Dolly Parton Was so ‘Tasteless’ at 1 Awards Show That the Audience ‘Gave a Collective Gasp’

When Dolly Parton attended the CMA Awards in 1977, she wasn’t an audience favorite. She had recently released the album New Harvest … First Gathering , which took Parton’s music in a new direction. The Nashville establishment resented her move to the pop charts and some people weren’t happy to see her at the show. When she arrived, heads turned because of her outfit.

Dolly Parton turned heads at an awards show

In 1977, Parton was nominated for Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year at the CMA Awards. She wore a red, floral patterned blouse with one fringed sleeve and a pair of pants in the same floral pattern. She adorned her hair with a large red flower. The look did not go over well with the audience.

“She came out there in that garb lookin’ like a peacock,” one person said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “She thought she was a million bucks, and she didn’t get nothin’.”

Parton’s former designer actively tried to distance herself from the look.

“That was horrible. Sick-lookin’. Like somethin’ you’d wear to a costume party to be funny,” she said. “I want the whole world to know I didn’t do that! I don’t know why she’d wear somethin’ that hideous, unless it was to get attention.”

Charlene Bray, an agent in Nashville, thought it was one of the worst outfits Parton had ever worn.

“I really thought it was one of the most tasteless outfits I’ve ever seen her wear, and when she came out, the audience gave a collective gasp,” she said. “But then she had that big song, and I began to see a little bit of sympathy and comradery expressed for her in this town.”

She performed a song that scared her at the show

The song Bray was referring to was “Here You Come Again,” the title track from her new album. The crowd liked it, which was a relief to Parton. She worried the song, which represented her crossover to the pop charts, would horrify her country fans .

“I knew it was the single before it was even mixed, but it was a little bit scary for Dolly to make a pop record,” producer Gary Klein said. “She was afraid her fans would say, ‘Oh, Dolly’s selling out.’ She did ask to have pedal steel guitar added to the record, so I added a few licks. But I pointed out to her that records like Engelbert Humperdinck’s ‘After the Lovin’’ make the country charts now. People don’t realize how broad country is.”

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It was very important to Parton that her country fans didn’t feel betrayed by the song.

“She was questioning whether it would be a country hit,” her manager, Sandy Gallin, said. “She told me, ‘I’m not going to trust you again if the country people don’t like this.’ She’s very sensitive to not offending her country fans. That’s important to her.”

How many CMA awards has Dolly Parton won?

Though Parton did not take home awards at that ceremony in 1977, she is one of the most decorated women in country music. She has won ten times at the CMA Awards, even taking home a win for Entertainer of the Year in 1978.

She has also picked up 11 Grammys . With 54 total Grammy nominations, she has the second most nominations for a female artist.