Dolly Parton Album: “Super Hits”

SUPER HITS, a Sony release, is naturally enough a collection of performances Dolly recorded during her stint at Columbia Records, from the late 80's to the early 90's. The first four tracks are remakes of classic Dolly hits from her peak RCA years. The remakes aren't quite on par with the originals but the productions are interesting with the songs rearranged a bit and Dolly singing them slightly different but lovely as ever. TO DADDY is a song she wrote for Emmylou Harris and was not an hit of her own as a singer. The final five songs were single releases at Columbia, some of them more successful than others. Her sassy number one WHY YOU COME IN HERE LOOKING LIKE THAT is still fun and another chart topper was her duet with Ricky Van Shelton ROCKIN' YEARS. Someone less successful but fun is her country dance production number ROMEO with Billy Ray Cyrus and a chorus of 1990's country chicks including Mary Chapin-Carpenter and Tanya Tucker. There are two good gospel songs here that didn't top the charts but received good notice for her: SILVER AND GOLD and HE'S ALIVE. No, it's not quite up to her RCA gold or her Sugar Hill silver but I find it hard to give Dolly anything less than five stars and that stunningly beautiful picture of her on the cover is worth the price of the CD anyway.

This looks like it would be a great Dolly Parton collection which is why I bought it. When I got home and listened to it, I was extremely disappointed. The first 4 tracks are substandard remakes that sound nothing like the originals and not even half as good. The only decent songs here are "Rockin' Years" with Ricky Van Shelton and "To Daddy," which sounds good even though it isn't her song originally but Emmylou Harris's. I would buy a different Dolly CD if you want her great classics.