Dolly Parton | Songwriter

Sure, everyone knows Dolly Parton as a country music icon. But before she made a name in this field, she first rose to prominence as a songwriter in the 1960s. She signed with Combine Publishing, and worked with her frequent songwriting collaborator Bill Owens, who also happens to be her uncle. At the time, she had written numerous chart-topping singles, like Bill Phillip’s Put It Off Until Tomorrow and Skeeter Davis’s Fuel to the Flame.

At 19, Dolly started her singing career, giving birth to the music icon we know today. Aside from being a singer-songwriter, she also gets credits as a multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actress, businesswoman, and humanitarian. A lot of her written works were sung by other great artists, such as Kitty Wells and Hank Williams. In 1999, Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.