Disco de Dolly Parton: “Greatest Hits [Columbia River]”

Yet another in a long line of ubiquitous Dolly Parton collections that draw far too heavily from her pop sellout and mostly ignores her more vital country work. Just who is it at RCA and BMG that is responsible for these lackluster, uninspired compilations? Most of these songs are readily available elsewhere, and while this one does collect a few of her fine country songs, their mingling with slick, safe, overproduced pop songs just serve to further frustrate those of us who long for a much more compelling collection, or better yet, reissues of Parton's full country catalog.

The one star review has nothing to do with the music, for all of the songs included are winners. But, RCA/BMG have repackaged Dolly's music so many times over the years, it appears that someone is getting so lazy that they're not even making the effort anymore. For this 2-disc collection is merely 2 previous collections: 1987's "The Very Best Of," and 1997's "Encore Collection," both two skimpy budget-line compilations. (That is why you find "But You Know I Love You" twice on here!) Save your money, there are many, many other and superior compilations of Dolly's music out there by RCA/BMG and Columbia/Sony (which have recently merged to one company, giving them shared access to Dolly's music from the mid 60s to late 90s!)

The music on this set revisits some of Dolly's classics with a good mix of up tempo numbers and heartfelt ballads. My only complaint is that they didn't fit them all onto one CD instead of two.