Coal Miner's Daughter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on March 7, 1980, under the MCA Nashville label. It included music by Beverly D'Angelo, Levon Helm, and Sissy Spacek except for the "End Credits Medley" and material by other artists that were not under contract to MCA.

The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on January 11, 1982 and has been released on vinyl, cassette tape, and CD. The soundtrack would win Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year in 1980, the first of only two soundtracks to do so. (O Brother, Where Art Thou? would be the other in 2001.)

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Chart (1980)

! Peak<br />position

|-

|Australia (Kent Music Report)

| style="text-align:center;"| 98

|-

| Canada Country Albums (RPM)

| align="center"| 1

|-

| Canada Top Albums (RPM)

| align="center"| 23

|-

| US Top Country Albums (Billboard)

| align="center"| 2

|-

| US Billboard 200

| align="center"| 40

|}

Year-end Charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="text-align:left;"

|-

!scope="col"|Chart (1980)

!scope="col"|Position

|-

| Canada Top Albums (RPM)

| align="center"| 97

|-

|}

Certifications

{| class="wikitable"

|-

!scope="col"|Country

!scope="col"|Certification

|-

|United States

| Gold

Critical response

thumb|216x216px|[[Sissy Spacek's portrayal of Loretta Lynn garnered widespread critical acclaim, earning her the Academy Award for Best Actress.]]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Coal Miner's Daughter holds an approval rating of 84% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Like a classic traditional country song, Coal Miner's Daughter draws on time-tested formula -- and undeniable talent -- to tell a solidly affecting story." On Metacritic, which assigns a rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 84 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Variety called it "a thoughtful, endearing film charting the life of singer Loretta Lynn from the depths of poverty in rural Kentucky to her eventual rise to the title of 'queen of country music.'" Roger Ebert from The Chicago Times stated that the film "has been made with great taste and style; it's more intelligent and observant than movie biographies of singing stars used to be."

Accolades

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

|-

! Award

! Category

! Nominee(s)

! Result

|-

| rowspan="7"| Academy Awards

| Best Picture

| Bernard Schwartz

|

|-

| Best Actress

| Sissy Spacek

|

|-

| Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium

| Thomas Rickman

|

|-

| Best Art Direction

| John W. Corso and John M. Dwyer

|

|-

| Best Cinematography

| Ralf D. Bode

|

|-

| Best Film Editing

| Arthur Schmidt

|

|-

| Best Sound

| Richard Portman, Roger Heman and James R. Alexander

|

|-

| American Cinema Editors Awards

| Best Edited Feature Film

| Arthur Schmidt

|

|-

| rowspan="2"| British Academy Film Awards

| Best Actress in a Leading Role

| Sissy Spacek

|

|-

| Best Sound

| Gordon Ecker, James R. Alexander, Richard Portman and Roger Heman Jr.

|

|-

| Directors Guild of America Awards

| Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures

| Michael Apted

|

|-

| rowspan="4"| Golden Globe Awards

| colspan="2"| Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

|

|-

| Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

| Sissy Spacek

|

|-

| Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture

| Tommy Lee Jones

|

|-

| Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture

| Beverly D'Angelo

|

|-

| Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards

| Best Actress

| rowspan="2"| Sissy Spacek

|

|-

| Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards

| Best Actress

|

|-

| rowspan="2"| National Board of Review Awards

| colspan="2"| Top Ten Films

|

|-

| Best Actress

| Sissy Spacek

|

|-

| National Film Preservation Board

| colspan="2"| National Film Registry

|

|-

| National Society of Film Critics Awards

| Best Actress

| rowspan="2"| Sissy Spacek

|

|-

| New York Film Critics Circle Awards

| Best Actress

|

|-

| Writers Guild of America Awards

| Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium

| Thomas Rickman

|

|}

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

  • 2006: AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – #70

Home media

  • This film was released on LaserDisc on two separate releases. The first release was in May 1980, and the extended play version was released in July 1981. These releases were both made by MCA DiscoVision.
  • The film was released in the VHS format in the 1980s by MCA Home Video and on March 1, 1992, by MCA/Universal Home Video.
  • On September 13, 2005, Universal released a 25th Anniversary Edition on DVD in widescreen (1.85:1) format and featuring the music tracks remixed to 5.1 Dolby Digital stereo, leaving the dialogue and effects tracks as they were on the original mono soundtrack from 1980.
  • That same DVD was included in a four-pack DVD set that also included Smokey and the Bandit, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Fried Green Tomatoes.
  • On January 7, 2014, Universal Pictures released the film on Blu-ray.
  • On September 9, 2025, in honor of the film's 45th anniversary, Universal Pictures released the film on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.

Broadway adaptation

On May 10, 2012, at the Grand Ole Opry, Lynn announced that Zooey Deschanel was to portray her in a Broadway musical adaptation. Production stalled until after Lynn's death, when in 2025 Lynn's family announced work was beginning on a revision of the musical starring Sutton Foster and directed by Sam Gold, with musical production by Jeanine Tesori.

One episode of The Simpsons, titled "Colonel Homer", is based partly on this film. The episode also stars Beverly D'Angelo as cocktail waitress Lurleen Lumpkin.

References

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  • Coal Miner's Daughter at AllMovie