The Essential Dolly Parton One: I Will Always Love You

Amazon.com essential recording
Despite its all-encompassing title, the first of RCA's two essential Parton titles doesn't encapsulate her most inspired period, though it provides an obliging overview of the commercial payoff that came on the high heels of her initial creative rush. This 20-song best-of set consists of sides cut between 1976 and 1984, including "9 to 5," "Islands in the Stream," "Two Doors Down," and the overblown 1982 remake of "I Will Always Love You." In contrast to Volume Two, most of the songs here come from hired guns; the winning sincerity Parton brings to her own material is much missed, though she remains an irresistible vocalist. The arrangements frequently stray from her country-folk roots into radio-friendly pop (listen to "Rear Love" to hear '80s production at its most hackneyed). Still, this album provides a useful snapshot of Dolly the superstar. Just make sure you buy Parton's second Essentials set before the first. --Steven Stolder

Tracks:

9 To 5
Single Women
Think About Love
But You Know I Love You
Do I Ever Cross Your Mind
Real Love
You're The Only One
Sweet Summer Lovin'
Heartbreak Express
Tie Our Love (In A Double Knot)
Islands In The Stream
Two Doors Down
God Won't Get You
Don't Call It Love
To Daddy (Original Version)
Starting Over Again
Tennessee Homesick Blues
Save The Last Dance For Me
Old Flames Can't Hold A Candle To You
I Will Always Love You

Amazon.com essential recording

Despite its all-encompassing title, the first of RCA's two essential Parton titles doesn't encapsulate her most inspired period, though it provides an obliging overview of the commercial payoff that came on the high heels of her initial creative rush. This 20-song best-of set consists of sides cut between 1976 and 1984, including "9 to 5," "Islands in the Stream," "Two Doors Down," and the overblown 1982 remake of "I Will Always Love You." In contrast to Volume Two, most of the songs here come from hired guns; the winning sincerity Parton brings to her own material is much missed, though she remains an irresistible vocalist. The arrangements frequently stray from her country-folk roots into radio-friendly pop (listen to "Rear Love" to hear '80s production at its most hackneyed). Still, this album provides a useful snapshot of Dolly the superstar. Just make sure you buy Parton's second Essentials set before the first. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews:

A great compact disc that belongs in your collection........2006-12-21

The Essential Dolly Parton One: I Will Always Love You is a great cd. It features over an hour of Dolly Parton's music and it is wonderful. Dolly sings one great song after the other on this cd and her talent seems to be in full force on this one, from beginning to end. Dolly Parton is such a good artist, that when a compilation cd like this comes along, you really should pick it up, because the value is through the roof. Paying ten dollars for this cd gives you a lot of great music. Dolly puts other artists to shame with her catalog of musical hits.

I think Dolly Part is the ultimate musician. She has raised the bar in performing and what music can be to ridiculous heights. She has an incredible body of work and her voice is out of this world amazing. I am so thankful we live in a world with Dolly Parton music. Listening in bliss to this cd, I was blown away with not only with how many good songs are included, but just how great those songs actually are.

The songs I have grown to like a lot on this cd are the following; 9 to 5, Single Women, Think About Love, Real Love, Sweet Summer Lovin', Heartbreak Express, Tie Our Love in a Double-knot, Islands in the Stream, Tennessee Homesick Blues and I Will Always Love You. Dolly is firing on all cylanders during all of these tracks. The rest of the album is merely okay. Dolly impressed me with her yodeling like calls during Tennessee Homesick Blues.

If you are reading this and do not own a Dolly Parton cd, you are missing out. I feel she is one of the greatest musicians of all time. I am truly amazed at the talent she has displayed throughout her career. Picking up a cd like this is a good investment in your music collection, because you are getting some of the greatest songs of all time. An added bonus to owning this is the wonderful pictures of Dolly featured in the booklet. There is one of her early in her career and she looks so nice. I whole-heartily recommend this cd for immediate purchase.

Missed Opportunity.......2004-08-26

This CD should have been a long overdue comprehensive collection of Dolly's singles for RCA during the 1980's. But, RCA flubbed that with this compilation:

* "9 To 5" is the longer film version, not the 45 version that the average record buyer would be familiar with (and prefer)

* "Real Love" was a #1 country duet (also #91 Pop and #13 A/C) for Dolly and Kenny Rogers. Yet, this is a solo recording - where's Kenny?

* "Don't Call It Love" - another alternate version ... this one is missing the background vocalists.

* "Old Flames Can't Hold A Candle To You" - another remix that differs from her 1982 Greatest Hits collection

* Includes "To Daddy" popularized by Emmylou Harris, not Dolly, at the expense of lesser hits such as "Potential New Boyfriend," "Downtown," "House of the Rising Sun," "Everything's Beautiful," "We Had It All"

RCA - We're still waiting for a truly "Essential" Dolly Parton compilation of her '80's work.

5 all the way for DOLLY!!!.......2003-06-19

20 GLORIOUS songs of Dolly singing.....I'd suggest this for a good album for a roadtrip. I especially love the folkly bluegrassy mama songs (I believe tracks 14 and 15) - All the songs are phenomenal on here.

