Dolly Parton Wasn’t ‘Classy’ Enough for Her Record Label
After Dolly Parton moved to Nashville, her life turned around when a record label signed her. Fred Foster, who founded Monument Records, realized Parton would be a success and began to work with her. He thought she needed a little work before she could achieve stardom, though. Foster reportedly spent thousands of dollars trying to make her a little classier.
Dolly Parton’s record label paid for her to take lessons
Though Parton had achieved local success in her music career as early as childhood, she struggled when she moved to Nashville. She could hardly afford to eat, and record label after record label rejected her. Foster turned her luck around.
“The instant you heard her you would never forget that was Dolly Parton,” he said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “Obviously, there are people who can’t stand to hear her sing, but that’s true of every superstar that has ever been. If you are pleasing a lot of people, you are displeasing a lot of people. I felt Dolly was very gifted musically, and she sang perfectly in tune.”
Foster thought she could be a success in whatever she pursued, but he also thought she needed a bit of polishing beforehand. He reportedly made suggestions on how she should dress, wear her hair and makeup, and enunciate. He hired a woman to teach her how to do these things, reportedly spending up to $25,000.
“Dolly spoke almost in colloquialisms, and of course, that’s a regional thing, but it still wasn’t classy enough for the plans Fred had for her,” an associate of Foster and Parton’s told Nash. “She had to effect a lot of the changes herself, but after the tutelage, the changes were very vivid.”
People liked that she stood out in the Nashville music scene
Though Foster believed Parton needed to be classier to make it, people found her a refreshing addition to the Nashville music scene. She stood out and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind.
“See, Dolly was never cool,” the president of Combine Music, Bob Beckham, said. “She’d always blurt out things that a lot of people trying to be cool would never do. She was refreshing as hell. She had no secrets, and she just couldn’t be cool or laid back. That was Dolly. And still is. She ain’t puttin’ nobody on. What you see is what you get.”
Because of this, it didn’t take long before Parton was a big name in Nashville.
Dolly Parton switched to a different record label after meeting Porter Wagoner
Foster did a great deal for Parton’s early career, but she didn’t work with him for as long as she may have liked. When she joined Porter Wagoner’s show as a singer, he requested that she get on the same label as him.
“She called and asked me if she could have lunch, and I said yes, so she and [her uncle] Bill Owens came down and we went to the Downtowner, or the Pancake House, whatever it was called,” Foster said. “And she told me that she was really sorry and she didn’t know how to say it, but she would have to go to RCA, that Porter had said that she would have to do that. She was very emotional.”
Foster said he was hurt by this, but wanted to continue to be Parton’s friend.
