio and video streams of her catalog jumped 1,549% globally to 41.8 million, up from the previous day. On Aug. 26, this skyrocketed further to 79.8 million global streams. Her top-streamed song, "Jolene," surged from 196,000 streams on Aug. 24 to 3.3 million on Aug. 25, and rose further to 4 million on Aug. 26.

This led to Parton soaring on the charts, with two of her beloved 1974 hits debuting in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. "Jolene," Parton's first-ever Hot 100 entry that peaked at No. 60 the year it was released, reentered the chart at No. 16, according to Billboard, citing chart positions dated to Sept. 5.

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Her original recording of "I Will Always Love You" landed on the Hot 100 for the first time more than 50 years after its release, arriving at No. 27. Previously, her 1982 rerecording of "I Will Always Love You" made an appearance on the chart at No. 53. It was Whitney Houston's Grammy-winning rendition of the ballad that set a record in the '90s with a record 14-week streak at No. 1.

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Billboard reported on Sept. 1 that during the Aug. 21-27 tracking period, Parton's songs were streamed 116.7 million times in the U.S., a more than 1,140% increase from 9.4 million U.S. streams the week prior.

Parton's other Hot 100 chart entries are 1980's "9 to 5," her first song to reach No. 1, which is No. 18 on the Sept. 5 chart; her Kenny Rogers duet "Islands in the Stream" (No. 26), which was her second No. 1 hit; and "Here You Come Again" (No. 44), which previously peaked at No. 3.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee holds the record for the most No. 1 hits by a female country artist on Billboard's Hot Country Songs, with 25 tracks that led the chart.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: These Dolly Parton hits surged into the Top 40 for the first time in 50 years

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