I am only 23 years OLD and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Dolly Parton. She is a classic. I thank my parents for giving me the chance to listen to a legend such as her. Very down-to-earth and earthy songs. Trust me, if you're a country fan, you'll love it.

Dolly rocks!

5 stars
* * * * *

Definitely Essential.......2003-04-02

One thing here that is for certain: success speaks for itself. Though the majority of critics write off this period of Dolly's career, they forget that Dolly Parton became a household name with songs like "Here You Come Again", "9 To 5", "Two Doors Down" and "Islands In The Stream". This was an album I had waited a long time for as I had trekked to Nashville to purchase the long lost "Great Balls Of Fire" LP just to get a copy of her 1979 #1 smash "You're The Only One" back in 1993.

Certain things about this album were a disappointment. First, several songs on this album were remixes of the original songs-the worst being a solo version of "Real Love" as well as "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind", "Don't Call It Love" and "Old Flames Can't Hold A Candle To You" which spoiled an otherwise perfect collection-thus not a five-star compilation. Still, several previously unavailable songs were finally on CD on this first of two long awaited collections including the top ten country hits "Single Women" and "Heartbreak Express" (from "Heartbreak Express"), "You're The Only One" (#1 for 2 weeks) and "Sweet Summer Lovin" (from "Great Balls of Fire"), "God Won't Get You" (from the Rhinestone Soundtrack) and the Donna Summer penned "Starting Over Again" (#1 ; from "Dolly, Dolly, Dolly").

No doubt, a career as expansive by such a talented singer as Dolly Parton could never be compiled in just one CD, but to write off anything she did after breaking away from Porter Wagoner as just pop-flavored garbage is an insult to true fans. Dolly truly has a unique sound that nobody can even begin to match and the majority of songs featured on this album are among some of her best including the stunning remake of Kenny Rogers & The First Edition's hit "But You Know I Love You".

Some things to remember about the anthology is that two major Dolly hits were remakes of other artists' work including "Two Doors Down" (written by Dolly but originally a top ten country hit for Zella Lehr) and "Old Flames Can't Hold A Candle To You", originally a #14 country hit for Joe Sun in 1978.

So don't be led into believing this is not worth it-over 20 years of number one hits as well as two #1 pop hits will ever prove the critics wrong. She is by far the best female vocalist Nashville has ever had. Take this from someone who did NOT grow up on Porter and Dolly.

Outstanding collection of Dolly's Hollywood recordings.......2002-09-03

Some country fans do not like Dolly's Hollywood recordings, and regard this as her sell-out period. While I generally prefer her more country recordings (which are still under-represented on CD, though things are improving slowly), my very first Dolly album was Here you come again. This was her first Hollywood album and it is still among my favorite Dolly albums of all time.

So, I enjoy her Hollywood music (with a few exceptions, none of which made it on to this CD). This CD includes eighteen of her most successful hits from 1979 to 1986 (about half of them were #1 country hits, while two of them were also #1 pop hits), plus two earlier tracks.

The oldest track here is To Daddy, which Dolly wrote and recorded for her All I can do album of 1976. Emmylou heard the album before it was got ready for release and immediately recorded To Daddy. Dolly was so impressed by Emmylou's cover that she dropped it from the album and included another song instead. Dolly eventually had a hit with a live version of the song on Columbia (to be found on her Heartsongs album and two Dolly compilations on Sony). It is probably that hit which prompted RCA to include the original version here - and it's every bit as good as Emmylou's version.

Other reviewers have failed to notice another rarity here - Real love. The version included here is a solo recording. It was a #1 country hit for Dolly and Kenny singing it as a duet, and it is the duet version which is normally to be found on compilations of Dolly's music, and which appeared on the original LP.

The second oldest song here is her re-recorded version of Two doors down, one of her pop hits from the Here you come again album. (For the original version of Two doors down, you must seek out the Australian import Legendary, which I've also reviewed, and which contains a lot of the same songs.) Other tracks from Here you come again, plus some from 1978's Heartbreaker, can be found on Essential Volume 2.

The remaining tracks are taken from the albums Great balls of fire (1979), Dolly Dolly Dolly (1980), 9 to 5 and odd jobs (1981), Heartbreak express (1982), The great pretender (1984), Real love (1986), two soundtracks (Rhinestone and Best little chicken house in Texas - yes, I know it wasn't really a chicken house) and Kenny's 1983 album, Eyes that see in the dark. Sadly, Dolly's 1983 album, the wonderful Burlap and satin, is not represented at all, though several tracks have appeared on other compilations.

Some of these tracks have appeared on many Dolly compilations, but apart from To daddy and Real love, there are other tracks that don't come round too often - Sweet summer lovin', Single women and the two Rhinestone tracks (the countriest recordings here apart from To daddy and Old flames), Tennessee homesick blues and God won't get you.

Whatever you may think of this period of Dolly's career, these recordings helped to massively increase her popularity. It is possible to enjoy both these recordings and her more traditional country. I should know - I love both. And if you want all the essential RCA recordings by Dolly, you must not only buy volume 2, but also The Essential Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton. That's the best of the lot !!!!

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