Going all the way to #5 on the Country LP Charts "Heartbreak Express" returned Dolly Parton to her roots in country music after a series of hugely successful pop records in the late '70's and early '80's. The album is a treasure of wonderful Dolly material (Dolly wrote eight of the ten tracks) and spawned two Top 10 hits: "Single Women", not written by her, but the single would inspire a made-for- TV movie and the Dolly-penned "Heartbreak Express".
Other highlights here include her remake of her classic 1969 song "My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy" (which is even better than the original), her rerecording of "Barbara On Your Mind" (which Dolly originally recorded for 1974's "Jolene" LP), "Hollywood Potters" and "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind", another older song of Dolly's that she wrote in 1973.
The photography was done by Herb Ritts and as of 2011 "Heartbreak Express" remains the only Dolly album from the 1980's not to have a CD release.
Although Dolly wrote eight of the ten songs and one of the other two tracks is an original song, there isn't as much original material as one might think, because Dolly re-recorded some of her old songs for this album.
The song that everybody should recognize is Release me, a song that dates back originally to the early fifties. Dolly first recorded the song in the early sixties on a small independent label, while she was sill a teenager. The version here is far superior to her earlier effort. It also features a distinctive arrangement, just enough to freshen it up without being dramatically different from the standard arrangement of the song. It has been released on CD on a Dolly covers album in America and on the Tour collection boxed set in Britain.
Dolly first recorded My blue ridge mountain boy in 1969, when it was the title track of her third RCA solo album and became a minor country hit for her. The original 1969 version is my all-time favorite Dolly recording, but this 1982 version nicely updates the song. Even though I don't rate it quite as highly as the earlier version, I'm pleased that Dolly chose to re-record this song. A video of Emmylou Harris performing the song live can be seen on Youtube, but I don't think she ever actually recorded the song, which is a pity. The original 1969 version is easy to find on CD.
My favorite track here is Do I ever cross your mind. The version here was released as part of a double-A side, coupled with Dolly's soundtrack re-recording of I will always love you (which isn't on this album). I suspect that it would have done better had it been released separately as a single in its own right. Nevertheless, it still turns up regularly on compilations of Dolly's music. Dolly first recorded this as a fun duet with Chet Atkins, for his album Chet Atkins and friend, and that version can be found on the Tour collection boxed set . Since recording this album, Dolly has recorded it as a duet with Randy Travis for his Heroes and friends album, and with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt for Trio II.
One song that made its public debut here is Barbara on your mind. Dolly actually recorded this as a traditional country song in the sessions for her Jolene album, but it didn't appear on the final album. So the version here was really a re-recording but we didn't know that until Jolene was re-issued with four bonus tracks in 2007. I slightly prefer the older version, but both are excellent.
Unless and until an older version of another song here turns up on a re-issues of Dolly's early albums, I'll assume that the remaining six tracks really were new songs at the time of their release. Two of them (Heartbreak express, Single women) were released as singles and can be found on some of Dolly`s compilations. Pick of the other four tracks may be Hollywood potters, a song reflecting on the perils of the Hollywood entertainment business, but the other three (Prime of our love, Act like a fool, As much as always) are all excellent.
Following the re-issues of 2007, this is the only one among Dolly's Hollywood-era albums yet to gain a CD release. While I wouldn't rate this as my favorite Hollywood-era Dolly album (it comes fourth after Here you come again, Real love and 9 to 5) I certainly rate it as far superior to Heartbreaker and Dolly Dolly Dolly, both of which have been released on CD. I also rate it ahead of Great balls of fire, Rainbow and The great pretender, but not by much.
Committed Dolly fans who appreciate at least some of her Hollywood-era music will find much to like about this album.
I loved this album. It was a thrill to listen to it. I was of course listening to the vinly sound. It contains classics such as My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy, Do I Ever Cross Your Mind. Eight of the 10 songs are written by Dolly Parton and the record itself is produced by Parton and Gregg Perry. It comes from 1982 and marked the beginning of a return to her country roots; this comes through in songs such as Single Woman. It's a must for Dolly Parton fans, and if you're not a fan, you will enjoy it as it captures the uniqueness of her voice and ability to make country muic everybody's music. It's basically good music,writing and singing.
