Dolly Parton - Ultimate Dolly Parton

List Price: $7.99
Our Price: $5.02
You Save: $2.97 (37%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.34 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details

CD Details

Music reviews of Ultimate Dolly Parton

Music Review: Captures most of her number one hits but not all of her best
Rating: 4 Stars

With "Here You Come Again" from 1978, Parton went pop, or more precisely, middle-of-the road. The six tracks that follow it, like "Starting Over Again" and "You're The Only One," are sluggish, bland soundalikes - usually written by others - that failed to exploit her immense personality. Thankfully, the collection emerges from this sonic coma with Parton's spunky, self-penned "9 To 5" (1980) and the delightful yodelfest "Tennessee Homesick Blues" (1984).

Mid-80s collaborations with Kenny Rogers on "Islands In The Stream" plus Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris on "To Know Him Is To Love Him" (the exquisite Parton-centered "Wild Flowers" should be here, not this ordinary, Harris-led effort) amply exhibit Parton's harmonizing skills, while other country chart-toppers from this period (the Rogers' duet "Real Love," the enchanting "Think About Love") are inexplicably omitted from this set. Instead, it's left to 1989's "Why'd You Come In Here Lookin' Like That" (licensed from Sony) to brings things to a rousing conclusion.

So, you ask, does this cd truly represent Parton's "ultimate" work? No way. Check out Essential Dolly Parton, Volume Two (which concentrates on her late '60s-through-mid-70s recordings) or her recent bluegrass efforts for that.

Description of Ultimate Dolly Parton

Country CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop