Dolly Parton makes history & scores the biggest album debut sales week

GLOBAL SUPERSTAR DOLLY PARTON MAKES HISTORY & SCORES THE BIGGEST ALBUM DEBUT SALES WEEK OF HER SEVEN DECADE CAREER 

WITH ROCKSTAR SELLING OVER 143,000 UNITS WORLDWIDE

 

DOLLY BLASTS ONTO THE CHARTS WITH SIX #1s

PARTON LANDS AT #1 ON BILLBOARD TOP ROCK ALBUMS, #1 ON BILLBOARD TOP ROCK & ALTERNATIVE ALBUMS, #1 ON BILLBOARD TOP COUNTRY ALBUMS, #1 ON BILLBOARD TOP ALBUM SALES, #1 ON BILLBOARD TOP CURRENT ALBUM SALES, AND #1 ON BILLBOARD INDEPENDENT ALBUMS CHARTS GIVING PARTON HER HISTORY-MAKING FIRST #1s ON BILLBOARD TOP ROCK ALBUMS, BILLBOARD TOP ROCK & ALTERNATIVE ALBUMS, AND BILLBOARD TOP ALBUM SALES

https://dolly.lnk.to/Rockstar

 

ROCKSTAR YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

 

Parton Joins Drake & Taylor Swift In Billboard 200 Top 3 

With The Highest All-Genre Album Chart Rank Of Her Career

Rockstar Tops More Than 127,000 Units In The Us–Another Historic Moment With Her Biggest First Week Ever In The Us–Extending Parton’s Run Of #1 Albums To 46 Years, A Record For Any Country Artist

 

NASHVILLE, TN – November 27, 2023 – Seven decades into her unmatched career, global superstar Dolly Parton lands her biggest album debut ever as the 30-track, star-studded ROCKSTAR collection debuted at #1 on six different Billboard charts. With 127,778 units sold in its inaugural week. Of that sum, pure album sales comprised 118,500, SEA (Streaming Equivalent Albums) units comprise 8,000 and TEA (Track Equivalent Albums) units comprised 1,500.

The arrival marked Parton’s biggest week, by units earned, since the chart began measuring by units Parton’s Rockstar debuted at #1 on Billboard Top Rock Albums, #1 on Billboard Top Rock & Alternative Albums, #1 on Billboard Top Country Albums, #1 on Billboard Top Album Sales, #1 on Billboard Top Current Album Sales, and #1 on Billboard Independent Albums charts.

 

The album also debuted at #2 on Billboard Vinyl Albums and #2 on Billboard Tastemaker Albums charts. Released on Parton’s own Butterfly Records with worldwide distribution via Big Machine Label Group, Rockstar joins Drake’s For All The Dogs – Scary Hours Edition and Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in the overall top 3, marking Parton’s career-best rank on the all-genre list. 

Rockstar also becomes Parton’s biggest debut week ever and biggest sales week in 30 years, since 1993’s Platinum-selling Slow Dancing With The Moon logged 50,000 units in its second chart week. With its #1 debut on Billboard Country Albums, the album also becomes Parton’s 48^th top 10 entry on Billboard Country Albums and eighth #1, extending the Rock & Roll and Country Music Hall of Famers’ record on that tally for most top 10 albums by a female artist.

The album extended Parton’s run of #1s on Billboard Country Albums to 46 years—from 1977’s Here You Come Again to present—a record she claimed in 2020 with the #1 debut of A Holly Dolly Christmas and now furthers with Rockstar.

“Wow, this is a big thrill!” exclaims Parton. “I owe a thank you to the fans who have always been there for me. Their support made this achievement possible. I’d also like to thank my producer Kent Wells, all the wonderful artists, musicians, and engineers who brought their talents to this project.”

Parton’s Rockstar first-week worldwide sales have topped 143,000 units, highlighted with a top 5 debut in the UK (7,195 sales units; includes streaming), Parton’s first top 10 debut in Germany, a #1 debut in Canada on both Country Albums and Current Digital Album Sales chart, a #2 debut in Canada on the Current Album Sales chart, a #2 debut on the Digital Albums chart in Australia, a #3 debut on the Country Albums chart in Australia, a #2 debut in Switzerland, and more ex-US debuts still to be announced.

