In 1967, Parton was asked to join the weekly syndicated country music TV program hosted by Porter Wagoner, replacing Norma Jean, who had returned to Oklahoma. She stayed with the Wagoner show and continued to record duets with him for seven years, then made a break to become a solo artist. In 1974, her song, "I Will Always Love You" (written about her break from Wagoner), was released and went to #1 on the country charts. Around the same time, Elvis Presley indicated that he wanted to cover the song. Parton was interested until Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her that she would have to sign over half of the publishing rights if Presley recorded the song (as was the standard procedure for songs he recorded). Parton refused and that decision is credited with helping make her many millions of dollars in royalties from the song over the years. It was decisions like these, in fact, that caused her to be called "The Iron Butterfly" in showbiz circles. She also claims to have made enough from Whitney Houston's cover version of this song to "buy Graceland."

From 1974 to 1980, she consistently charted in the country Top Ten, with no fewer than eight singles reaching number one. Parton had her own syndicated television show, Dolly, in 1976 and by the next year had gained the right to produce her own albums, which immediately resulted in diverse efforts like 1977's New Harvest...First Gathering. In addition to her own hits during the late '70s, many artists, from Rose Maddox and Kitty Wells to Olivia Newton-John, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt, covered her songs, and her siblings Randy and Stella had recording contracts of their own.

Parton later had commercial success as a pop singer, as well as an actress. Her 1977 album, Here You Come Again, was her first million-seller, and the title track ("Here You Come Again") became her first top-ten single on the pop charts (reaching No. 3); many of her subsequent singles charted on both pop and country charts, simultaneously. Her albums during this period were developed specifically for pop/crossover success. With less time to spend on her songwriting as she focused on a burgeoning film career, the early 1980s found Parton recording a larger percentage of material from noted pop songwriters, such as Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Rupert Holmes, Gary Portnoy, and Carole Bayer Sager. In 1978, Parton won the Grammy award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her Here You Come Again album. Following "Here You Come Again", she had further pop hits with "Two Doors Down", "Heartbreaker" (both 1978), "Baby I'm Burning" and "You're The Only One" (both 1979), all of which charted in the pop singles top 40, and all of which also topped the country singles chart. On April 3rd, 1978 Dolly Parton performed on Cher... Special in the "Musical Battle to Save Cher's Soul Medley." Parton was dressed in white and, with a team of brightly clad singers, portrayed an angelic host while punk band The Tubes, dressed in black leather and performing "Mondo Bondage," battled to send Cher's soul into eternal damnation.

Parton's commercial success continued to grow during 1980, with three number one hits in a row: the Donna Summer-written "Starting Over Again," "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You", and "9 to 5." "9 to 5", the theme song to the 1980 movie Parton starred in along with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, not only reached No. 1 on the Country charts, but also No. 1 on the Pop and the Adult Contemporary charts, giving her a triple No. 1 hit. Parton became one of the few female Country singers to have a No. 1 single on the Country and Pop charts simultaneously.

In 1987, along with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, she released the decade-in-the-making Trio album, to critical acclaim. The album strongly revitalized Parton's temporarily stalled music career, spending five weeks at #1 on Billboard's Country Albums chart, selling several million copies and producing four Top 10 Country hits including Phil Spector's "To Know Him Is To Love Him," which went to #1. Trio was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album Of The Year and was awarded "Best Country Vocal Performance - Duo or Group." (A second and more contemporary collaboration, "Trio II," would finally see release in 1999 and would be another Grammy-winning success). In 1993, she teamed up with fellow country music queens Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette for a similar project, the Honky Tonk Angels album.

1989's White Limozeen, which produced two number one hits in "Why'd You Come in Here Lookin' Like That" and "Yellow Roses." Though it looked like Parton's career had been revived, it was actually just a brief revival before contemporary country came in the early '90s and moved all veteran artists out of the charts. A 1991 duet with Ricky Van Shelton, "Rockin' Years," reached No. 1 in 1991, but Parton's greatest commercial fortune of the decade -- and probably of all-time -- came when Whitney Houston recorded "I Will Always Love You" for The Bodyguard soundtrack in 1992, and both the single and the album were massively successful. In 1994, she recorded the album Honky Tonk Angels with Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. The album was certified "Gold" by the RIAA, and helped revive the careers of Wynette and Lynn.

Parton re-recorded "I Will Always Love You" with Vince Gill, and they won a CMA award for vocal event in 1996. Taken from the album Trio II, a cover of "After the Gold Rush" won a Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals in 1999, and Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later that year.

She recorded a series of critically acclaimed bluegrass albums, beginning with "The Grass is Blue" (1999) and "Little Sparrow" (2001), both of which won Grammy Awards. Her 2002 album "Halos & Horns" included a bluegrass version of the Led Zeppelin classic Stairway to Heaven. In 2005, Parton released Those Were The Days, her interpretation of hits from the folk-rock era of the late 1960s through early 1970s. The CD featured such classics as John Lennon's "Imagine," Cat Stevens' "Where Do The Children Play," Tommy James' "Crimson & Clover," and Pete Seeger's folk classic "Where Have All The Flowers Gone."

In 2006, Parton earned her second Oscar nomination for "Travelin' Thru," which she wrote specifically for the film Transamerica. She also returned to No. 1 on the country charts later that year by lending her distinctive harmonies to the Brad Paisley ballad, "When I Get Where I'm Going."  In September 2007, Parton released her first single off her own record company, Dolly Records titled, "Better Get to Livin'", which eventually peaked at No. 48 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

Her latest album, Backwoods Barbie was released February 26, 2008 and reached #2 on the country charts. The album's debut at No. 17 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart was the highest in her career. The title song was written as part of the score for the musical 9 to 5, an adaptation of the 1980 movie of the same name.

Parton is a hugely successful songwriter, having begun by writing country music songs with strong elements of folk music in them, based upon her upbringing in humble mountain surroundings, and reflecting her family's evangelical Christian background. Her songs "Coat of Many Colors" and "Jolene" have become classics in the field, as have a number of others. As a composer, she is also regarded as one of country music's most gifted storytellers, with many of her narrative songs based on persons and events from her childhood. Parton has published almost 600 songs with BMI to date and has earned 37 BMI awards for her material.  In 2001, she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.