Disco de Dolly Parton: “Very Best of Dolly Parton, Vol. 2”

A good mix of hits and some high quality lp cuts. Here's the complete track listing :

Joshua*, The Seeker, Harper Valley PTA, Heartbreaker*, Two Doors Down, Boulder To Birmingham, Put It Off Until Tomorrow, All I Can Do, Higher And Higher, Rockin' Years*, In The Ghetto, Just Because I'm A Woman, Yellow Roses*, I Really Don't Want To Know, Eagle When She Flies, Please Don't Stop Loving Me*, Down From Dover, Where Beauty Live In Memory and To Daddy.

There are 19 songs listed on the disc and back cover, however, only the first 16 play on the disc. the * notes billboard #1's. Put It Off Until Tomorrow is from Honky Tonk Angels with Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn. Rockin Years with Ricky Van Shelton, I Really Don't Want To Know with Willie Nelson and Please Don't Stop Loving Me is the only billboard number one by Dolly and Porter Wagoner. Overall pretty good, I would have chosen a few other and left off Boulder and Where Beauty Lives, but still worth it for the Dolly collector.

So yes, you need to be a Dolly fan to have this CD, which I now have. I had not listened to her work in years, so this was a great treat. Her clear voice comes across beautifully in this wonderfully mixed volume. Brings back some good memories for me!

This is the second volume in what is really a Greatest Hits collection as these tracks represent Dolly Parton's most commercially successful songs. It includes the brilliant story songs Joshua, Down From Dover and Harper Valley PTA, moving ballads like Heartbreaker, To Daddy, Where Beauty Lives In Memory, Just Because I'm a Woman and the magnificent

composition Boulder To Birmingham, a song written in memory of

. Other highlights include the Elvis cover In The Ghetto and the duet with Porter Wagoner: Please Don't Stop Loving Me. Together with the first volume it is a great introduction to the music of one of the most delightful of all female country singers but for longtime fans, the real gems are found on albums like

, The Essential Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton - 20 greatest Hits, and on solo albums like

and

.

I ordered this from the UK (I live in the USA) and found that MANY of the songs on this collection have a slightly different version of the originals that we Americans have gotten used to. Nothing major, but enough to notice if you are paying attention and know the songs. Background vocals, her phrasing, musical instruments, just to name a few of the differences. Anyone who is a true Dolly fan will appreciate the differences. I found myself backing up the song to make sure I heard what I had just thought I heard. I am VERY pleased with this disc.

Last year to mark her tour of Europe Sony/BMG issued "The Very Best Of Dolly Parton" a collection of some of her biggest hits. That album did very well on the European charts, so now we have "Volume Two". Because the first volume used most of her biggest hits, we're left here with few actual hits. That's not to say there aren't good songs on here, I just don't know that these are her "very best". Her covers of "Harper Valley PTA" and "In The Ghetto" are from early albums in her career when it was the norm to cover popular hits of the day. Her take on "In The Ghetto" has always been a favorite of mine though. The album does include some gems, her cover of Emmylou Harris's "Boulder To Birmingham" and her own original tracks "Down From Dover" and "Where Beauty Lives In Memory", two of her best story songs.

Although not everything on here is among her "very best", it is an enjoyable listen nonetheless.

By the way, despite what previous reviews would have you believe, all 19 tracks play just fine on the disc.