Parton’s massive global campaign for Rockstar featured a halftime performance at the Dallas Cowboys Red Kettle Kickoff game on Thanksgiving Day, where in advance of the performance, Parton surprised Dallas Cowboys’ Charlotte Jones with a donation of $1 million dollars to the Salvation Army. Additionally, Parton’s appearance in the game helped it become the third most-viewed regular-season game in NFL history with a 44 million viewership peak.

“Words can’t describe how proud I am that Dolly trusted us to deliver her Rockstar vision,” says Danny Nozell, Parton’s longtime manager and CEO/CTK Enterprises & NOZ Entertainment Soundstages. “I want to thank my Butterfly Records global marketing team of Kyle McClain, Steve Ross, John Zarling, Kelly Ridgway, Olly Rowland, global publicist Marcel Pariseau, and the teams at Marbaloo and TDS. I also want to recognize my entire CTK Enterprises staff for the sleepless nights bringing this vision to life. Additionally, a thank you to the best partners in the world—Scott Borchetta, Mike Rittberg, Julian Raymond, and the Big Machine family for their hard work and team effort.”

Parton’s Rockstar project is available in multiple digital and physical versions. With ten options for retailers across the globe, Rockstar is available in black, gold, clear, red, Smoky, silver, purple, white, pink, and blue vinyl variants. Additionally, a standard 2-disc CD, UT Vols 2-disc CD (featuring a live version of “Rocky Top”), Dallas Cowboys 2-disc CD, HSN exclusive 2-disc CD (featuring bonus tracks “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Mama Never Said,” and “Rockin’ It”), and a TalkShopLive exclusive double cassette offering are in the market. During the album’s release week, Parton surprised fans with an exclusive digital download of the Rockstar album featuring two additional bonus tracks (“Two Tickets To Paradise” and “Jolene” featuring Måneskin) via her website. Access digital and physical versions still available here.

THE REVIEWS ARE IN!

There is something for every music fan on the record, from a cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain” to “Wrecking Ball” by Parton’s goddaughter, Miley Cyrus. For as much as the record is a tribute to rock and roll, it is as much a testament to Parton’s prestige. Who else could gather so many for a party in honor of the genre? Indeed, the album is a show for for the ages, a show for one and all. Standing ovation. 5 out of 5 stars American Songwriter.com

Rockstar is so long that it can feel like a bit of a slog. By the time you reach the penultimate track, “Let It Be” (featuring the first Billboard-charting collaboration between McCartney and Starr since the breakup of The Beatles), many listeners might find themselves in agreement. But then, after all the glittering joy and fluttering hope Parton has given the world, it’s hard to begrudge her a little Dollyoke fun. 3 STARS The Independent

Nine originals interspersed with the overfamiliar classics indicate a songwriter’s fascination with rock form, but only I Want You Back (sung with Steven Tyler) justifies its position nestled between so many inarguable classics. 3 STARS The Telegraph

To her credit, Parton still manages to make Rockstar sound and feel like a Dolly Parton album, thanks in large part to her distinctive twang. She and producer Kent Wells make some subtle changes to these songs, like a richer and deeper piano tone on Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and denser lead guitar on “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” though more inventive arrangements would have distinguished these versions from the originals. 6/10 3 STARS Slant Magazine

Rockstar might have got away with the obviousness of its material if it had opted to do something interesting with it, but virtually every cover here seems to have been made as close to the original version as possible.....listening to it feels like being trapped in a karaoke bar where Dolly Parton, having taken the stage to surprise and general rejoicing, is now drunkenly refusing to let go of the microphone. She still has a great voice, but it’s also a hugely distinctive one, and the sense that it doesn’t necessarily fit these songs in these arrangements is hard to avoid. For some reason, she sounds particularly jarring essaying We Are the Champions. She absolutely belts out Every Breath You Take, which doesn’t do much for the song’s subtly creepy undercurrent. 2 STARS The Guardian

CONNECT with Dolly: Website I Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | X |